![]() ![]() Consequently, when Alex began playing the guitar, Eddie bought a drum kit however, after he heard Alex's performance of the Surfaris' drum solo on the song " Wipe Out", he gave Alex the drums and began learning the electric guitar. His parents wanted the boys to be classical pianists, but Van Halen gravitated towards rock music, and was greatly influenced by 1960s British Invasion bands like the Beatles and the Dave Clark Five. Between 19, he won first place in the annual piano competition at Long Beach City College. Van Halen was never taught to read music instead, he watched recitals of Bach or Mozart repertoire and improvised. They began learning the piano at age six, commuting from Pasadena to San Pedro, Los Angeles, to study with an elderly piano teacher, Stasys Kalvaitis. Since the boys did not speak English as a first language, they were considered "minority" students and experienced bullying by white students. They settled near other family members in Pasadena, California, where Eddie and his brother Alex attended a segregated elementary school. Īfter experiencing mistreatment for their mixed-race relationship in the 1950s, the parents moved the family to the U.S. The family eventually settled in Nijmegen, Netherlands. His father was a Dutch jazz pianist, clarinettist, and saxophonist, while his mother was an Indo (Eurasian) woman from Rangkasbitung on the island of Java in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). Van Halen is widely regarded as one of the greatest guitar players in rock history, and was well-known for popularizing the tapping guitar technique, allowing rapid arpeggios to be played with two hands on the fretboard.Įdward Lodewijk Van Halen was born in Amsterdam on January 26, 1955, the son of Jan van Halen and Eugenia (née van Beers). He was the guitarist, keyboardist, backing vocalist, and primary songwriter of the rock band Van Halen, which he founded with his brother Alex in 1972. Edward Lodewijk Van Halen ( / v æ n ˈ h eɪ l ən/ van HAY-lən, Dutch: January 26, 1955 – October 6, 2020) was an American musician. ![]()
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