Talk:Eddie Van Halen

Dutch in the lead sentence

I think we need to reach a consensus. Look at the edit history of this article. Various editors added Dutch to the lead sentence. Clearly just including American alone in the lead sentence is misleading and causing confusion. I am fully aware of the MOS:ETHNICITY guidelines. I think a good compromise would be to say "Dutch-born American" in the lead sentence like on the most recent edit in the article or add a note to American that clarifies he was born in the Netherlands. Same goes for Alex. Bowling is life (talk) 20:41, 13 June 2023 (UTC)

To note, I removed the recent edit as this discussion has just started. I have no qualms either way, but leave it status-quo until this discussion is complete. - FlightTime (open channel) 21:11, 13 June 2023 (UTC)

As far as I can tell, it's mainly anonymous IPs who are making the changes. I don't see how MOS:ETHNICITY isn't clear in this case especially where it states specifically that we don't mention the place of birth. There is no allowance for "X-born Y". Nor do we even need to mention that he was Dutch in the lead sentence as it in the infobox and in his early history section as well as in the short description (I'm not sure it belongs there but I haven't looked into it).

Also, we had already reached a consensus (see the archives). SQGibbon (talk) 04:48, 14 June 2023 (UTC)

Can tapping be used for melodies?

I changed the text in the intro indicating that tapping can be used to play "rapid arpeggios," to say "rapid arpeggios and melodies." FlightTime reverted as unsourced OR. But the original claim has no citation either, so if my edit contains too much original reasoning to exist without a citation, shouldn't the whole sentence be deleted? Also, although in a strict sense my edit makes the sentence contain more words, I would argue it actually makes the sentence contain less original reasoning. (Wouldn't it be more original research to claim a guitar technique only allows you to play arpeggios? Some factor would have to intervene to prevent you from playing non-arpeggio notes.) Also, in the Two-handed tapping section of the Tapping page, it already refers to playing melodies without a citation specifically saying that melodies are possible. If my edit meets the bar for OR, it seems like that should be deleted too. 71.233.115.244 (talk) 02:06, 11 February 2024 (UTC)

Birthname

Eddie was born in the Netherlands so at birth his surname was with a small ‘v’. Only after arriving in the US was his surname changed to a capital ‘V’. His entry in the population register of Amsterdam Are there any strong arguments to list his birth name with a capital ‘V’ anyway? It is not about the spelling of his surname in the rest of the article.

More info: van (Dutch)

Egel _Reaction? 12:57, 6 June 2024 (UTC)

History of tapping

The current section on tapping (essentially) credits Steve Hackett with invention of the tapping technique. However, this contradicts the much more thorough account in the specific article, which is backed with a number of solid sources. The current texts of the EVH article largely results from a series of edits in 2019 that first added Hackett (probably correctly) as a direct influence on EVH, and then removed as unsourced the references for earlier users of the technique. It would be good if someone better knowledgeable of the history of guitar techniques revised the section, which now gives a distorted view of a much older innovation (in a sense going back at least to Niccolo Paganini on the violin and several players on the guitar). Stca74 (talk) 12:13, 24 August 2024 (UTC)