Song · 1982
Beat It
- Artist
- Michael Jackson
- Released
- 1982
- Guitar
- Eddie Van Halen
- Solo
- Tapping
What makes the part famous
The techniques to work on to play it, each in one sentence.
Solo
The passage where the guitar steps forward and sings on its own, phrase after phrase.
Tapping
The picking hand taps notes on the fretboard, for runs one hand alone couldn't play.
The scale of the Beat It solo
Here the guitar plays mostly solos and riffs. On the recording's isolated guitar, the studio picked out the notes that come back most: they sit in this scale, the box where you look for the phrases by ear and improvise.
- Tonic
- E♭
- Scale
- E♭ minor pentatonic
- Position
- Fret 12, or open position
The phrases add the minor sixth (B).
Guitar tuned a half step down, as on the record: you play the box as if in E, and it sounds in E♭.
Automatic analysis, checked by hand against the song's known key. No tab here: the scale tells you where to look, your ear finds the phrases.
Analyze your own recording
Record yourself playing it, or upload a version you have the right to use: the studio isolates the guitar and finds the chords, tempo, strumming and fingerings, with a fretboard video and a PDF.
Same guitarist
Same techniques
More famous parts that take the same work.
No lyrics or recordings here: just the titles, to help you pick what to learn. Titles and names belong to their respective owners.