10 INCREDIBLE Guitar Secrets In Rock Songs You Totally Missed

It's impossible to talk about the evolution of the guitar in rock music without bringing up Van Halen. Across every single release, Eddie Van Halen has been able to shape the entire rock landscape with some of the most off-the-wall guitar parts that fit perfectly into the hard rock format. If there's any track that says it all for Van Halen's technical finesse though, it has to be "Eruption."

While other guitar players were still copping from the bluesy traditions of acts like Led Zeppelin, this two minute guitar solo rewrote the rules on what the electric guitar could be. Conceived as an instrumental, Eddie starts with blues licks but then incorporates different classical runs, complete with chaotic hammer ons and tremolo picking. Just when you think it can't get any more mind-boggling, the final 30 seconds is where the tapping starts.

Instead of using his picking hand, the final charge of this track is Eddie using his right hand as an extension of his fretting hand, as he creates some of the most beautiful guitar pieces in the hard rock canon.

The move was so out there for its time that when the band played the local clubs of Los Angeles, David Lee Roth told Eddie to turn away from the audience so guitar players wouldn't cop their style. Van Halen may have had a thousand great riffs, but this one little solo blew the doors wide open for the rest of the rock world to follow.