Van Halen's "Mean Streets" (right hand rhythm)
GUITARISTS: NEW - Van Halen's (secret? misunderstood?) right-hand rhythm for the Mean Streets intro.
I've now watched a number of YouTube guitar teachers attempting to teach the introduction to Mean Streets, by Van Halen. They all start by striking the high-E and B strings. But, by doing that, they're unintentionally confusing us about the right-hand rhythm. It SHOULD start with the double thumb hammer on the low-E, as I show in this video snippet...but how was anyone to know that, given that the intro is faded-in at the beginning of the record? When you start the sequence this way (i.e., with the double hammer on the low-E string, at the 12th fret), the flow becomes obvious. It's essentially like the steel drum swing near the end of Zeppelin's 1979 "Fool in the Rain". The left muted hand smacks are essentially a form of echoing what's going on on the right hand. Never forget: Van Halen's Dad was a clarinet player in a band, almost certainly playing Swing music. When you grasp the proper rhythm, you can actually DANCE to it.
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