Ace Frehley reflected on his soloing approach and asserted that fans should be able to sing impressive solos, contending that the licks from Yngwie Malmsteen and Eddie Van Halen lacked that quality.
Although not the flashiest, fastest, or most unconventional player of his generation, Ace Frehley’s easy confidence and focus on playing for the song resonated with thousands of fans, solidifying the original Spaceman as a seminal influence on many subsequent guitarists.
“I’m a blues-based player. From day one, that’s what I gravitated to,” Frehley shared with Guitar World in a recent interview discussing his upcoming solo record. The record, a collaboration with Trixter’s Steve Brown, features plenty of these bluesy licks that Frehley regards as his forte, with the title track already providing fans with a glimpse of what to expect.
Discussing his playing philosophy, the guitarist added, “I have always been into players who are powerful but who wrote guitar solos that would repeat a line or lick two or three times. Like I said, I look to write solos as songs inside of a song. That’s what a guitar solo is to me.”
While elaborating on this idea and its connection to solos, Frehley argued that Eddie Van Halen and Yngwie Malmsteen, both guitar virtuosos praised for their precision, speed, and innovative use of advanced technique, lacked those particular qualities:
“The best solos are the ones you can sing. I love Yngwie Malmsteen and Eddie Van Halen, but after their solos, you’re often going, ‘What the f*ck just happened?'”
“For me, it’s about melodic and simple stuff. I understand melody; I don’t need 500 notes between each bar. I’m a blues-based guitarist, and that’s the methodology I always go back to.”
Interestingly, Ace’s former KISS bandmate Gene Simmons echoed a similar sentiment about the melodic aspect when comparing Eddie Van Halen and Yngwie Malmsteen’s soloing styles. Simmons asserted that one could effortlessly “hum” the former’s licks, while the same couldn’t be said for the latter:
“You can hear the melody and be able to hum it back, instead of Yngwie nonsense. Good luck to him, too — good luck to anybody. But nobody walks down the street humming Yngwie solos – versus Van Halen solos. [They] are great solos you can hum. Because he spent time figuring [out] the musicality of it.”
1 comment
There’s no reason to put YM in the same category as EVH. YM never wrote even one good rock record. EVH has done it over and over again 25 + times. Why is AF coupling these guitarists to make an example? I get that you might say they are both virtuosos, but that’s it. EVH has written extraordinary solos that work inside the song and serve it.