In this lesson, we will be looking at the Aint Talkin Bout Love TAB. Today, you’re going to learn how to play Aint Talkin Bout Love by Van Halen one step at a time and in full. This is a song that pretty much any guitarist can learn and master with a bit of practice and perseverance.
Aint Talkin Bout Love was released in 1978 and was the third single from the band’s debut album, Van Halen. When Eddie Van Halen wrote the song, he didn’t consider it good enough to show to the rest of the band. He said that it was supposed to be a punk rock parody, a stupid thing with just two chords. It didn’t end up sounding punk, but that was the initial intention.
It may not have ended up sounding very punk, but it did end up as a track that laid down the style and sentiment of what would become 80s hair metal.
It also happens to be one of my favourite Van Halen tracks. It’s powerful and commanding and I encourage every guitarist out there to learn it. Are you up to the task?
Aint Talkin Bout Love TAB and Guitar Lesson
We’re going to attack this classic guitar track one step at a time. I’ll break it down as much as possible and I’ll do my best to cover everything. As mentioned in the intro, Aint Talkin Bout Love is open virtually all guitarists. I remember learning this quite early on in my guitar journey. That said, I will be working on the assumption that you don’t require a babysitter. I’ll provide guidance where I find it appropriate but you will need to use your own guitar expertise at points during the lesson but that’s part of the process. We shall start with the intro. Let’s go.
Aint Talkin Bout Love TAB – Intro part 1
The song kicks off with a very cool little two bar riff that focuses on the A minor and G major chords (as a lot of the song does). Here’s the TAB.
As you can hear in the recording, this riff obviously repeats a few times before moving onto the next part of the intro which we will look at shortly.
The is all based on broken down A minor and G major chords (apart from that pesky little F note). You will need to experiment with the palm muting and be sure to hit that harmonic nice and sweet. I won’t bother point out the harmonic from now onward as you now know it’s there.
The only issue you may run into is the fingering. The string skip can cause trips so practice slow until you get the vibe. Also, use the fingers that you would use for the full chords.
Aint Talkin Bout Love TAB – Intro part 2
We now move onto the second part of the Aint Talkin Bout Love intro and we have a more chord-based segment of TAB mixed with some riff and lick work. Here.
First, let’s talk about those chords. We’ve an A minor and a G major base again with some individual notes thrown around them. This rhythm can be tricky at first. Pay close attention to the length of the notes, that’s the key.
We have the same riff as before thrown in there but there’s an open E note near it now and we also have a couple of licks. The first has a bit of a sliding thing going on and what you’ll want to do there, is experiment with lightly pressing down on your whammy bar on each note. Don’t go crazy, gently does it. You also have a bend on the G string at the end there so execute that and give it a bit of a slide down after.
Aint Talkin Bout Love TAB – Verse
We’re now starting to reach the meat and bones of the song as we get to the verse section. This isn’t to dissimilar to what we were doing in the intro. Here’s the TAB.
We have that arpeggio-based A minor part again which won’t be difficult to master if you can already play the intro. There’s a double stop there which sounds pretty cool and then there’s the riff again.
Simply repeat the above until the conclusion of the verse at which point, you should perform a pick scrape and slide on that open low E string.
This part hopefully feels nice and easy for you. Next, we’ll look at what happens in the chorus sections.
Aint Talkin Bout Love TAB – Chorus
So next up is the chorus. The chorus parts use the chord-based approach that we saw at the beginning. Here’s the TAB.
No guidance required here as you already learned how to play it during the intro section. When the second chorus arrives though, there’s something new to learn.
Chorus 2 variation
The second chorus does a couple of things slightly differently. There’s an awesome little lick that’s definitely worth learning and then there’s how it ends because it leads directly to the solo section. Here’s the TAB.
This is the second half of the chorus section meaning that the above is the third and fourth run through. The lick is simple enough and allows you to opportunity for more whammy bar fun. Do this in a controlled way and use an eighth note rhythm.
The section simply ends with the open three strings without leading into the riff as the start of the solo is at the end of that final bar. We will look at how to play that solo next.
Aint Talkin Bout Love Guitar Solo TAB
The Aint Talkin Bout Love guitar solo (which is played twice during the song) doesn’t do anything particularly crazy and it’s quite a quick one to learn too thanks to the short length. Here’s the TAB.
The majority of the above is very straightforward. The only thing that I’d consider out of the ordinary is the inclusion of those open high E notes but difficulty wise, you shouldn’t run into any issues.
There’s that hammer and pull off lick at the end there but hopefully, you’ve seen this kind of thing a million times before. Maybe you even use this kind of lick in your own lead guitar work. I know I do. There’s a quick little bend at the end which is cool sounding, and then you move to that open G note with a dive on the whammy bar.
Breakdown Part 1
The guitar solo (the first run through) is followed by a chorus which ends on the open D, G, and B strings (no riff at the end) and then we have the breakdown which is the part of the song that provides us with our dynamic range. You can roll back on the volume or use some sort of foot control to alter the sound. I’ll break the breakdown down into its two distinctive parts. Here’s the first.
Nice and straightforward. We have more arpeggio work based around that A minor. Repeat this until that cool harmonic part that we will look at next.
Breakdown Part 2
So, in this part, we have a bunch of very specifically placed impactful A minor chords and a whole bunch of natural harmonic notes performed on and around the fifth fret. Here’s the TAB.
There’s nothing particularly complex here and to be honest, as long as you keep the chords in the right place and keep that general vibe, you can do whatever you like with these harmonics. Just do it on the fly if you like. Just be sure not to stray too far from the sound you can here in the recording and keep the parts that you can hear clearly in the recording. This is just how I did it.
Chorus that follows the breakdown
Between the breakdown section and the second run through of the solo, there’s another chorus that is for the most part performed in the same way as the others, but there’s some extra little licks that you may want to squeeze in there. You can hear these licks in the recording and below, you’ll see the TAB for them.
These aren’t difficult licks. The task is obviously fitting them into the rhythm but once you find where they live, you can get it with a little practice. You just need to use your ears.
This chorus is followed by the second run through of the guitar solo which you can lead into in the same way or, you can hit some open low E notes as a kind of anticipation builders. That solo run through brings us to the end part of the song which we will split into two parts.
Hey Hey Hey
The tail end of the song starts with the “hey hey hey” part. Eddie uses some of the same stuff that we’ve already learned here but once again, there’re a couple extra bits for us to learn. There’s a little lick that you can hear is used just once. Then, there’s change in riff that’s played a few times. Here’s the TAB for both of these parts. Both pick up after the open strings from the standard chorus riff.
You have a nice little bended lick then and then, the part which changes up the main riff. We’re now using a C power chord. Getting the timing right for that C chord is simple if you just use your ears. This leads us to the very end of the track.
Aint Talkin Bout Love TAB – Outro
So, to end the song, we have this new little section. I’ll just provide the TAB in full because we aren’t using any parts from previous sections.
This is a fairly easy part to learn by glancing at the TAB and listening to the record. There are some power chords in there, some simple whammy bar dives, a mini riff, and a (sort of) Hendrix chord which resoles nicely at the end.
You can play with the timing at the very end there if you like by lengthening that final dive, but yeah, this is basically how it’s done.
What next?
That concludes the Aint Talkin Bout Love TAB and guitar lesson. This isn’t a hugely difficult song, but I never really realised until now how many different things there is to learn. I’ve always kind of just jammed along with it using the main riffs but if you want to get close to the recording, there’s quite a lot to learn.
Want to learn more rock songs that sound awesome on guitar? Try these song tutorials below.
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Hello. My name is Ryan J Mellor and I play the guitar. I’m also the creator of Eat Sleep Guitar Repeat. I’ve ben a guitarist for many years and my guitar playing has been described as “above average”. My guitar and music knowledge is somewhat impressive but most importantly, I have a passion for creating great guitar and music related content.