Eddie Van Halen was just one of many famous artists who could neither read nor write music, per Hello Music Theory. Prince was another. The Beatles couldn't, with Paul McCartney saying that trying to read music was like just looking at "dots on a page." Jimi Hendrix, another legendary guitarist, couldn't. Slash can't. Many of these artists prefer to rely on chords. Phil Collins, a legendary drummer, can't, per Song Facts.
In Eddie's case, the reason (according to Metalhead Zone) was because a very young Van Halen had a piano teacher who couldn't speak English well. So Eddie just learned from watching the teacher's hands as they played the notes that he was supposed to play. Van Halen was so good at doing this that he was able to fool the teacher for the next six years. He even won piano competitions despite his inability to read sheet music.
After that, he became enamored with rock music and the guitar. Perhaps his lack of sheet-reading ability allowed him to fully allow his creativity to be unleashed. Whatever the case, fans were the beneficiaries.
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