The year was 1995. The month was April (or March). The location was WH Smiths. And there I was having played guitar for about 4 or 5 months, picking up a copy of my first ever guitar magazine, “Guitar For The Practicing Musician” because of a transcription of the Nirvana cover of David Bowie's “The Man Who Sold The World”.
Along with a host of articles that I understood nothing of, there was also transcription of something called “Bad Horsie” by someone called Steve Vai... and because I had no concept of how one song might be more difficult than another one, I thought “Well, I got “The Man Who Sold The World”, let's try this”
27 years later … I still can't play the bastard thing. Although I got close! X-D
So let's see who this legendary Vai chap is., shall we?
Born Steven Siro Vai on June 6 1960 in Carle Place New York, the fourth son of Italian immigrants John and Theresa Vai, it was at the age of 5 that the young Vai was introduced to a piano and had the realisation that as you went right the notes got higher, and as you went left the notes got lower... the following year he saw a 9 year old boy in his school playing the guitar and realised that sooner or later, he would be fated to play the guitar! It would take until the age of 12 however, on hearing Jimmy Page's “Heartbreaker” solo on Led Zeppelin II that would be the final spur into picking up the guitar in earnest. And, as legendary encounters go, he would start taking lessons from a certain undiscovered local virtuoso by the name of Joe Satriani!
During this time, Vai gained plenty of experience playing in local bands, developing a style influenced by Jimmy Page, Brian May, Ritchie Blackmore, Jimi Hendrix, Al Di Meola and Allan Holdsworth amongst others. At the age of 18 (so having been playing for just six years at this point, let's keep that in mind) he enrolled in Berklee College Of Music (as did last month's entry, John Petrucci), and whilst there he not only met his wife to be but also took on his first professional music job, as a transcriber for Frank Zappa... … and right there is an idea for a blog entry... and he would quickly make the transition from transcriber to full time band member, being credited with “stunt guitar” parts.
In 1983 (so aged 23, 11 years playing experience, let's keep track of that) Vai struck out on his own, releasing his first album “Flex-Able” from unreleased material recorded at his home studio whilst playing with bands The Classified and 777. This started to catch the eye of the guitar community when the magazine “Guitar Player” published a transcription of The Attitude Song, packed choc full of signature Vai virtuosic tricks and featuring a main riff in 7/16 over a 4/4 rhythm section groove. The following year he replaced Yngwie Malmsteen in Alcatrazz and then went on to join Dave Lee Roth's solo band (after DLR split with Van Halen.. so again, pretty big shoes to fill... at this point in my career I'd made it to playing Haven holiday parks!) . Two hit albums followed – Eat 'Em & Smile (which included the hits Yankee Rose & Shyboy) and 1989's Skyscraper (with the massive hit Just Like Paradise). By this point Vai was firmly established as a very big name in guitar circles – but there was plenty more to follow.
After leaving Dave Lee Roth's band, Vai would join Whitesnake for the “Slip Of The Tongue” album, replacing the unfortunately injured Adrian Vandenberg, and as big a hit as that was, for Vai it was a precursor to his own breakthrough – from 1985 to 1990 he had been recording a follow up to “Flex-Able”, which would be released as “Passion & Warfare” in May 1990. This included the signature track “For The Love Of God” and would reach 18 in the Billboard Top 200 – which, for an instrumental guitar album, is an incredible success.
This was then followed by 1993's “Sex & Religion” with Devin Townsend on vocals, 1995's Alien Love Secrets (containing my nemesis “Bad Horsie” as well as Vai classics “Die To Live”, “Tender Surrender”, and “The Boy From Seattle”) which was recorded almost as a stop-gap while he recorded the double album Fire Garden (including the hit “The Crying Machine”) which released in 1996.
1996 was also the start of the now-legendary G3 project, a collaborative tour featuring Vai, Satriani and a third guitarist – the first iteration featured Eric Johnson. I caught the 2007 version in Nottingham which featured Robert Fripp, John Petrucci has also guested on occasion, as has Paul Gilbert. Along the way, he collaborated with Ibanez to produce the iconic JEM signature series with it's distinctive “Lion's Claw” cut out tremolo cavity, with the first version coming out in 1985 and still available today (I actually had a JEM 555 for a while and although it wasn't really for me it's certainly a extraordinarily capable instrument). There was also the appearance as Jack Butler, Satan's own guitarist, in the infamous “Crossroads” movie of 1986.
There we'll leave the potted history and start taking a look at some licks. There is a HUGE variety of techniques here – tapping, 3 note per string shredding, whammy bar lunacy, wide interval lines.. so I'm going to include a couple of his actual licks but also a couple of portmanteau “in the style of” licks that demonstrate the way he conceptualises things.
This first example takes an approach used in “Tender Surrender” and “For The Love Of God”. In the first bar, Vai sweeps across a series of arpeggios based on 1st inversion D shape major arpeggios giving G, A & D major arpeggios – “Tender Surrender” is more or less rooted in E Dorian, 2nd mode of D major, so these are effectively the I, IV and V chords of the related major key. In the second bar, he ups the ante, moving through two string major arpeggio shapes on the B and E strings building tension with chromaticism before finishing off with a climactic bend on the 22nd fret high E.
In this second example, also from “Tender Surrender” (in fact, immediately preceding the first example in the song) there's a fantastic bit of string skipping as Vai pivots off a C pedal note on the 20th fret high E moving across the E, B, G, D and A strings before finishing off with a soaring bend on the 15th fret high E string. For those unfamiliar with the pedal tone technique, it just means that one note stays static whilst the other notes in the phrase move. The wide intervals this produces are a recognisable quirk of his playing.
Staying with “Tender Surrender”, this next example showcases a technique I'd never encountered before – he's using an octave shape, but trilling between the root and octave notes using just the fretting hand. This is one where "show" is far better than "tell", so keep an eye on the YouTube channel for the demo video!
Finally, this wouldn't be a Vai piece if I didn't give you something widdly to play with, would it? This next example is not an exact transcription from “Tender Surrender”, but more an example of how Vai builds these runs. Starting with a small legato “cell”, this cell is effectively multiplied across the E natural minor scale to produce a dizzying cascade of notes. Vai will often throw a few pick hand tapped notes into the mix, but here we're going to stick to fret hand legato only. Start simple, then add tricks! Full disclosure – yes, I did do this a few weeks back as a One Minute Lick, but it's SO useful, and so indicative of Vai's style that I consider it worth revisiting... and if you want a challenge? Try playing it backwards!
As always, there is a phenomenal amount
that can be learned from studying Steve Vai's style, so I urge you to dive in and take a listen – and back next month for his mentor, Joe
Satriani!
