Why I Suck... Series 3, Episode 3 - Steve Vai!

 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 1^st inversion D shape major arpeggios giving G, A & D major arpeggios – “Tender Surrender” is more or less rooted in E Dorian, 2^nd 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 22^nd 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 20^th fret high E moving across the E, B, G, D and A strings before finishing off with a soaring bend on the 15^th 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!

Why I Suck... Series 3, Episode 2 - John Petrucci!

I have spent a great deal of February glued to YouTube at 0.25 speed... partly because of the horrific news of the last couple of weeks, but for the most part because I've been deeply immersed in the incredible playing of Dream Theater's phenomenal shred master, John Petrucci. It's going to be a very brief potted history this month, because there is one hell of a lot very high level stuff to get into! I'd recommend checking out the thoroughly entertaining Andertons TV interview “The Captain Meets.. John Petrucci” for some more details and to check out the man's incredible technique and sense of harmony. And his beard!!

Born July 12 1967 in New York, the young Petrucci took up guitar age 8 as he saw his sister being allowed to stay up late to have organ lessons! From such small acorns... As it turned out, his first attempts didn't pan out (oh, SNAP) – but at the age of 12 he tried again, and this time, it stuck. His major influences at this time were AC/DC, Led Zeppelin & Black Sabbath and this would lead over time to an interest in heavier, more complex music like Iron Maiden and the legendary Canadian prog trio, Rush.

Petrucci would go on to study at the renowned Berklee College Of Music alongside childhood fried and bass player John Myung, and here they met drummer Mike Portnoy. With the addition of another childhood friend Kevin Moore on keyboards, in 1985 these four formed a cover band focusing on Iron Maiden and Rush covers. They initially recruited local friend Chris Collins as lead vocalist but fired him in November 1986 – it would be a year later when they finally replaced him with the far older and more experienced Charlie Dominici.

With the lead vocalist issue settled, the group began gigging more intensively around New York and further afield, but this brought it's own problems. The band was originally named Majesty, but around the time of Dominici's hiring another band from Las Vegas with the same name began threatening legal action, so the band hurriedly renamed themselves. Various names were tried but it was Mike Portnoy's father who came up with “Dream Theater”after the name of a small cinema in Monterey, California. They continued to perform and record and on June 23 1988 were signed to Mechanic records, a division of MCA.

And there ends the history lesson – let's get stuck in to some licks!

It should be noted that all of these came from just TWO solos - “Pull Me Under” and “Answering The Call”, and I never actually finished “Answering...” - this should give you an idea of quite how intense and complex Petrucci's playing is! It's no surprise that he has also appeared as a solo artist on the G3 tours along Joe Satriani and Steve Vai.

Onto the first example – this is from “Pull Me Under” and starts with what you could view as a C#m arpeggio morphing into a run that features E Dorian, E minor and E Harmonic minor- but at the blistering pace it's pulled off it's more about the overall effect creating the “tension”. Dream Theater stuff is rarely strictly diatonic and Petrucci's playing frequently goes “outside”. With all of these licks, start slow and build up – there's a LOT going on here, and to be honest even if you don't ever get them up to Petrucci's frightening tempos, you can still learn a lot.

Next up is this run from “AnsweringThe Call” - in fact all the next examples are from that track, just as a measure of how dense and intense that track is!

This is all based around a diminished 7 arpeggio, which is built around stacked minor 3rds, giving the pattern R b3 b5 bb7. We start off with F#dim7, F# A C D#, but because of the symmetrical structure of the arpeggio, F#dim7, Adim7 (A C D# F#), Cdim7 (C D# F# A) and D# (D# F# A C) are all the exact same chord with the exact same notes in. You can see how Petrucci moves the same pattern three frets (the interval of a minor 3^rd) up the fretboard to create the run.

You can't look at John Petrucci's playing without mentioning his use of chromaticism. This next example (which is in fact the very next thing he plays in “Answering The Call”) rips across the fretboard with blistering alternate picked runs. What's particularly interesting here is his picking technique as he groups uneven numbers of notes (5s and 7s in this case) before crossing strings. Counting these irregular note groups is tricky so recommend a word or phrase – I use “opportunity” for 5s, “what an opportunity” for 7s.

Further on into the solo, I came across this almost bluesy lick... I'm not sure if this is a regular feature of Petrucci's playing but it's cool as hell and bears checking out! There's elements of the C# blues scale, C# diminished7 7^th arpeggios there plus some chromaticism, so we're pulling together some different facets of his style here! This lick will also sound cool played at a more moderate or “sane” tempo, as opposed to it's original “melt the skin off your face” speed. An interesting point to check out is how the early part of the lick pivots off the C# root note on the 14^th fret B and to watch the sweep through the diminished 7 arpeggio.

If anyone is wondering how they might make use of these diminished 7^th arpeggio in their regular blues/ rock playing, a little theory can throw some light on to it:

Diminished 7^th – R b3 b5 bb7 (aka 6)

Blues scale – R b3 4 b5 5 b7

Dorian mode – R 2 b3 4 5 6 (aka bb7) b7

So with a few judiciously placed scale tones around them, the diminished 7^th may well become your secret weapon of choice – it's certainly one of mine! (So yes, you can use them in “Johnny B. Goode” ;-) )

As with Larry Carlton last month (and Steve Vai next.. and really everyone so far!) a month isn't remotely enough time to do justice to his INCREDIBLE technique and musicality, but it's given me an insight into his style and a LOT of cool new ideas to try out!

See you next month for Steve Vai – in the meantime, all TUNEICEF proceeds and Two Pint Solos proceeds will be going to fund the DEC humanitarian mission in Ukraine - £50 so far, not much but better than nothing. I can only hope that sanity prevails soon.

Slavia Ukraini, slavia heroyem

Erotomania (Dream Theater Guitar Cover)

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Larry Carlton Style File

Why I Suck... Series 3, Episode 1 - Larry Carlton!

I must admit, after all the confidence expressed in the last post, I came to this with a degree of trepidation – it's a long way from the stinging pentatonics ofAlbert King to the fusion stylings of the legendary Mr. 335! So, I drew a deep breath, mentally prepared myself for a lot of frustration and made ready to slow YouTube down to 0.25 play speed...

First, a little potted history. Born March 2 1948 in Torrance California, the young Larry first began guitar lessons at the tender age of 6. During his teenage years at junior high school he was first exposed to jazz – stating, during an interview with Rick Beato, that it was the sound of a 6^th chord that caught his ear. From then on, he would delve into Barney Kessel, Joe Pass, BB King, and a particular fondness for John Coltrane which continues to this day, particularly his 1962 album “Ballads”.

His career began in 1968, recording his first album “With A Little Help From My Friends” which would lead on to a steady career as a session musician with artists like Joni Mitchell and Steely Dan amongst many, many, many others – seriously, his discography here is just incredible, and his solo on the Steely Dan track Kid Charlemagne is the stuff of guitar legend. During the mid-70s, he joined jazz-rock group The Crusaders, performing on no less than 13 albums! From 1978 he began to embark on a solo career, and has followed that path ever since along with various sessions and collaborations (including one with fellow studio legend Lee Ritenour). He's still active, recording touring and performing to this day – even getting shot in 2012 (which just seems like a wanton act of vandalism to me – like putting a brick through the window of St Paul's cathedral) doesn't seem to have slowed him down!

With such a discography, it was difficult to know where to start, so I typed “Larry Carlton” into YouTube and let fate decide.. so the examples here are taken from “Minute By Minute”, his famous instrumental “Room 335” (which, full disclosure, I did learn from an old Guitar Techniques issue.. but had entirely forgotten since!) and his legendary “Kid Charlemagne” solo. It should be noted that a month is nowhere near enough to do justice to the effortless melodic sensibilities of such a monster player, but I definitely think I've learned a few things which I'll try and pass on here.

This first example comes from “Only Yesterday” and is based around G minor pentatonic – yes, as it turns out even the legends still use the same basic tools as you and I! Notice the wide interval skips in the first few notes, and notice as well the use of both E (6^th) and Eb (b6) to spice things up. The wider stretches come from Larry blending positions 1 and 2 of the G minor pentatonic – two simple scales, multiplied by each other, creating something exotic. Notice the bend of Ab – b2, very dissonant – into b3, standard minor pentatonic fare, before resolving to the root G on the 20^th fret B string.

Moving onto the second example taken from his iconic “Kid Charlemagne” solo based around a C7 vamp, and beginning with a 4^th position C major pentatonic run up before dicing into something that sounds altogether more outside and atonal – but actually it's nothing of the sort, being based around an Eb arpeggio in 3rds and 4ths, the only real “out there” note being the Ab (b6).. what sells it is resolving to the Bb, the b7 and hanging on the G note, which is the 3^rd of the Eb but the 5^th of the C7.

The third example is taken from “Minute By Minute” which is based primarily around C major pentatonic, and this line stays largely faithful to it, moving across positions 4 and 5, but notice the artful hammer on from the Eb on the 13^th fret D – hammering from b3 into major 3^rd.

Finally we come to a lick that is not a direct transcription but more of a portmanteau of several patterns used in the classic “Room 335”. This is largely in D, but uses the familiar patterns of the 1^st position F# blues scale....

… wait, what?

OK – D major (R 2 3 4 5 6 7) : D E F# G A B C#

F# blues (R b3 4 b5 5 b7) F# A B C C# E

So as you can see, the only non diatonic note is the C, acting as a b7 against the D root. In fact if we rearrange the pattern:

E F# A B C C# - 2, 3, 5, 6, b7, 7

So, here is Larry Carlton taking one of the most basic lead patterns we all know and superimposing it to get a far more jazzy and sophisticated sound. Check the lick – you can even see the Magic 3 Notes in there, amongst the flowing, looping 16ths that characterise the climax of Room 335, finishing with a shift in positions and ending up on the A, the 5^th of the key, often used in blues as a “leading” tone.

As I mentioned before, this has been a scratch on the surface of a true master of the guitar, and should be regarded as a springboard for your own explorations rather than a comprehensive guide, so I urge you – to YouTube with you!

Enjoy, see you over on YouTube for the demo video (remember to Like, Share & Subscribe)... and brace yourself, because next month we tackle Dream Theatre's shred/prog master John Petrucci!

Stevie Ray Vaughan Style File