Steve Vai is such a compelling speaker. The two of them just chatting here is so honest and real that it's striking. Dweezil is the lone child to really carry on Frank's work and as a real uphill battle with much of the family. I commend and applaud him.
It was so relieving to hear y’all talk about “locking in” and playing on beat. I remember when I was 21 fresh out of music school playing with a respected musician in my town and realizing after all these fancy techniques I’ve been learning that playing with a good rhythm section... It was sort of difficult to do and keep a good feel on top of that. I used to practice to the 16th and 32nd note on my metronome playing whatever fast run I could come up with, but still feeling the quarter note was kind of lost on me. It’s as if I needed the BPM to be the notes that I’m playing. Being able to feel it with just the quarter note or even half note was essentially like losing the “training wheels.” I gained a lot of freedom when I could finally lock in tight with everyone and let the BPM be loose with me. Man, it is nice to hear two “Guitar Gods” make mention of that. Thank you.
dweezil is such an amazing keeper of the Zappa way, and music I think. Like could you ask for anything more than what he has done? He is a treasure. Such a bummer that they have that whole trust battle going on. Why get in his way at all? Don't understand why G did it that way.
I feel you, brother. Never found and actual aplication of the mayor scale, the way it was thaugth to mee 100 times during my life. It was very frustrating. Dorian is so musical and fun to play, instead.
Guys, so great to see you happy and enjoying stuff like that. NO GUITARS, just dudes in their natural habitats doing the mundane. Is a real joy to watch. Thanks for capturing the moment and sharing👍
I just took a few stills with my camera. Then got my pencil&ruler and wrote out a variation on the theme! The dreaded Barre chord F FIRST LESSON- Hard Core =)
oh yeah that makes perfect sense. Yeah that would be amazing if they did a reprint of it somehow, like printing it on notebook paper and binding it in an old notebook looking thing. OR a pdf, too. I get it. :)
DWEEZIL ZAPPA - I love your music ... all what you are doing. Thanks for this beautiful movie. I am happy to see you with your friend STEVE VAI... and I was born in 1950 in Germany - Bavaria - Burghausen and all the time of my life... I LOVE THE MUSIC OF YOUR FATHER FRANK ZAPPA... He is a great heroes of music-history.
cool video. Dweezil has turned into one of the best guitarists of our generation. I remember seeing him on the broadway the hard way tour. Frank introduces him and has him play a solo over stairway to heaven. I couldn't believe a kid, younger than me, could play so well for so long. it blew my mind and made me question my abilities on guitar. he has only gotten better with age.
And I thought Frank taught Dweez all he knows! What a great education you had! So pleased to see you and Steve perform in the UK at Manchester a few years back. I never knew you and Steve had that strong of a connection. Thanks for sharing. x
Can't help but glean knowledge from guys like Steve. Inspiring people to pick up the instrument and pass on their knowledge, thats the good stuff. The friends you make along the way, thats priceless. much luv
I'm so happy that Dweezil still has this legendary note pad with lessons from a greenhorn Steve Via ,If his brother Ahmet would have gotten hold of it he would have auctioned it off along with Moon Units baby teeth and the green bathrobe Frank wore on his death bed ,I worked myself into a frenzy trying to decide on attending the auction of all of Frank zappas possessions because I desperately wanted to add another piece of his hand written anything to my extensive collection ,I nearly retained a proxy bidder to aquire something hand penned by Frank until I sat and looked at all the wonderful things frank either gave me as gifts included with my purchase from 818-pumpkin ,or the collection of 47 albums frank took the time to personally autograph over 2 decades ,looking at the collectors case for the You can't do that on stage cd box set I had never unwrapped ,and seeing that pristine autograph on the wooden faux anvil case that FZ hand penned and the dozens of autographed publicity photos he sent us I couldn't bring myself to become ghoulish and bid on frank zappas personal items that hurt Dweezil & Moon so much ,one day I will unwrap the collectors sets of original masters just to see all the autographed albums and to take out the heavily used LP of Overnight Sensation that I stalked every musician on the album to sign with FZ being the last .
Get the book published, looking just like it does, very tongue in cheek guitar lesson book that would be a cool collectible, concert swag table seller and actually help struggling players as well, You and Steve have the magic together, what a wonderful friendship to share with all of us who admire your works
That’s cool. Glad I came across this clip. Cool to read through some of these comments. It gives me ideas, always like to put a new or different twist on things. Especially the Dorian fascination! 😝🎸👍🏻 But I never thought of Dorian as the faster scale to jam. I always seem to visualize and start with Aeolian first. I used to always like to practice in, and build around A minor (mode), and Box I. But luckily, I did make sure to move them all around in different keys, always practicing each scale and mode-and even tying them all together in one long scale. You know how it is. Like Steve said, if you know one mode, you know them all. And then the major modes. The Aeolian shape always seemed like the coolest, the natural minor. Ionian was always fun, and I kind of thought that as one of the faster modes. But Dorian and Phrygian are awesome, of course. I had a legendary guitar teacher too (not as well-known as Steve, as most aren’t), and kept all my notes from the mid-80s. I still reference them from time to time. Great stuff! 🎸👍🏻😎
I love all.of the stories of how Dweezil got started playing... WoW! To have Steve Via, EVH, and Papa Frank as his mentors... No wonder Dweezil is one of my favovorite guitarists!!
Wow, this is amazing! You have to be about the luckiest man alive in my book. It surely shows with your playing that you were molded by two of the finest musicians of our time! Thank you so much for sharing such a cherished possession with us all!
Fantastic! I wish i´d kept my first guitar lesson book of hand written clases from my teacher John Francis =) !! I see that Steve made you learn an F on your first lesson! HARD CORE. I have a ticket for the Masterclass in Madrid. So i had better get my metronome OUT . Thanks for sharing. PS. We loved the Zappa Plays Zappa show in Dublín a few years ago. Had a GREAT time afterwards with from your band in BRUXELLES PUB afterwards, AWESOME people. xx
For me it's crazy that Zappa got lessons from BOTH Eddie van Halen and Steve Vai, but also that Kirk Hammett and Steve Vai BOTH got lessons from Joe Stariani. All 4 are great musicians, in addition to be able to play guitar virtuosly.
I saw Dweezil on stage with his old man at the Wembley Arena on Franks '88 tour! I had my Sony Pro Walkman with me and taped the entire show, plus the 2nd Wembley show, the Birmingham NEC and the Rotterdam Ahoy. Those tapes kept me going for years, right up until the Internet brought easy access to a multitude of live FZ material. It was really dodgy taping gigs in those days. I got a good kicking more than once, but they never got the tape! So it was worth it.
I remember picking up practice tips from Vai back in the day, he talked about in columns of either GW or GP, possibly both. One in particular was taking a couple of random strings off of your guitar and playing your scales/solos. Do that for a week and then take a couple of different ones off etc. It was crazy and slightly tedious, but it forces you to rethink and learn the entire neck, while creating muscle memory. A big help and a great tip. Thank you Steve! This book Dweezil has is quite a treasure, what a great story.👍🎸
That’s awesome thanks for sharing this, it’s fun to watch. I could relate if I looked back at my early guitar learning note book. Steve needs to name everything lol.
Man. I would love a pdf or book written about Steve’s approach to guitar playing and music theory. I have dreamed of having a definitive text book written by the man himself for years. I would be the first to buy it. If he even did a instructional dvd or 2, I would truly be in heaven. Yay :)
I'm loving this so much because I have the same notebook from my teacher when I started 2 years ago. I'm still horrible though but still trying. How cool that the two of you have this.. Thanks a bunch for sharing ... very cool.
Great video - the modesty of both of these great musicians is an important reminder that the best teachers are always learning. Also, it’s funny to discover that other players (and great ones) see the entire guitar in A Dorian. I thought it was just me!
I don't think the genes help any. Just look at Ahmet...or Diva. They are practically talentless. Even Moon is no prize. She wrote an awful novel & I don't think that tea that she's selling pays for her living expenses. They all live off of their father's work.
@@the_great_gavonne your so full of hate I can smell you through the great wide web, basically your trying to play a guitar and not sound like you've had your fingers in a meat grinder,, you suggest ' it isnt in the genes' as you look at your parents and hope not, , yeah your parents..hahaaa just look at them, as if you could ever flow baby...
funny I don't think he's great, he merely was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, I don't think he's ever written a piece of music that has even touched what his father or teacher has done, I don't dislike him, I just think he was given everything.
Awesome. I hope you do have a digital scan of it. Not for anyone else but for your own archival purposes incase something were to happen to the original. That is something quite special and doesn't need to be shared all over the internet. This video alone was plenty. Thank you.