Listening to him for just about some 9 minutes is so valuable and so educating and so vast that it opens me up in a whole another level where I see the curtain raising up and entering a vast universe of a different understanding in music. I love how Steve talks about chords here. " Even if the guitar is in tune, the chords played are not in tune, I don't see many people doing it right ". Wow. This is far too deep than one can imagine. If you feel it, you will know what I mean. This stuff is another level.
Legend. All of this is gold. I especially love the bit where he basically says not to give a shit what other people think. Get in there and make your own music, in the moment.
So well put, especially at the end when he says "you're listening to your inner ear not the theoretical brain." I felt that learning theory suppressed my ability to play with feel as I was thinking too theoretically. I dropped the theoretical brain and trusted the "inner ear" which then, using the theoretical brain subconsciously over consciously, enabled me to phrase things correctly through inherent behaviour and musical doctrine. It's important to know the music and its theory but it's much more important to be able to apply that unwillingly over applying it because, theoretically, it is correct.
OMG, I never thought I'd ever hear Steve play a sequence of open chords. I hope he went to the bathroom and whacked out a thousand notes on Evo to make up for it.
...the # of times Steve stops during lessons and exhorts us to "listen" and demonstrates it...! the most fundamental relationship between a musician and their instrument. the # of times he recommends "taking a breath and relaxing"...and does. attention and discipline and a quiet place...i've watched several episodes the past couple days and i swear i've become a better human-being,as well as receiving great teaching and confirmations as a musician...to have stumbled-on/recommended-for-me these, at just this moment in time, is so good...
Love Steve, will always be one of the greats. The fact that he separates the analytical and creative mind is what not only makes him a great player but also a great teacher. Please keep these lessons coming, a wealth of knowledge that everyone from beginner to advanced can benefit from.
i'm loving these series by guitar world, getting an insight on such great guitar players is just mind blowing, even tho i'm more into some heavier stuff. This is truly inspiring
Learning all the notes on the fret board is unbelievably useful , also my Ear training is so good I now know that my girlfriend's Hoover is in Gm and the washing machine on spin is In D.
As beginner the rest of these were this one will actually be really useful if you know the theory behind what he's talking about, all the chords that go in every key, yes all of them, than substitutions why play a D when you can just as correctly add a D7, what happens then, and then based on what you're trying to write figure out the atmosphere you're trying to convey, you're still playing a D let's say because you have to but constrained by that you actually have a world of possibilities. This is the first one of these that I've actually wished was longer, it seemed like he was just starting to get into it and then it ended.
Name not Found the previous ones were more idiomatic, not to mention it's difficult to objectively analyze your own music because it's more than just theory, it's a part of your thinking. So if you want more indepth analysis, it's almost always better to go with someone else who can do it objectively. MusicIsWin has a video on his habits (and about 5 or so more guitarists) it's titled "habits of steve vai"
..Paul, i'm thinking of Herb Ellis,Glenn Gould, Keith Jarrett,Paul Kossoff, me...lol...i absolutely believe it is an aid to articulation and note choice,timing,phrasing etc...
Chords are really just sound and there are other sounds you can make with the instrument which are just as valid and important but may not be explainable in terms of pitch/note value/chord/interval or dissonance. I'm talking about the idiosyncratic types of things that Django or Roy Buchanan or Van Halen (as well as Vai) do when they play off the neck or scratch the strings or 'fan' or bar slide or slap pinch or machine gun where there really is no identifiable or categorized pitch but rather sound effects . Great players always add things that are sounds rather than music. They create and memorize these sounds in the same way they memorize chords or scales.
I'm still having trouble with H sharp major. It's the same as eye flat major right. But only blind. It sounds the same as H sharp major in the dark. But you can't see anything.
...neithang zou, let me suggest that you play along with the vocal melody on songs with singers...good ones, with good songs...the shape/arc of a vocal melody (also instrumental), the length/shortness of notes/words,where they start and where they stop,how loud/soft some notes/words are compared to others, that's all phrasing...rec:Frank Sinatra,Billie Holliday, Miles Davis...
Funny how he said it "permeates through your whole body, and it feels really good too." Quite a few years back my neighbors were total fuckwads and calling police on me whenever I played guitar much less had a group over. Keep in mind they vibrated my whole house daily with shit Rap through over bassed cars and lighting fireworks (even during the daytime! Why would you do that?!?) But I thought I had a solution. I bought an expensive wireless set of headphones and plugged them into my mixer with a channel that I had branched off from my pre-amp modeler! Now all I had to do was match the headset to the same tone as my Marshall was making with the same pre--amp at the same time then turn off the standby switch and no more PD when practicing!! It did not work. After several attempts where I thought I had it every time I turned off the 100watt Plexi (which was on like 2) something was missing. Turn it back on and I was all good again. I sat down and opened a beer then it dawned on me... there was no low end vibration with the headphones! I had matched the tone quite well indeed but you cannot "Feel" it. This is what Mr. Vai is talking about. I also have never liked practice amps for this same reason. I recently got a Marshall Code50.... WOW it is so nice! I never thought I would say that about a practice amp MUCH LESS a solid state one! If you have not checked one out I highly suggest it! Plug it into your DAW and Guitar Rig5! Too incredible! Who needs to spend $$ on a Axe-Fx ?! Not I my friend! It does not vibrate things off the shelves like the 100watt Plexi Bassman I own... but it sounds and feels good at a much lower volume which I have never been able to do with anything else ever in over 28 years of playing! When I release my singles there are 2 amps on them the JMP and the Code50. I challenge ANYONE to be able to reliably tell me which part was recorded on what amp! I run direct with the Code and the JMP I model with an ART DST4 then go direct and mic at the same time and mix the 2 channels when captured. The code actually does better usually with almost no work DIRECT! No more crosstalk! WTF!!!!
..Alejandro, i take it as his way of saying the guitar does not have perfect intonation...less perfect instruments sounded wonky/drunk as you play in different positions...as you ascend the neck notes become more slightly out-of-tune, the frets being only the nearest, rounded-off approximations of the next higher or lower note...the effect being esp noticeable when playing several notes on several strings as you move up/down neck...guitarists compensate with finger positioning and pressure to compensate and tune-as-they-play...would appreciate input from other guitar/bass players on this...
I never learned a thing, such as CHORDS, until I began to learn music theory... on a piano. First you'll build major triads and then someone will say flat the third and AMAZING... a minor chord. How did that get there?! You see it on the piano then you take that to the guitar and learn all the notes in say, an open A major chord - then flatten that third like you did on the piano - and what do ya know! Then you begin learning HOW to build more complex chords with 7's and 9's and 11's. And then one day you find yourself constructing chords from the notes of a Double Harmonic Major scale and a CLICK goes off in your brain and you suddenly get it. Everything opens up and you now you understand major, minor, etc., and playing in a certain mode such as Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, etc.and it's no longer memorized places on a location on your fretboard. It's a sound tied to a feeling that flows naturally.
People compare Steve to Eddie Van Halen. They are both great. Steve knows the names of individual notes up and down the neck. He can write music using half notes, quarter goes, 16th notes on the staff on paper. He knows diminished chords etc. He's studied these things a lot. Were as Eddie knows these things also but he can't read music and he can't write music using quarter notes on a musical staff. Eddie just KNOWS this stuff, sort of like a savant.
"First, go out and learn every chord." ... Really? I have a chord book in my closet with over 1,000 chord shapes. There are nearly 80 just in the Em section! Maybe he meant to say: "First, go to your doctor and make sure you've got at least four decades left to live, then learn every chord." ;-p
Most guitars are set up to be in perfect tune. And if set up correctly, in perfect intonation at the 12th fret. But Steve Vai's guitar is in perfect intonation because of his ear. I mean, look at his guitar. the frets aren't strait. What would be the notes if you bared the first fret? You have to be a master of sound to play a guitar with frets like that. It just doesn't make sense. The intonation would be off. Maybe normal strait frets are too easy for him.
..the normal straight frets are an approximation...Steves' frets are more mathematically correct in placement in an attempt to perfect intonation...i believe Leland Sklar has an electric-bass (Dingwall?) with similarish off-set frets...
Beginners- be careful with Master Vai's fingering of the D chord- it is unorthodox- he fingers it 3,4,2 from high e string when most practical fingering is 2, 3,1. A true second position fingering that connects well to a G. Hope helps. For you advancing players go further with his advice "but all that information is not a D" It only is on a very fundamental level. Eventually it will just be 3 notes formed in a shape that could be part of say a F13b9 or a bm7 or Gma7add9. They are just pitches to use as your creative expression chooses....eventually. But for now, it's a D. ;)
Try to play a D/B or D/F# with Vai's fingering and then with your fingering. Ideally you should know what chord you intend on playing next and plan you fingering accordingly. The fingering that's most practical varies with context.
Ricky Johnson Agreed but not many play the f# on the 1st string when doing a D/F# and many, myself included use our thumbs. I teach several ways/fingerings for chords but not to a novice- that just overloads the neural pathways- one good, solid fingering reinforces muscle memory. Lest you think I am questioning Master Vai’s methodology let’s be clear I am not. He is a mountain, but there are other mountains in the range..
...as has been pointed out, Steve no doubt uses his fingering to free-up the 1 finger to allow it to colour the d chord,move quickly to a b - chord, descending bass-lines or substitute root-notes for the d...all poss/slightly diff, with 2,3,1 fingering...sim to alt g major open-fingering...
he means that the chord has a certain mood or vibe to it, and it will sort of take you in a different direction. the more notes you add into a chord, the deeper it's going to get. it's just a way of connecting a certain feeling to a certain chord by listening to it and internalizing that particular sound (the dissonance, the consonance, a certain interval that stands out, whatever) rather than just know that it "works" because of theory
still a terrible lesson for a beginner. save the deep thoughts to when you're 60 and have an international career like him. Vai was far from this "become the chord" guru in his early days. He was a theory and extreme practice psychopath. THAT is what landed his gig with Frank. Not this bs
Can someone tell me what he was talking about when he said "guitar is a pickled instrument, sometimes chords will be out of tune even if the guitar is in tune"? He kind of glossed over this and I just want some elaboration on whatever concept he was referring to there.
look at his uneven crooked frets... that's a really expensive true temperament neck!! Vai should have shared that with you all. that's the secret to having clear in-tune chords.
