Steve Vai ROCKS! Options

[Guitar Master123]

Here is the audience is listening by Steve Vai except its... err... Steve Vaialysed.

The Audience is Listening

I've watched like a hundred times now and its not boring. I'm not even sure if Steve was planning all that mumbo jumbo in the middle.

[ezravdb]

Yeah the main theme is so groovy /m/

[Pavel]

He is one of my main influences - he's simply brilliant.

[Guitar Master123]

He is ,with out a doubt, my favorite guitarist.

[Aryo]

Its all a matter of opinion but personally i think this guy is wayyyyy too over rated. He may have techinical ability through the roof but all of his songs sound the same.

A truly great guitarist can do the most amazing solo with just two notes.
Steve vai seems to need every note and a whammy bar and a wa wa pedal.

(p.s. i tried to break the news gently seeing as i know how many vai fans are out there)

[Pavel]

Vai for me is the best musician in instrumental rock music. If you say his songs are all the same than it means you never listened to him. Last 2 years i have been listening his music non-stop and didn't find 2 similar songs - they are all different. He is a great composer, a showman and awesome guitarplayer.

As for 2 notes - how many combinations of 2 notes are there?

Btw. there are a lot topics on criticism and musical tastes so let's not start another fight!

[Kristofer Dahl]

Classic discussion!

And yes there are many different ways of playing two notes - in fact trying to find all those ways is an excellent way to develop bending, phrasing and originality.

On the piano there aren't nearly as many different ways to play two notes as on the guitar - and that's why we are so lucky.

It took me quite a while to discover Vai - in the beginning I thought he looked so ugly when playing live (!) that I couldn't stand him. Now I must say he is definately one of my favorite "shredders" - since he never lets go of music/melody as opposed to many other technical guitarists.

And boy he, if anyone, can play two notes in a zillion different ways...

[InstruMental Cas...]

Vai is the reason I got into instrumental guitar music, but I’ve definitely moved on a ways since. He’s got countless classic songs, and I always find things that I absolutely love on his albums. I just got kinda bored with his stuff after listening to every one of his records countless times, seeing him live a few times, watching every DVD, meeting him (I even got to hold Evo), etc… That all kinda coincided with me expanding my tastes in guitar music, and finally starting to hear a bunch of melody in shredders like Rusty Cooley and Michael Angelo Batio, and other guys who I didn’t like / get at all previously.

The main reasons I lost a lot of interest in Vai are:

• With Real Illusions, he seems to be moving towards this conceptual composer / singer thing that isn’t as up my alley. I’m more interested in progressive music with a lot going on.
  
  
• I’m starting to find his technique lacking. I mean, he’s great, don’t get me wrong, but he’s not fast enough for my tastes anymore. I think his improvisation is often weak, because he often falls back on the whammy bar stuff.
  
  
• His signature sound has almost become tiresome to me over time. It’s pretty unique and very recognizable, but I just wouldn’t be able to stand sounding like that ALL THE TIME. He covers a lot of styles in his songwriting, but I think the “all his songs sound the same” type comments come from the fact that he’s so pigeonholed in that tone, sound, and style.

[Kristofer Dahl]

Vai is the reason I got into instrumental guitar music, but I’ve definitely moved on a ways since. He’s got countless classic songs, and I always find things that I absolutely love on his albums. I just got kinda bored with his stuff after listening to every one of his records countless times, seeing him live a few times, watching every DVD, meeting him (I even got to hold Evo), etc… That all kinda coincided with me expanding my tastes in guitar music, and finally starting to hear a bunch of melody in shredders like Rusty Cooley and Michael Angelo Batio, and other guys who I didn’t like / get at all previously.

The main reasons I lost a lot of interest in Vai are:

• With Real Illusions, he seems to be moving towards this conceptual composer / singer thing that isn’t as up my alley. I’m more interested in progressive music with a lot going on.
• I’m starting to find his technique lacking. I mean, he’s great, don’t get me wrong, but he’s not fast enough for my tastes anymore. I think his improvisation is often weak, because he often falls back on the whammy bar stuff.
• His signature sound has almost become tiresome to me over time. It’s pretty unique and very recognizable, but I just wouldn’t be able to stand sounding like that ALL THE TIME. He covers a lot of styles in his songwriting, but I think the “all his songs sound the same” type comments come from the fact that he’s so pigeonholed in that tone, sound, and style.

Good arguments and analysis!

[Ibanez_player]

Vai is my favorite guitarist. If you think his songs sound the same then you haven't really listened to a lot of his music. He has a crap load of music. Some of it is kind of weird but for the most part it is great. He is definitely not your typical shredder so if thats what you like I can see why you wouldn't like him. I find his improv to be lacking as well. But his compositions are amazing.

Some songs I'd recommend are Dyin Day, Die to Live, K'm-Pee-Du-Wee, Building the Church, Tender Surrender, Juice, Boy From Seattle, Boston Rain Melody, Blue Powder. There are so many great ones but I'll stop there.

[InstruMental Cas...]

I have every album. He was my favorite guitarist. But after two years of listening to him incessantly, I started to explore a lot more players and realized he was no longer the greatest in my mind.

[Ibanez_player]

Ya thats cool. I was kind of responding to the other guy who said all his songs sound the same but I didn't make that clear.

[Kristofer Dahl]

Regarding his improvisations - this is surprising to me - as I find him being one of the few rock guitarists who actually can improvise. Here is an illustration of this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEB3VlXK8xs

(he starts improvising at 03:00)

[Ibanez_player]

That was really good Kris. I forgot about that video. I don't really like the stuff he does with the G3 jams mainly because he seems to rely on the whammy bar a little too much. But this video shows that he can improvise very well.

This post has been edited by Ibanez_player: Feb 9 2007, 09:32 AM

[InstruMental Cas...]

Yes, that video was very good. I based that comment more on seeing him on the G3 jams (especially the newest one, where I felt Petrucci and Satriani made much stronger statements when soloing), and most recently, seeing him solo a bit during the Zappa Plays Zappa tour. He just wouldn’t lay off the whammy bar stuff during that. It just feels like a crutch that he falls back on when he’s not inspired to say something really original.

[Aryo]

I totatly agree with instrumental case! (Now theres a guy who knows what hes talkin about)

I also never said that Vai wasnt a good guitarist, Just that he is NOT a good musician.

He's tone never changes and hes band cant really play well together. So all of you Vai fans HAVE to admit he's not a great musician.

but he is a well-practicesed (not talented. If theres anything Kris has taught us is that theres no such thing as talent ) guitarist.

[InstruMental Cas...]

Actually, I disagree with some of that. I’d say he’s a better musician than a guitarist!

His tone changes sometimes (listen to him solo on John5’s second album), but his general signature style stays too much the same.

I think his band is really tight, and totally world class. I absolutely love Dave Weiner’s album, MacAlpine is awesome with his fusion group CAB, and little needs to be said of Billy Sheehan. I’ve seen them rehearse, and it’s completely insane how scripted everything is, because Vai seems to really strive to recreate the album’s sound.

As far as the "well-practiced but not born talented" thing… Vai has openly admitted to this. He said he had to work for every ounce of technique, because he wasn’t a natural at the instrument. I’d say he is very talented at being creative and being a hit songwriter though.

This post has been edited by InstruMental Case: Feb 10 2007, 12:47 AM

[Ibanez_player]

I totatly agree with instrumental case! (Now theres a guy who knows what hes talkin about)

I also never said that Vai wasnt a good guitarist, Just that he is NOT a good musician.

He's tone never changes and hes band cant really play well together. So all of you Vai fans HAVE to admit he's not a great musician.

but he is a well-practicesed (not talented. If theres anything Kris has taught us is that theres no such thing as talent ) guitarist.

I'm sorry but I have to disagree. Steve Vai is a great musician. He went to Berklee. He also transcribed some of Frank Zappa's harderst work and sent it to him. That is how he got to be in Zappa's band. Zappa was an incredible musician and recognized Vai's skills and musicianship. He also composes some orchestral music and he considers himself a composer as much as a guitarist. And the guys in his band are also incredible musicians. Check out some Tony McAlpine stuff in CAB or Planet X

[Guitar Master123]

Video of Steve Vai

Steve Vai Again

Yet Another Steve Vai

Steve Vai

Vai Rocks

The Last Video



This post has been edited by Guitar Master123: Feb 10 2007, 05:46 AM

[Liam]

first videolink doesnt work ..
the second is great , its at crossroads-concert I believe

I like this one a lot :
tender surrender
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1VjwciFLAg