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Steve Vai Interviewed by Justin Sandercoe


scolfax

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Do i detect a slight hint of arrogance with Vai these days??

 

 

Seemed very honest and to the point I thought. Just imagine how many hours he's spent with his instrument.

 

Could you imaging Yngwie saying "..this is just what I needed to do, do whatever works for you"?

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Very cool interview, thanks. I did the "Alien Guitar Secrets" class w/ him in Orlando last June, and I was really impressed at how down-to-earth and "un-rockstar-like" he was. Not pretentious or arrogant at all, even though he is Steve Freaking Vai. Then again, he didn't have a goatee back then... ;)

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Oh yeah, I especially liked the comment he made about Jeff Beck. Something like "Could Jeff Beck show you the F# on the G string?"

 

It highlights an interesting contrast between their two styles. For example, Joe Satriani knows modes. Period. Does EVH? Somehow I don't think so.

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Oh yeah, I especially liked the comment he made about Jeff Beck. Something like "Could Jeff Beck show you the F# on the G string?"


It highlights an interesting contrast between their two styles. For example, Joe Satriani knows modes. Period. Does EVH? Somehow I don't think so.

 

 

i've heard from a few people that eddie knows more about music than most people give him credit for and hendrix as well.

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I thought it was a great interview and I think he works hard to answer questions to not sound arrogant. How many freaking times has he answered the exact same questions over the years and to have the patients and understanding to do it all again is great. He worked his ass off and when he states my 10 hour work outs were more than that he means I worked on it 24/7. I would want to say that I busted my ass you {censored}. I worked harder on this than you could ever imagine, you being a magizine geek have no concept of my greatness and trying to put it in lame ass terms that you lazy man can understand is beneath me and simply a waste of my time. So go away little man, go away. I've seen dozens of Vai's interviews and I can't think of a time where he wasn't willing and kind.

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Excellent - even they did not discuss his hair dryer on stage!

 

I understand exactly what he means about transcription and about learning for the satisfaction of doing something you couldn't do before.

 

That is the whole of my interest in guitar these days. The same challenge and same feeling of accomplishment.

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I like Vai...he's knows hes great..you cant be that good and not know it. But he's not being arrogant IMO...he's too smart for that and knows better. Arrogant - Yngwies shown a little of that in the past. EVH I hear has to...but Vai, despite knowing hes a great virtuoso knows its not wise to get cocky in a public interview. All in all I thought he said some cool things.

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i've heard from a few people that eddie knows more about music than most people give him credit for and hendrix as well.

 

I've heard Eddie contradict himself in interviews about his theory knowledge! He does know a reasonable amount of music theory...how can you not when you started out learning classical piano as a kid? Hendrix also did know more than he claimed..though not formally as such - you look at Little Wing and you can see all those embellishments and ornimentations around the chords...he like all great musicians had a good imagination and a good ear..but I really think he did know some music theory even if he didnt know it as such. Clapton and Page the same! Look at Clapton when improvising...how does he know how to follow all those chord changes? (all the of 'em mostly :lol: ) but if you listen you will learn that HE KNOWS WHAT HE'S DOING! That is theory and a good ear in practice! If you said to Clapton or Page to jam over these chords in E or A they would know what to do! They would know their pentatonic shapes all over the neck for all the common keys and know the chord tones in those patterns and know how to hang on those at the right time.

 

But I guess you can look at any good piece of music and it will always seem to fit in with theory...even if the creator had no theory whatsoever! Cos if it didnt then it wouldnt work! You'll always see harmony at work. If someone creates something that sounds bad or dissonant they would reject it and find something that sounded right!

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I recently heard Ed Norton interview Bruce Springsteen on NPR. The start of one of his questions was more interesting than the answer, which was essentially, "There are artists who hide their depth of knowledge to appear more artsy and mysterious..."

 

I wonder if EVH is in that camp. Vai and Satriani certainly are not, there are many magazine interviews that prove that. None that I know of with EVH. Eddie wouldn't even give a straight answer when asked if the music or lyrics come first during his typical songwriting routine.

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But I guess you can look at any good piece of music and it will always seem to fit in with theory...even if the creator had no theory whatsoever! Cos if it didnt then it wouldnt work! You'll always see harmony at work. If someone creates something that sounds bad or dissonant they would reject it and find something that sounded right!

 

 

Theory is only the analysis of what works in practice.

Humans love to systemise and rationalise all aspects of our lives and music is no exception.

 

Relativity was around long before Einstein wrote it down.

Quarks and pi-mesons existed long before anyone found them.

Music has always been part of existence and so becomes analysed and documented.

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I liked it. Reminded me a lot of what he's written about over the years. I remember reading his guitar column years ago. Also, on one issue of The Whole Guitar Book (Musician) the had a section called "Playing with..." and they would have things like "your fingers" (Mark Knopfler). In Vai's case, it was "a pencil" and he talked about how he loved the way notes looked on paper, and the ability to compose music without the need for an instrument.

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i love hearing Vai talk about music as much or more than i enjoy hearing his music. He comes at it from a slightly different angle, and got famous because he is really really good at what he does. He's not trying top be a rock star, but he gets a bit flamboyant at his shows as a way of entertaining, rather than just standing there pulling off licks. Some of his stuff is inspirational and some of it goes way over my head and bores me to tears, but i never get sick of hearing him talk about his love for the music. It's hard to not like someone who is so passionate about guitars.

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Great interview. I felt like he was speaking from the heart, and very personal about his childhood and ego, or lack of. Loved the idea about guitar, the more you know the less you know. When asked about being able to translate his music while performing, feeling good about what you are doing, yet feeling it could be better, seems honest and not egotistical.

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