A é) 0 Sy . ow bes E ige- a 7 4 Lf : ee ~ iis 5 Meee VU CT aeWeald in 1990, Vai’ intensive guitar reginen has been the Holy Grail for fariows players. Here, forthe first time = ini7 years, isthe lesson that shaped a eration of guitarists Seventeen years ago, Steve Vai sat dow with guitaris/transeriber Dave ‘biehil and outlined his practice fun forthe January 1990 issue of Guitar Werld. Never before had a gu ‘aris gven such an in-depth explan- sim of hie musieal exercise regimen. Ithecame a must-have for guitarists; _neny ofthe players intorviewed in CGWhave cited itssan influence on ‘heiedevelopment 2s guitarists. We thought it would be cool to give you the hanes to experience the workout ins original form and vo Iearn son ofthe things Vai has done to develop his formidable chops and remarkable ssi vocabulary. “Tostart, Vai presents the goneral philosophy’ behind his approach to the guitar, “Tcould sit here and tell sou, Rale of thumbs ey to always ley clea,’ or ule of thumbs think nicl. But Lwouldn’t because I really don’t think there are any rules of thumb. Lfyou try todo someching that somebody else says isa rule of thumb, sou might be going against your better judgment. Most of the time, innovation happens when people break che rules “aul of thumb I could offer is. never take what anybody tells ou as sospel. Music isan artform isan ‘pression of yourself, and you have todo it che way you do it. Pm not say ing dont isten to what anybody else 3s, cither, because its very helpful two hear about what other people have learned. I's very helpful to build your technique around someone's lesson in ‘maguzine. Imay show you certain ferercises I did that I thought were Fielpfl, but you shouldn't get carried ‘oway with what Lor anyone else dees because youll start sounding like meor - the next guy and lose sight of your own ‘musical identity. “Leould tell you, ‘Pey from the heart? but what the hell does that mean? Ts easy to say, but i's ahard thing to understand. When you say, ‘Play from the heart; you mean, "Play from your own heart; but what isn your ovn heart® To know your heart, youthave to know yourselfsand to know yourself you have co be yourself; and tobe yourself you have w Tike yourself This goes into all these realms ‘oF psychology, but this is what think Js important toa person's playing and the way he expresses himself" ‘THE 10-HOUR WORKOUT ‘On his way to becoming a guitar vir- ‘oso, Val would practice 10 hours per day and document everythinghe did. ‘The first hour was devoted to teehni- ‘eal exercises, che second to scales andrl to some “chord thing.” Hed sat these areas three times and gtime toa "Sen sitivity Hour," during which he would ‘try to reproduce spoken phrases as passages onthe guitar. In addition, the ‘exercises were divided into three cat. ‘egories: linear picking, srorching and angular. All of them are outlined in the following text LINEAR PICKING EXERCISES To develop a strong, fluent cleernate ‘Gown-up) picking technique, Vai rec- ‘ommends practicing “things that are technically awkward like picking three or four notes onastring and crossing over to the next string and doingit ‘gain, Start very slowly and use a met ‘onomne; go all the way up and down the neck. Once you feel comfortable phiying certain paviern, set the met Fomome a little aster. Keep doing this and eventually, after several months, you're just wailing” ‘The first example ofthis type of inear exercise is based on an ‘ascending pattern well simply call 4," 38 this refers to the order in which the fret-hand Fingers are placed on each string (1GURE.). When playing this exercise, try to keep your frotting hand fingers as close as pos- sible to the fingerboard. You should keep your frst finger on che string ‘until the fourth finger makes con- tact, at which point the first finger moves over to the next string. This is ‘a great, uncomplicated exercise for a novice guitarist ‘Vai then demonstrates an alternat: {ng variation (neue) in which the fingering pattern (represented numer- ically below the tablature) follows the repeating sequence 1-2-3-4,2-3-4-1, 3-412,412-3. This alternating idea Is alco played ona single string (6- ‘Une) and has the added benefit of offering a great exercise in position shifting. The next step istoethaust all ther permutations ofthe 122-34 or ‘any other four-note combination you find awkward and practice them in a similar menner. If we apply Vais pragmatic approach to three-note-per-string combinations—for example, -3-4—the result would be the three exercises shown in FGURES 46. These exercises present a workout forthe brain as well asthe fingers. Approach them slowly at first until th logic behind each pat tern sinks in Of course, two-note-per-str patterns could also be used for li tear picking exercises (IGURES 7 and 8) Ifyou have problems crossing strings with the same finger, you'll find the exercise shown in FIGURE to be particularly beneficial. Roll your fretting Finger over the strings 28 you switch from one to the next to keep remotes from ‘bleeding’ or ringing rune 12 fa a a4 nazinto each other. To do this, simply ighten your frst knucKle as you Sifteingerippresureover’o | (QUI 1 the next string. lea = STRETCHING EXERCISES iE == ————— Thestechingererches dpicedin | [= = = = ARGURES9 and wo are played just ike the a ee (rence perstang icing exces Dorhereyeurwanctograalyircreate | UREA the sumer your fet ing hand ma ‘at Fateetialncines mts bit Bivand foo indica ie toplay any of ther etches in first 7 fealton Bagohigher pte seckand | EE ee ee i tone morclinberandtherrange of 1 ton inteaen Deep the rar om ieee sMneessn | goers g and allow each nore its fll duration. there's abig gap ofsilence between ‘each note, you're cheating. 'HOURE 0 worl the 1-3 and 2 fin ger pairs In addition vo these twoexer- FE ‘cises, try spanning four or five frets ie ‘with the first and fourth fingers. As befors,ifyou encounter any dfficuly, begin higher up the neck untl your hand museles and ligaments become tore flexible. Unlike weight iting, No pain, no gain” does not apply here. Stop ifyou feo! any diseomfor. stretching abilicy. Keep itcentered Ibchind the neck and your fingers par~ allel t the frets before you attempt stretch.” ANGULAR EXERCISES "Angular exercises improve your string erossing chops,’ Vai says. “The more adept you are at crossing strings with the pick, the better your picking technique.” GURE n exempli- fics what angular exereises are all about. The general idea is to take a finger pattern, andl work it across the strings, assign ing one finger per fret. Since there are only three groups of four adjzeont strings (first through fourth, soe- d through fifth and third through sixth), the entire pattern doesn’t ‘manifest itself until ii played on fone af these three string groups. "You may find ie helpful to alize three “phantom strings" on either side ofthe neck, to give you @ reference for fingering the frst sh and last six notes ofthe exercise With this approach, the progres- sion of notes seems very natural. For example, when playing the first note (with the first finger (1), think in into. with the other fingers ( Imaginary strings. Therefore, only the fret finger ie being used. As the pattern moves across the strings, all mune 17 ey Span ee eye aal ie oe er ee eee. == Sa ee ee a gay oe eer cere | strings in bar 3, ll fingers, except the fourth, move offthe neck onto the | aginary strings 'RGURE 1 shows a1-2-3-4 applied to ‘en angular exercise. Uso the imaginary strings approach to make it easier to figure out the corresponding exercises _ for other finger pate, For expe ‘7 play. Likewise, as you run out off finger pattern would begin 4, 2-4, 3.2. 4,1-3:2-4,asillustrated in the first har ofricuRe a. CHORD STUDIES Vai's three one-hour ehord.stud; sessions were as varied as the oi areas of his workout, “Ror th _ hour, Pd sy charts. take The = POSITION 1S CRITICAL IMAL THESEion standards use for de: fades by jazz musicians and students particulary ot tho Berklee Collese of ‘Music in Boston] and play stuf ke [plage the melody co the Hammer stein/Rern standard “The Last Time TSaw Paris)” He would spend the ‘second hour experimenting with ‘unusual chords end yoieings, and “for the third hous, I would just jam on a rhythm like [plays ¢ funky Emit chord vamp}. Once I got a groove going with it, record iv and solo over it.1 ould also invert and arpesgiate di ferent types of chords, like Gmaj7” {cu 4) “Invert? and “arpegeiate” require some explanation. “Inversion” sa technique in which a chord is voiced so {hatanyefte nots otherthan he rcot | Teike lowest ass) note In CURE 2 (Gonai7 chord (G BD F2) is votced first. ‘with the mot in thebass bar), then the third ith and seventh. “Arpeggia- tion’ means playing the notes of a ‘chord in suecession rather than simul- taneously Other common four-note chords, such asthe sith, dominant ‘seventh, minor seventh and minor ‘uth, are given the same treatment Jn FIGURES 1-18 Try t0 dently any familiar chord shapes (or fragments of them) as you move through these inversions For example, in FIGURE 6, its easy to viualize the G7 barre chord shape in bar Land an A-shaped barre chord inbar 4 ‘SCALE/MODE STUDIES ‘ais scale workout involves playing. the major sealein all 2 keys ac 10 dif ferent tempos, and practicing scales in interval patterns. For example, after playing the G major scale in FICURE 9a standard eeale shape that all nov- {ee guitarists should learn—he plays it in thirds (1GURE 20), fourths (AGURE2s) find fifths (FIGURE 22)-Practicing scales {ninterval patter like this isan excel- Tent way t0 improve your coordination aud come up with aitematives to play- ing straight ascending and descending Tinear patterns in your lead playing, ‘which ean qekly become bo md ‘Val then runs through ll the diaron- fe modes in thitds (AGURES 23-28). The gultarisr advises, “Play them slowly to make sure they're perfect—clean, even andl right in syne with the met- Fonome~and concentrate on making Site your pick isn'tmeving that much.” "Vai says his woodshedding exp ceace while studying st Berklee was very mechanical. I used to try and bal- lance the tecknieal with the emotional inmy playing and found that, o got my motor skills sharpened it became a loteasier for me to express smyscl as long as Ldldn'eget carried ‘vay with my chops. I's very easy 0 ‘say to oureelf Wore, ve gotchops yy as resulvofall these mechan FLOURE 24 G Phrygian mace In thirds third pesiion + ealaype exercises, but then you'll lose sight of why you have the chops in the first place” [Tn terms of ear training it's very helpful an educational when practi: ing modes to have abass note “drone” © sounding the root note (Gin these ‘examples). This way you ean really hnoar and internalize the mood each mode creates, Without the 100" note ‘ofthe mode in your ear, the brain will {ust pick up on the relative major scale from which the mode is derived. For ‘example, when playing G Phrygian | (RICURE a), ies ess to grevitae toward hearing itas being an Bo major scale starting on G. “The Lydian mee (NGUREH) is one ‘of Vais favorite seales. ‘The raised or + “Sharped? fonrh in sis pattern gives ‘MOST THE TI INNOVATI HAPPEN: ME ION S § the Lydian mode ite distinctive, exoti= cally beautifil guality, Play ths pattern ‘with friend stramming.a G chord, and ‘you should notice adefinte Vai sound “Asked whether he used the other possible positicns for the major scale, Vai responds, "No, I just used to play jn thatone positions the others were tseless to me, The only resson T used | thove scales was to get the sound of £ them in my head ond got my fingers going didn't want co leer sealesin milion different positions because t ‘vas afraid my playing would become too posidon-oriented. I used to do this £ eally cool exereice in every key star | ing with E najan would go from the lowestto the highest ote [plays HoURE 2g] and then come back down’ ‘Youilhaveto figure out your ownfingering for ths elongated scale pat tem. Tt comes down to whatever works for you. Experiment with finger sides and quick stealthy position shifts Bearing in mind thatthe Mea sto ‘minimize hand movement wherever possible, moving your first finger fran ‘ealy from note to note dosen't make ‘much senseless you're going for @ star-like vibe, Va sys, “The promise Isthat you have todo iby earand ply itdiferently each tine without mak inga mistake, otherwise you have to start over. Your fingers will kind of develop eves, and you'll get a feel for playing the scale you're hearing in your head instead of being absorbed by the smechanies of eal” LEAVING THE WOODSHED FOR OTHER REALMS: “Anyway, that's about nine hours of practice, and that was just on the first day. On the second day, Pd do less but $ moveonto other things. I'd devote: three hours to the mechanics, then | work on vibrato, or take hammer fs, pulloffs and utters fers) and swork on those Foran hour.” That may sound rather ambitious, but Vai also makes time for working on the feel oF | his playing. I would alwass reserve the last hour of my routine for just soloing and jamming, You know, just feeling, forgetting everything and just doing i : Tused toda this thing ealed the Sensitivity Hours! where Pi ry to play th as much extreme senstiv= fyas] could. would record a chord progression, like this plays FIGURE aca] ‘then think of phrase in my head like aword ora sentence—and try to play it moelodicelly onthe guitar ‘To illustrate his point farther, Vai asks Whitehill to say a word or a se tence; Whitehill reflects on the solo ‘Vai had just played in FIGURE 0a, ard replies, "Hey, Steve, that was really nec!” Vai then mimies this sentence in the fst rwo bars of RGURE30b, following up with variations ineach of the subsequent phrases, Bach note ceorresponits toa syllable, nd the shythms follow the natural speeel pattern, Vai explains: *You ean start peaking your mind to yourself, Some people do this, and this isthe way they pray-they pray to themselves when they play the instrument It's very expressive and a lot better than thinking, Okay, r'm inthe key of E sninor and this [plays the second chord of the progression, Grajt3] is prob. ably a Gmaj6 or 4 major seventh with the Lith and ninth, ond Tean play these notes [plays the notes D. A and B in descending fourths onthe first, second and third strings inthe ninth position) ich easier to jus say some- Lo vournelf. What happens then £ requires discipline, but i's worth y= | Nas dicozraphy include songs such | | with Frank Zappa, “Ie all started with | FlOURE 30a Emad) rnai3 En(adis) Gait Ei(aki8) Bmat’3 Gin 2 pass Rif A four ines _fplay3tmony 7 = Grats Em(aca9) Gmais ir Enjed®) E(k} t= oa # ae = ¥ T —a | pe itt 6 @ } TRANSCRIBING used to transcribe orchestra scores for Frank, which was really hard to Jo because, acoustically, your ear ean iy three or fourdife sounds atone time. You have tobe ablete focus and concentrate on one # instrument among many. You can do thisby adjusting the EQ, listening to | the recordingin mono, using phase sscellation to hear eoreain things, licening to just one sie in mono, oF # flipping the channels over [reversing | thespeaker wiring or headphone place- £ ment) because you hear things iifier nti in each ear “Listening to things at half-speed hnolps tremendously. Is really veird, Jometimes you hear things a half is that you sare saying things thst are extremely personal, hat probably only yout enn cinderstind, but the personal- ity behind each phrase will reach your audience. [ell make your solo mean something very special anit add ‘certain fee to the way you play it, This teennique can be very useful for pulling yourself out of creative rut. (OFeourse, your frame of mind willbe Sictated by the rhythm, [es tricky and ing because isso expressive.” Bxamples of talking guitar” in as “Yankee Rose" with David Lee Roth and “The Dangerous Kitchen’ Zappa's ‘The Jazz Discharge Party Ha vl eva Rania hk peed that you neves woul’ thousht halétatking/al singing thing he | Nereon the recording. Using difer- ued todottmademe eatize hat |GET INTO IT. | ent tspedeck will change the sound, everything you do and say hes a pitch too. You mighe ind ome dek is etter that ean be translated into musie. IF for pulling the bottom out and the th {you take our eonversation right nox cris god forhearing the top end” znd puta metronome tof and stop Inetosing, Vai says, “Transcribing the tape on every sllabe you will is aform of meditation, When Livas findthat there are notes. 1o every doing i was 0 enthralled with it thing you say. Take those phrases nd and the Kea of working for Zappa rite them down in nation thac woul spend Helly 12 hours trying to capture the right inflec- day doing nrg bat tranccibing. tions ts extremely time consuming, Sometimes when you're listening Because i's really tough o get every apiece of tape, t sends you of into ile anes of talking onto man | another world When you concen script paper. ut you can even g0 50 trate on one thing for long enough, fara to orchestrate i you can relly got nto and develop Into differen: arene”