Steve Vai Interviewed by Justin Sandercoe (Guitar Lesson MA-005) How to play

Justin's Completely Free Guitar Lessons.
This is Lesson MA-005, A masterclass with Steve Vai.

I met up with Steve at Guitar Nation 2010 and did this interview. He mostly talks about practice and how he approaches it.

After this I interviewed him live in from of an Audience for 90 minutes - it was really cool to meet one of my childhood guitar hero's and ask him all the things I've been wondering for the last 20 years! He was a real nice guy, down to earth and fun.

He's got a cool web site with guitar advice and lesson kinda stuff too:

http://www.vai.com

Find the related course notes on the following link:
http://justinguitar.com/en/MA-005-SteveVai.php

Thanks to the Jedi for coming in and filming :)) Cheers cobba!

Taught by Justin Sandercoe.

Full support at the justinguitar web site where you will find hundreds of lessons on a wide range of subjects, and all the scales and chords that you will ever need! There is a great forum too to get help, no matter what the problem.

And it is all totally free, no bull. No sample lessons, no memberships, no free ebook. Just tons of great lessons :)

To get help with this lesson (and for further info and tabs), find the Lesson ID in the video title (like ST-667 or whatever) and then look it up on the Lesson Index page of justinguitar.com

http://www.justinguitar.com

Have fun :)

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Steve, it's a real pleasure to meet you,

Thank you for allowing to do an interview.

I wanted to talk
a little bit about practicing,

and I found your 10-hour workout
to be really inspirational.

So, I was wondering where you got
the idea for a 10-hour workout,

and how long you did it for.

- Well, when I was younger
I just was always in love with the guitar;

to me it was just a beautiful thing.

And... at that time there was
a lot of different things...

... going on in the world in the way of
distractions for a young person.

I didn't have nearly the distractions
that young kids have now.

But, I loved the idea of
picking up the instrument...

... and not being able to play something,
and then working on it;

and then all of a sudden
being able to do it.

That gave me the sense of achievement
and accomplishment...

... that I wasn't getting at elsewhere.

And plus I was making music,
that actually sounded cool.

So, I dedicated all the time I had to it.

To me playing the guitar was just
kind of like a little release.

And I was very shy, actually,
and kind of insecure.

I didn't want to tell
anybody that I played.

Because where I came from,
if you played the guitar...

... either you were really cool
or you thought you were cool,

and I was neither.

I just found this... escape, so to speak.

And there was other things
going on in my life that...

... for playing the guitar
actually offered solitude.

So, that feeling of achievement
became very addictive.

Because the better you get,
the better you get.

And I just loved the idea
of just being able to play.

So, I'm very methodical in a sense, too.

And... I like to write lists
and break things down,

and be very organized.

So I developed these practicing schedules.

And they were based on:
for one hour I would do exercises...

... of a particular type.

Because for me it was like...
I knew that if I did it and worked on it,

I would just get better.

I wanted to understand music,
I always loved the idea of knowing...

... the language of music.

To me, music on paper was like art,
it looked beautiful.

You know, I could never really...

poetry was just words to me, at the time.

Art was just paint mixed together.

If I ever try to draw something
it's like stick figures.

I've got no talent whatsoever.

But music was just beautiful.

And it looked like art.

And I wanted to know what it meant,
I wanted to be able to control it,

I wanted to be able to... master it.

So I studied music, not just the guitar.

And I was composing before
I was even playing the guitar.

Once I got the guitar, you know...

I heard Led Zeppelin and it was all over.

So I actually broke down
my practicing time,

'cause I thought: "I want to be able
to do this, I want to be able to do that."

I never wanted to be genre-specific.

I never wanted to be a blues player,
or a jazz player, or a classical player.

As a matter of fact,
I loved listening to all that stuff,

and I would play it.

And I played my Jimi Hendrix songs,
my Led Zeppelin songs.

But when it came time
to actually do my thing,

it always felt really weird to me
to play anything that anybody else...

... had ever played.

Because, first of all, why?
They do it so much better.

And second of all,
how cool is it to just do things...

... that you haven't heard?

And it wasn't out of any pretentious
kind of a frame of mind;

I never expected anything to come of it.

As a matter of fact, when I was a kid
I was scared to death of being famous,

I don't know why.

That would actually keep me up at night.

But I would also sit and imagine myself
playing in front of a lot of people.

And I would actually...
create this picture of this person.

I'd lie in bed with the headphones on
and listen to all my favorite music,

and I would just create this character.

And this character was like,
this enigmatic, completely in control,

confident from head to toe...
command of the instrument.

And I pictured the playing just like
elegant, and effortless and completely...

... something that...
it was almost like unseen or unheard.

But I would never be pretentious enough
to think that I could do that,

but that was the picture I created;
and you perpetuate your own reality.

So, a lot of the things I do now...

... are a direct reflection of
what I envisioned as a kid.

But getting back to your question.

The 10-hour workout...
It was a lot more than 10 hours, actually.

The 10-hour workout was just
what I put in the magazine at the time.

But for me, it was every waking moment,

and whenever I wasn't
playing the guitar I was in pain,

everything else was boring...

You know, they say:

"But don't you miss doing this
and doing that?"

And you know, when you're absorbed
in something you don't miss anything;

everything else was work.

- It makes sense.
- But, having said that; that was my way.

And I enjoyed being very methodical
and breaking things down.

It's not necessarily
the way for everybody,

the way for you is what you feel.

The reason why I did 10-hour workouts
was because that's what excited me.

If you were going to take
any advice from me,

I would tell you to find the thing
that excites you the most,

and go after that.

Whether it's... just playing
a Led Zeppelin song,

and not practicing scales and...
You don't have to know music.

Tell Jeff Beck to play
an F# on the G string...

he might not know what it is,

or maybe he would know that, but you know,

great musicians don't necessarily
have to know about music.

The important thing is
to find what it is that excites you...

... and disregard what anybody else
is doing or saying,

and just go after that.

That's what you're going to be
the most successful at, also.

People always say to me:
"How do I get my music into the world...

... and how do I sell it?"

And the answer that I give is:

"Find the thing that you're natural
and really good at and then exaggerate it"

I never worked on my weaknesses,
I only worked on my strengths,

and I exaggerate them.

And that's how I get the particular voice
that I have on the instrument.

- I've read that you spent many,
many hours transcribing,

and that you found it almost meditative.

Is that something that you think
was a really beneficial period of your...

... kind of study, was that transcribing
Zappa solos and this kind of...

'Cause it's fairly hardcore transcribing,
so I'm guessing that you must have done...

... a lot of work to get to the point
to transcribe that stuff.

- Well, like I said, we all have
particular tools and natural talent.

For me, that very extremely complex
musical notation...

... just seemed to be very natural.

If you ever look at the
Frank Zappa Guitar Book,

that has all those transcriptions,
there's nothing like it in the world.

I've never seen anything quite as
rhythmically complex as that.

But it doesn't mean anything.

A part of it was my imagination
in the playground.

But I wouldn't say
you have to be able to do that.

- Not that, but do you think that
transcribing develops the relationship...

... between the sounds you hear
and how to make those sounds...

- Absolutely, the most important
connection that you have...

... is with your ear and your fingers.

Your emotional investment
in what you're doing can be thwarted...

... if you don't have the ability
to make it real through your fingers.

And the way that you do that
is to develop your ear.

Because your ear
is hearing things on the inside,

and then getting them out.

So, the closer of a relationship...

... that you have with your ears
and your instrument,

the easier it's going to be
to get your thoughts out.

And developing your ears
can be anything from...

I can give you a list of things
that really helps:

Sing what you play, you know what I mean?

Just sing the notes you play.
Sing something and then play it.

Listen to music that you like
and try to figure it out.

Transcribing, transcribing simple stuff.

It doesn't matter how difficult it is,
it's the ability to hear in your head...

... and then have it come right out.

And sometimes it takes discipline.

I did all those
wild transcriptions because...

... I liked the way
they looked on paper.

And I loved the idea of being able to
immortalize something...

... that's in the ether onto manuscript.

And it was a very artistic,
creative process...

... because I developed
articulations and guitar notations,

because at the time nobody was doing it,
there wasn't even tab.

- How long did you play for
before you felt you were able to...

... express yourself
through the instrument?

Or was that something you felt right at
the beginning, as soon as you

started playing, that you were really...
expressing yourself through that?

- Well, always and never.

Because the moment you pick up
an instrument and you do anything,

you're expressing yourself to a degree.

The moment I picked up a guitar
I knew that it was never going to end,

'cause there was no way I would ever
know everything I could know...

... or play everything I could play,

and maybe my chops suffer a bit now...

... because I don't sit and do
the exercises all day,

but other things have gotten much better.

As they say, as you mature
life experiences change,

your personality changes,
the way you express yourself changes.

So...

I always feel as though
it's an ongoing process,

and that's really exciting.

- You must be able to play though anything
that you can hear now, right?

- Well, no, because I always take myself
to the brink of my potential;

it changes constantly.

Because, once you can hear something...

See, I'll sit and this is
a constant exercise that I do with myself,

usually at night when I'm lying in bed.

I just imagine things that I can't do.

And you have to first imagine it
before you can do it,

but that's how you do it.

And not only imagine it,
then you have to see yourself doing it,

you have to actually use your inner eye
and visualize yourself doing it.

And like magic, it just starts to happen.

And once you've accomplished that,

there's no end.

Or maybe there's an end right now.

Cut! (laughs)

- It's been a real pleasure meeting you.
- Alright, thank you.