ok everyone.
watch this video of my boy steve vai recording a lead part to a new song on his new album thats coming out.

the reason why i like him so much is shown a bit in this video.
Its pure entertainment to watch how much flow are in his hands when he plays.

so go there and watch the video. Its quicktime video, and its the only video there at the moment.

http://www.vai.com/Sights...index.html

If u never cared for him because you thought he was some metal guy, he's like a great composer stuck in a rock guitarist body. very smart. and just look at how easy he makes it look.

tell me what ya think.

Thats pretty cool!

I love his smile.

He is the man! I understand how normal people cannot dig him, cause he is like musical masturbation even in the poppier songs, but he is in the top 5 of every guitarrist that digs hard rock playing. DO you have eny cover of him JEM? i try to play for the lvoe of god but i am lost on the bassy run in the middle of the song, that is too fast for me..

Well when I was in high school I use to play "For The Love of God", it wasn't perfect but it was good. I had a recording but it wasn't good quality, and i don't think i have it.

I kinda lost interest in learning his songs because I think of them like Miles Davis songs, the notes he plays are from his own emotions and I don't have much interest in learning them note by note.

But, I think I'm ready to make a great cover and post it here because his stuff is so interesting.

When I first learned that whole sweeping section in the "for the love of god" song, i was in heaven, in fact, i love it so much, u can hear bits of it in variations in my music.

theres a few songs of his i'm trying to pick from for a cover:
Touching Tongues- my top favorite, but my whammy pedal sucks and i would really have to make up for it.
For the love of god- its the classic, but I've lost interest in iy for sometime now.
The Riddle- aw man, this song is insane. has one of the fastest lines he has recorded in it. something like 20 NOTES PER SECOND!!!
Juice- This is such a raw song because the guitar is straight forward, can support itself without backround.

theres some others.

The one I would want to do the most is a new song of his, which is up for a grammy is "Whispering a Prayer"
Vai created a whole new guitar sound with it and it should win the grammy.
I've got a sustainiac system to BS it off too.
I don't have a backingtrack for it, so i would have to record the whole thing, which wouldn't be too hard either.

we'll see what happens.
[Edited 12/11/04 20:31pm]

I dont know some of this songs, i just gained more interested in him in the last few months. Now i can see how he stand among other shredders. But my favorite one is Eric Johnson, his phrasing is very unique and beautiful. That G3 formation with them and satch is heaven, couldnt be better. Not even with petrucci.

7salles said:

ya the G3 with eric johnson was 96'/97', so i wasn't even playing guitar then.
I like how with just his picking hand, he'll play harmonics where the neck pickup is, with his index finger while picking the string with his pick being held by his thumb and middle finger. he is very accurate.
But he said he was uncomfortable playing G3 even though he had fun.

I did see G3 with petrucci, in which he played a song he wrote for G3 "Damage Control" which is one of the coolest instrumentals I've heard.

And I saw G3 with Malmsteen, but Malmsteen was way too loud, yuk, It was hard to even listen to to him. but he played one of the most beautiful songs that night, 2nd to Vai's "whispering a prayer".

As I've said here a few times "Rescue Me Or Bury Me" is my favorite Vai solo.

The great thing about Steve in addition to his guitar playing is his composing.

He'll have these great chord progressions that show a lot of musical depth.

The average person may just think it's a lot of "just soloing" but there is more to it than that.

I first really noticed it more on the "Sex And Relgion" CD.

On The Alien Love Secrets CD the chord changes on "The God Eaters" are like, "Good Lord. What's that?"

I saw a transcription in Guitar Player and it had some complex (to me) chords.

cranshaw62 said:

Ur probably my new favorite org member ha

Sex and Religion is so underrated, in both by vai fans, and obviously general public. it also had a lot of songs that could have been popular hits.
"touching tongues" is amazing.
the chorus on "in my dreams" is awsome.
and yes the solo in "rescue me or bury me" is probably the music unique solo he has done in a recording. especially the tapping run down towards end of solo.

I consider his new song tho "whispering a prayer" to be his new "pruple rain", beating out "for the love of god"