Vai - Guitar Anthology tab book

B

Bakerman

Axe-Master
All new transcriptions, available now:

https://www.halleonard.com/product/156024/

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Amazon product ASIN 1495057674
 
I’ve always been curious how these transcriptions work? Surely, you’re not doing all of this by ear, are you? Did you work directly with Steve on this? This is something I’ve always wondered about.
 
I think most older tab books were done only by ear, newer ones like Bakerman's Dream Theater tab books they often get given isolated tracks, check youtube for live footage, and sometimes the artist might give it a final check over at the end ensure greater accuracy.
 
AndyOrr said:
I’ve always been curious how these transcriptions work? Surely, you’re not doing all of this by ear, are you? Did you work directly with Steve on this? This is something I’ve always wondered about.
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This was all by ear, plus checking many videos for positions/techniques. Sometimes a live video might only indicate he probably played something differently, like crossing strings where there was an obvious slide between notes on the album, so that's something to watch out for during that step. The Naked Tracks and a few iso tracks out there helped too. Steve didn't assist on this one, but I probably could have sent a few questions if totally stumped on any parts. He did see my "Candle Power" transcription before it went up (at guitarinstructor.com) and suggested rewriting vibrato on a chord as a 1/2 step bend & release in the first measure. (I'm not sure how much time he spent looking through the rest of it.)

There are exceptions like Dream Theater as Lurker mentioned, where we had isos and emailed or met with Petrucci for every book (since Octavarium in 2005, plus his first solo album and probably the new one soon). Brendon Small helped similarly for all the Dethklok books. It's probably more common to not do this kind of thing, at least with larger publishers.
 
Bakerman said:
This was all by ear, plus checking many videos for positions/techniques. Sometimes a live video might only indicate he probably played something differently, like crossing strings where there was an obvious slide between notes on the album, so that's something to watch out for during that step. The Naked Tracks and a few iso tracks out there helped too. Steve didn't assist on this one, but I probably could have sent a few questions if totally stumped on any parts. He did see my "Candle Power" transcription before it went up (at guitarinstructor.com) and suggested rewriting vibrato on a chord as a 1/2 step bend & release in the first measure. (I'm not sure how much time he spent looking through the rest of it.)

There are exceptions like Dream Theater as Lurker mentioned, where we had isos and emailed or met with Petrucci for every book (since Octavarium in 2005, plus his first solo album and probably the new one soon). Brendon Small helped similarly for all the Dethklok books. It's probably more common to not do this kind of thing, at least with larger publishers.
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That is beyond impressive. I mean, when you consider all the speed, dives, effects, etc., the dedication it takes just to copy Vai is impressive to me, but being able to tell the world what he’s playing... that’s mind blowing. What a cool thing to do.
 
That's some tough transcription work - I've always wondered who was doing these.

By any chance are you in the MKE area? I may know some of your Hal Leonard brethren....
 
Thanks, Andy & Harm.

FullThrottle64 said:
That's some tough transcription work - I've always wondered who was doing these.

By any chance are you in the MKE area? I may know some of your Hal Leonard brethren....
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No, I'm in MN but might recognize a name at least, if you know anyone at HL.
 
Bakerman said:
This was all by ear, plus checking many videos for positions/techniques.
Click to expand...
That you can glean anything from videos is amazing. I watch Vai play and it's as close to magic as I get in my life. The combination of theatrics and skill make it nigh impossible for me to ever figure out how the heck he makes his guitar do the things it does.

I guess that's why I should buy your book, eh? :D
 
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