Saw Steve Vai Saturday and asked him about the axe...

fatandugly

fatandugly

Experienced
Had the great fortune to attend Steve Vai's Alien Guitar Secrets Masterclass at Jemfest in Orlando, FL this weekend, and I asked him if he would share some of his patches with us on the Fractal site. He said that he has not gotten into the Axe with enough depth to have a patch he is ready to share, but that he would when he did. He said he is just getting into composing for his next project for the Holland Symphony that will be performed in October, so his time with the guitar and the Axe is limited lately :(

If you get the chance to attend one of these, it is an AMAZING experience. I've always been a huge Vai fan and viewed him as some sort of mythical creature, so the opportunity to sit 10 feet from him for 5 hours was unbelievable. He was funny and charming, with a great speaking style and had a very welcoming attitude. He played 3 songs and covered ton's of stuff about his playing, practice advice, stories about his career (lot's of funny Zappa stories), music biz tips, songwriting methods, etc. He spent the first part covering ways to get your mind thinking positively about playing (and life), to maximize your approach and playing time with the guitar. Played examples of some song ideas he is working on from his iPhone, to show his thought process when creating things and how he captures ideas. He encouraged our participation and welcomed any questions we had. Just the most gracious guy you could imagine. It exceeded everything I thought it would be by a mile.
 
I'm sure you looked just like your avatar picture during that whole clinic too, I know I would've. :lol:

Cool experience, thanks for sharing.
 
I got a chance to see him up close a few years back after a show. He's shorter than he seems on stage. Still pretty tall, but those freakishly long fingers look a lot less freakish in person. It was a 3G show, and he was the only lead guitarist to actually come out and talk to the fans. Yngwie had his security people bring fans one by one to his bus (what a douche), and Satch didn't come out to the fans at all. Steve did come out (after taking a shower it seems, and it was pretty cold outside) and spent a good 15 minutes with the fans, maybe more.
 
That would be too cool to meet Steve and see him play in that context.

If you don't mind me asking, how do you get signed up to attend a clinic and what are the costs?
 
Thanks for sharing... what an experience it must have been. I wish we could download your memory bank in MP3 format. :mrgreen:
 
There is not a word to express how really amazing it was...still replaying it in my mind.

"If you don't mind me asking, how do you get signed up to attend a clinic and what are the costs?"
I heard about it via his twitter feed. It was $199 + tix fee = $211 total, so basically $42.11/hour. Without a doubt the best $211 I've ever spent.

"That's amazingly cool. Can you recall any stories, Zappa stories and the like, unless it's improper to share."
He spoke about Frank with great reverence and love. He spoke about how he started sending Frank tapes and then Frank would send him music to transcribe ($10 per page). That led to Steve moving to LA where Frank put him on the payroll to transcribe his music and got him sarted in the business. He also Started letting Steve do some guitar work for him. He said even when he worked for Zappa he was still in awe of him...Zappa would walk in to the room and Steve would go "oh my god, there's Frank!" Steve described how frank would give him guitar parts to play and transcribe that Steve thought were just impossible to do on the guitar...he didn't understand at the time but Frank was not only "taking the piss out of him" but making him work his ass off to improve...frank saw his genius even before Steve saw it in himself (steve at no time said he thought he was a genius but that he had put in more hours playing the guitar than anyone else and thats how he got where he is. Steve said the guitar had never come easy for him "playing the guitar is hard".) He mentioned a specific song that i don't remember the name of (i don't know Zappa's catalog that well) where frank wanted him to transcribe and play vocalizations that frank had put on tape. This is how Steve learned to break down guitar goals into small pieces and work on things 1 note at a time if need be. this is also how he learned the technique where he talks with the guitar (yankee rose, ya yo gak, etc.) it took him months to get right so when he was finally ready and presented it to Frank, Frank instead of just listening to what Steve had come up with and praising him, made him go in the recording room and actually put it on tape with the song while Frank watched. Steve did it perfectly on the first take...frank then said "double it". So even on things that Frank was blown away on, he would constantly challenge all his musicians. Steve said that kind of stuff happened a lot..."play this passage in 23/32 time...ok, now do it reggae style...now just accent the 3." he said Frank was kind of a curmudgeon & mean sometimes, but in a constructive way. All the guys in his band loved frank like a father. he also spoke fondly a bit about his time with DLR...dave's a handful, but smart as a whip and taught Steve how to keep himself in shape on the road. he also mentioned Billy Sheehan contacted him recently about a project that they are probably going to do together.

"I'm sure you looked just like your avatar picture during that whole clinic too, I know I would've."
Absolutely! I now know exactly what a 12 year old girl feels like seeing Justin Bieber...I was 100% starstruck. Steve immediately made us all feel like peers though to break down our own inhibitions. He is really an excellent public speaker...very inspiring and funny.

"Thanks for sharing... what an experience it must have been. I wish we could download your memory bank in MP3 format"
Me too! I'm trying to replay it daily to keep it in my mind. I took extensive notes...there was so much info crammed into the time it was hard to ingest it all. If he released this as a book or multiple dvd's it would be an excellent reference on his career and his unique approach to music and life. But to actually sit a few feet from him and watch and feel him play was just the best experience imaginable.
 
fatandugly said:
He spoke about Frank with great reverence and love. He spoke about how he started sending Frank tapes and then Frank would send him music to transcribe ($10 per page). That led to Steve moving to LA where Frank put him on the payroll to transcribe his music and got him sarted in the business. He also Started letting Steve do some guitar work for him. He said even when he worked for Zappa he was still in awe of him...Zappa would walk in to the room and Steve would go "oh my god, there's Frank!" Steve described how frank would give him guitar parts to play and transcribe that Steve thought were just impossible to do on the guitar...he didn't understand at the time but Frank was not only "taking the piss out of him" but making him work his ass off to improve...frank saw his genius even before Steve saw it in himself (steve at no time said he thought he was a genius but that he had put in more hours playing the guitar than anyone else and thats how he got where he is. Steve said the guitar had never come easy for him "playing the guitar is hard".) He mentioned a specific song that i don't remember the name of (i don't know Zappa's catalog that well) where frank wanted him to transcribe and play vocalizations that frank had put on tape. This is how Steve learned to break down guitar goals into small pieces and work on things 1 note at a time if need be. this is also how he learned the technique where he talks with the guitar (yankee rose, ya yo gak, etc.) it took him months to get right so when he was finally ready and presented it to Frank, Frank instead of just listening to what Steve had come up with and praising him, made him go in the recording room and actually put it on tape with the song while Frank watched. Steve did it perfectly on the first take...frank then said "double it". So even on things that Frank was blown away on, he would constantly challenge all his musicians. Steve said that kind of stuff happened a lot..."play this passage in 23/32 time...ok, now do it reggae style...now just accent the 3." he said Frank was kind of a curmudgeon & mean sometimes, but in a constructive way. All the guys in his band loved frank like a father. he also spoke fondly a bit about his time with DLR...dave's a handful, but smart as a whip and taught Steve how to keep himself in shape on the road. he also mentioned Billy Sheehan contacted him recently about a project that they are probably going to do together.
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That's amazing. Thank you so much! I say the same thing regarding the hard work. I don't put a lot of stock in pure talent. Sure there's talent. But none of it means anything without the incredible work ethic needed to play well. Long hours and KNOWING HOW to practice. It's good to hear HIM say that. And breaking things down into smaller, bite sized chunks. Don't look at the whole piece, just the little difficult bits.

I've always been a big fan of Zappa. I can only imagine what that would have been like. How fortunate to have him mentor you along the way! Amazing.
 
DO tell what he said about feeling positive about your guitar playing/life. Got the snot kicked out of me by a 21 year old and I've been playing guitar onger than he's been drawing breath.
 
tweedster said:
DO tell what he said about feeling positive about your guitar playing/life. Got the snot kicked out of me by a 21 year old and I've been playing guitar onger than he's been drawing breath.
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I doubt that would be Vai's problem! :lol:

I have suggestions . . .
 
Syrinx said:
fatandugly said:
I heard about it via his twitter feed. It was $199 + tix fee = $211 total, so basically $42.11/hour. Without a doubt the best $211 I've ever spent.
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No doubt!
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+1


I looked up some info on this.

The class allows around 150 students. 40 grand for a few hours of work !!!

Not bad Steve !
 
Did he mention working with Ozzy at all?

He said once, years ago now, that he spent a week in the studio with Ozzy and loved it, but that he doubted the material they came up with would ever come out.

I always found that hard to believe, because well ... it's Ozzy. Are they really equals/peers even?
 
Also "Dyin Day" from Fire Garden was written for a never-released Ozzy album, it had vocals but was recycled for Vai's album (and it's awesome by the way)
 
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