fatandugly
Experienced
No Ozzy stories...those would have been great.
"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."
OK...here we go...He spent probably the first hour and 45 minutes on positive thinking/motivation stuff which is great since I'm way into that and love hearing about how others apply these methods. My 2 cents...get the book a visionary life by Marc Allen if you like this kind of thing...the best I've read on putting inspiration and dreams into action using goals in a realistic, sensible and doable way without a bunch of mystical bs. Most of the stuff Steve covered is not new info as far as positive thinking goes, but it's interesting to see how Steve applies it and gives it his own twist. to see how a master of his craft utilized this thinking to achieve his goals is invaluable stuff. Several times he referred to the Henry Ford quote ""Whether You Think You Can or Can't, You're Right" about how thoughts direct how you act. These are from my notes so they may not be word for word but my paraphrase of his words. Some of his ideas when he talked in this vein:
Thoughts are things. you perpetuate your reality by what you think, so cultivate thoughts about what you want to achieve.
"every object in this room started as a thought" as he gestured to the chairs, walls, stage, etc. "These things did not just appear...someone had a desire and a thought to create a chair, and then harness those thoughts and put them into action to realize the goal of creating a chair."
Do musical meditations: focus on something you want to achieve using your mind and visualize yourself doing it exactly how you would like to do it, then develop a practice routine that moves you toward your goal.
99% of work is mental.
Sit and think about what you want to do but think about it in a positive way. if you think negative about a task or goal, you will hate to do it and then never achieve it. How gave examples of positive affirmations in this way...don't say you can't play the g major scale...say you are excited to learn to play it and that you know it will help you become a better musician by applying it to your experience. Someone in the class called it a jedi mind trick...Steve said it's not a trick, it's actually changing your thoughts...again, thoughts are things. to sum it up he said "think about what you want, NOT what you don't want." he gave the example of how he developed his circle vibrato by wanting to improve his vibrato. he would sit for hours, day after day just exploring a way to make a beautiful single note vibrato. he would play in a mirror to have not only a beautiful, musical vibrato but one that was visually pleasing as well..."elegant" is the word he used.
you have to cultivate excitement about your goal. keep it positive. turn negative thoughts into positives but be realistic about a goal.
he gave the example I used before about the zappa vocalization thing when he said you can only achieve what you believe you can achieve. He said originally he thought it was impossible to do what frank wanted and as long as he thought that he was never able to achieve it. when he changed he thinking and said the voice is really only pitches, i just need to figure out what pitch the notes are and start to work it out. when he got stuck on the different sounds of the words, that's when he started combining bends and the wah. he said it all started with believing he could do it.
it takes courage to pursue your dream. find out what it is you do best and capitalize on it.
be confident in whatever you do. he emphasized the difference between having an ego and being confident...ego = bad.
what we think becomes our reality. don't like how you feel? change your thinking.
steps to achieve a goal:
1. Pick a goal (what is the goal? note it IN DETAIL.)
2. visualize achieving it.
3. think positively about it. be excited about it. you CAN do it!
4. break the goal down into smaller pieces...little goals.
5. have focus and attention on that little piece. force yourself to focus on it. attention wanders? use will power to pull it back (see will power example below.)
6. when you get discouraged, visualize yourself in that positive place where you can play it.
7. practice, practice, practice and perfect each small piece, put the small pieces together and play it over and over to perfect it. he told us of his practice regimen where he had to play something perfectly 11 times in a row to consider it perfected. if he played it and made a mistake on attempt 10, he forced himself to go back to 1 and start all over.
he did a concentration/meditation exercise where we had to imaging a third eye in the middle of our forehead. Concentrate and think of nothing but the third eye. after a few moments naturally your mind wanders, so then he would say think of your left foot you do that for a couple seconds and then he said think of the third eye again. he said this was just to show that you can redirect your thoughts when your mind wanders. he applied this example to practice. he said if your mind wanders when you practice you are not fully realizing your practice time. like step 5 above, refocus your attention to the guitar (or whatever it is.) practicing is as much about the mind as the physical activity.
record yourself practicing and be critical of what you hear. how can i make this better? he always records his practice.
to improve your sound, imagine yourself sounding better.
dynamics are the key to interesting melodies.
for every great melody he has in a song he has ALWAYS sung that melody into a recorder and then figured out the chords and music later to put around that melody. he sang for the love of god melody as an example and showed how he then futzed around with chords to match to the melody. he explores melodies by scat singing over chords he plays and then matching the chords to the notes after he comes up with an interesting or pleasing melody.
there are no rules in music...whatever it takes. i was expecting him to cover at least some theory in the class, but there was practically zero theory covered. he said theory was crucial for him because he needed to understand how music worked, but it's not for everyone and cetainly not necessary. He cited holdsworth and jeff beck as examples. He did some transcription work for holdsworth during the zappa years and said allan is not a theory guy but can play ANYTHING. he said jeff beck would not know what certain obscure chords might be, but play it for him or show him and he will create the most amazing application of that chord in a song that anyone has ever heard. these guys were cited not to dis them in any way but to show that 2 guys who are among the greatest players ever did not need theory to become giants on the guitar. he said he hears guys all the time who know all the theory in the world but their playing is cold and unmusical.
you have to believe in your own music or no one else will. people only respond to what they hear based on the sincerity of the person who recorded it.
he wrapped up by repeating goal>>>>meditation (or thinking about it or whatever you want to call it)>>>>result
This is a fraction of what was in the class. Over a week later, I'm still trying to process that I just watched steve vai present all this for over 5 hours, 10 feet away from me. really amazing, inspiring and heady stuff...exactly what you would expect from the master. I did a TON of video from jemfest. Although no recording was allowed in the class, I have Steve later on the main stage talking about his inspiration for the jem and his unveiling of his personal floral 2 in a couple vids:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6s5SDA0OtEU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjsM5XncGbY
There were a ridiculous amount of world class players at Jemfest. Search my vids of Mike Martin (just signed by steve to favored nations...the vid of him breaking his whammy bar while windmilling the poor unsuspecting thing is particularly cool), Fernando Pareta from Argentina (smooth yet ripping bluesy playing), Tony Smotherman and the always great Rob Balducci.
Hope you guys can get something from my ramble.
Chuck
"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."
OK...here we go...He spent probably the first hour and 45 minutes on positive thinking/motivation stuff which is great since I'm way into that and love hearing about how others apply these methods. My 2 cents...get the book a visionary life by Marc Allen if you like this kind of thing...the best I've read on putting inspiration and dreams into action using goals in a realistic, sensible and doable way without a bunch of mystical bs. Most of the stuff Steve covered is not new info as far as positive thinking goes, but it's interesting to see how Steve applies it and gives it his own twist. to see how a master of his craft utilized this thinking to achieve his goals is invaluable stuff. Several times he referred to the Henry Ford quote ""Whether You Think You Can or Can't, You're Right" about how thoughts direct how you act. These are from my notes so they may not be word for word but my paraphrase of his words. Some of his ideas when he talked in this vein:
Thoughts are things. you perpetuate your reality by what you think, so cultivate thoughts about what you want to achieve.
"every object in this room started as a thought" as he gestured to the chairs, walls, stage, etc. "These things did not just appear...someone had a desire and a thought to create a chair, and then harness those thoughts and put them into action to realize the goal of creating a chair."
Do musical meditations: focus on something you want to achieve using your mind and visualize yourself doing it exactly how you would like to do it, then develop a practice routine that moves you toward your goal.
99% of work is mental.
Sit and think about what you want to do but think about it in a positive way. if you think negative about a task or goal, you will hate to do it and then never achieve it. How gave examples of positive affirmations in this way...don't say you can't play the g major scale...say you are excited to learn to play it and that you know it will help you become a better musician by applying it to your experience. Someone in the class called it a jedi mind trick...Steve said it's not a trick, it's actually changing your thoughts...again, thoughts are things. to sum it up he said "think about what you want, NOT what you don't want." he gave the example of how he developed his circle vibrato by wanting to improve his vibrato. he would sit for hours, day after day just exploring a way to make a beautiful single note vibrato. he would play in a mirror to have not only a beautiful, musical vibrato but one that was visually pleasing as well..."elegant" is the word he used.
you have to cultivate excitement about your goal. keep it positive. turn negative thoughts into positives but be realistic about a goal.
he gave the example I used before about the zappa vocalization thing when he said you can only achieve what you believe you can achieve. He said originally he thought it was impossible to do what frank wanted and as long as he thought that he was never able to achieve it. when he changed he thinking and said the voice is really only pitches, i just need to figure out what pitch the notes are and start to work it out. when he got stuck on the different sounds of the words, that's when he started combining bends and the wah. he said it all started with believing he could do it.
it takes courage to pursue your dream. find out what it is you do best and capitalize on it.
be confident in whatever you do. he emphasized the difference between having an ego and being confident...ego = bad.
what we think becomes our reality. don't like how you feel? change your thinking.
steps to achieve a goal:
1. Pick a goal (what is the goal? note it IN DETAIL.)
2. visualize achieving it.
3. think positively about it. be excited about it. you CAN do it!
4. break the goal down into smaller pieces...little goals.
5. have focus and attention on that little piece. force yourself to focus on it. attention wanders? use will power to pull it back (see will power example below.)
6. when you get discouraged, visualize yourself in that positive place where you can play it.
7. practice, practice, practice and perfect each small piece, put the small pieces together and play it over and over to perfect it. he told us of his practice regimen where he had to play something perfectly 11 times in a row to consider it perfected. if he played it and made a mistake on attempt 10, he forced himself to go back to 1 and start all over.
he did a concentration/meditation exercise where we had to imaging a third eye in the middle of our forehead. Concentrate and think of nothing but the third eye. after a few moments naturally your mind wanders, so then he would say think of your left foot you do that for a couple seconds and then he said think of the third eye again. he said this was just to show that you can redirect your thoughts when your mind wanders. he applied this example to practice. he said if your mind wanders when you practice you are not fully realizing your practice time. like step 5 above, refocus your attention to the guitar (or whatever it is.) practicing is as much about the mind as the physical activity.
record yourself practicing and be critical of what you hear. how can i make this better? he always records his practice.
to improve your sound, imagine yourself sounding better.
dynamics are the key to interesting melodies.
for every great melody he has in a song he has ALWAYS sung that melody into a recorder and then figured out the chords and music later to put around that melody. he sang for the love of god melody as an example and showed how he then futzed around with chords to match to the melody. he explores melodies by scat singing over chords he plays and then matching the chords to the notes after he comes up with an interesting or pleasing melody.
there are no rules in music...whatever it takes. i was expecting him to cover at least some theory in the class, but there was practically zero theory covered. he said theory was crucial for him because he needed to understand how music worked, but it's not for everyone and cetainly not necessary. He cited holdsworth and jeff beck as examples. He did some transcription work for holdsworth during the zappa years and said allan is not a theory guy but can play ANYTHING. he said jeff beck would not know what certain obscure chords might be, but play it for him or show him and he will create the most amazing application of that chord in a song that anyone has ever heard. these guys were cited not to dis them in any way but to show that 2 guys who are among the greatest players ever did not need theory to become giants on the guitar. he said he hears guys all the time who know all the theory in the world but their playing is cold and unmusical.
you have to believe in your own music or no one else will. people only respond to what they hear based on the sincerity of the person who recorded it.
he wrapped up by repeating goal>>>>meditation (or thinking about it or whatever you want to call it)>>>>result
This is a fraction of what was in the class. Over a week later, I'm still trying to process that I just watched steve vai present all this for over 5 hours, 10 feet away from me. really amazing, inspiring and heady stuff...exactly what you would expect from the master. I did a TON of video from jemfest. Although no recording was allowed in the class, I have Steve later on the main stage talking about his inspiration for the jem and his unveiling of his personal floral 2 in a couple vids:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6s5SDA0OtEU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjsM5XncGbY
There were a ridiculous amount of world class players at Jemfest. Search my vids of Mike Martin (just signed by steve to favored nations...the vid of him breaking his whammy bar while windmilling the poor unsuspecting thing is particularly cool), Fernando Pareta from Argentina (smooth yet ripping bluesy playing), Tony Smotherman and the always great Rob Balducci.
Hope you guys can get something from my ramble.
Chuck
