steve Vai-bad Horsie

glug

This song gives me goose bumps

Explorerlover

I know exactly what you mean. This was one of my favourites when I went through quite a serious Vai phase. On the Live in Astoria DVD, he goes all out with laser pointers on his fingers, lights on his guitar and one serious floodlight type thing on his head. [couldn't see if that was the youtube? link you posted.]

Byron

saw the one on you-tube

Wow its good tho :O :O :O

Wizard

Sorry to ask a dof question, but what genre is this classified as?

andrewjbryson

On Bad horsie there are some definate hard elements : hard rock/ metal ,
but then there are his usual Shred/ Instumental Guitar elements too.

Its hard to put Vai in a specific genre.

He is mainly a instumental rock guitarist, but he dives into many other styles including metal, jazz, blues, eastern, world music, etc.

One must remember that Vai's style is the result of many great guitar players, the main 2 being : Joe Satriani and Frank Zappa.

He never had a "fixed style" but rather a set of recognizable characteristics in his playing :

"Legato, pinch harmonics and volume swells, whammy bar effects and sporadic outbursts on the instrument often using sweep-picking or finger tapping".

When I think of Vai , I also think of his "cheeky - slides" as he swerves in from one note to the next.

And of course the whammy controlled by the right hand ring finger/pinky while playing, just like Hank Marvin , but on Steroids...

andrewjbryson

Forgot to mention, another 2 big influences for Vai :

Jeff Beck and jazz fusion guitarist Allan Holdsworth

Byron

Its a really cool (heavy) song. Especially love the lights and laz0rz in the u-toob vid!

Bob-Dubery

andrewjbryson wrote: Forgot to mention, another 2 big influences for Vai :

Jeff Beck and jazz fusion guitarist Allan Holdsworth

I'd have thought a Hendrix influence was pretty obvious - especially in all that showmanship and feedback. I didn't watch right to the end. Does he set his axe on fire?

Silly question! Doing that these days would put you in contravention of all kinds of safety regulations (especially if you didn't submit form 13-a in triplicate and 21 days in advance) and result in fines and venues being closed (or closed to you).

Byron

don't you think it would be hard to play the fretboard with laser devices on your hand :O . I just thought of that now

Wizard

Wizard done some homework on Steve Vai - watched all the interviews, read the life story and listened to the music.
A seriously impressive musician.
I see he played with Frank Zappa for a while - was interesting listening to his audition with Zappa.

AlanRatcliffe

Where did you hear the actual audition?

Zappa: *Plays a piece* Play that.
Vai: *Plays it* Ok.
Zappa: Now play it in 7/8 time
Vai: *Plays it* Ok.
Zappa: Now play it in 7/8 reggae time.
Vai: ...Ok *plays it*
Zappa: Now play it like that and add this note up here.
Vai: You can't, that's physically impossible...no one could.
Zappa: Well, I hear Linda Ronstadt is looking for a guitarist.

:roflmao:

Wizard

Misled you - didn't hear the actual audition.
Just the following, which you've no doubt heard already: