Playing the guitar is a lost art. It used to be all about composure, theory, and innovation. Nowadays, it's all just power chords and dominant vocalists. But, there is one guitarist who knows how to bring down the house. His name is
Steve Vai. He considers himself more of a composer than a guitarist. In his early days, he would challenge his fans to write him a musical score just to see if he could play it on the spot without any practice. Steve Vai is a modern day
Jimi Hendrix. Although they both have completely different music styles, they both have innovated the guitar dramatically. Not nearly as many people have heard of Steve Vai, but it is important to know about how he approaches music.
As I am typing this, I am listening to Steve Vai floating in bliss. Vai is a perfectionist, he virtually never misses a note. Steve bases all of his guitar playing off of music theory. He has an incredible knowledge of
music theory, something that I find boring. Although music theory is indeed boring (if you have never tried to learn about music theory, just a heads up: it is boring as fuck), it is vital to any person who ever wants to be a respected musician. Even
Michael Jackson, somebody known for his singing, knows the key to every single one of his songs.
Steve Vai is not only a virtuoso at theory, but he is also a very odd guitarist who has developed his own strange style. Just listen to Steve Vai's "Massacre", he is not only very fast and talented, he is also very unique. He takes the place of a vocalist who is always in key, something that is very loud. Often times, he emulates vocalists while still maintaining what still makes the electric guitar famous. Steve Vai's "The Audience is Listening", is a great example of Steve Vai emulating a vocalist. It really makes me wonder how Steve Vai got this good.
Ibanez guitars has jumped on Steve Vai with many endorsement deals and signature guitars. If you take a look at
Steve Vai's signature collection, you'll find guitars as odd as his playing style. I'm personally, a big fan of his beautiful fingerboards, even though I've never played one myself. I'm just itching to get my hands on one of these.
