Steve Vai was my first live music experience. Saw him when I was maybe 11, and there was about 200 people in attendance. The adults were nice and let me move to the front of the stage. I held my hand out for a high five, and Steve gave me his pink guitar pick he had for the tour. I was absolutely thrilled. I held that pick in my fist in my pocket the rest of the show. I gave it to my dad for Fathers Day. He gave it back to me for my birthday. It was a reoccurring theme until he passed, and I had it buried with him. Steve Vai has impacted me in more ways than musically.
I loved Vai after hearing Flex-Able, but Passion and Warfare completely blew my mind when it came out. He's been by far my favorite guitarist ever since.
I saw Steve last friday and one of my first thoughts after the show was “I hope Mike has a guitar techniques video on him.” I wanted to learn the ins and outs of his playing and knew you’d be the best to teach it. So excited to try to incorporate these techniques into my playing - thanks Mike!
Wow dude that was so great. I’m a huge fan of Steve too. I was in high school when passion and warfare came out and it blew my mind. There was no internet so I never had access to videos on how he played those songs. Until today. Seriously, thank you for making this video. Having you break down his techniques from this record is awesome. I’ve learned so much! Thanks man
That would be rad if Steve signs that book. There was a guy @ CRHS in '92 named Chris Munns that carried the Passion and Warfare tab book around to every class. He was the first guy I saw ripping Vai licks in person. Great video as usual Mikey!!
My favourite from Passion and Warfare is "Answers". Sounds to me that you'd be able to do a stunning cover of that song. You have SO many techniques down tight. Amazing playing Mike !
A dude in my guitar class showed me the notation for “The Riddle” from that very tab book. And then the intro to “The Audience is Listening”. Completely changed how I saw guitar from that moment on. I’ll be seeing him on the 30th. It’s great to see Vai still pushing boundaries with him playing “Teeth of the Hydra” live.
This channel is turning more and more into my favorite when it comes to really learning guitar things! You sir do an awesome job, I love how you explain things! Keep doing what you do, greetings from Germany 🤘🏾
Yess! I've been looking forward to this! Such an awesome video, I love these artist series. Hope you have a great time seeing Mr. Vai do his thing on Friday and get the book signed🤘🔥 Congrats on 762k Subscribers!
Hey man, I just wanted to say that I am enjoying your channel. It seems we have a ton of the same influences and experiences growing up in the 80s and 90s. Keep up the good work!
Just saw Steve Vai the other night at The Pageant in STL. He killed it, amazing show. You gotta look up Larry Mitchell, the guy that opened for him, dude was awesome. Haven’t stopped listening to him since the show.
Hey art of guitar I love your content it’s very great do you think at some point you could do a Steve Clark and a Phil collen technique video there my favorite players and I would love to learn more about there techniques on the guitar
Good work on this video. Love the segment on talking guitar, sounds great with the wah pedal!. For any further artist videos, may I suggest: Geordie Walker (Killing Joke) Robert Smith (The Cure) John McGeough (Magazine/Siouxsie and the Banshees) Bones (Discharge/Broken Bones) Andy Gill (Gang of Four)
Your videos are great man! I love Steve’s playing and hope you got your book signed!! I just bought my first guitar with a Floyd Rose so I’m excited to learn these Steve Vai techniques! Thank you for posting these videos you’ve taught me a lot!!
Your videos are always so well produced and you're so fun to watch! I really appreciate you sharing your knowledge, passion and experience with the rest of us 💗
Wow man, I knew you were really good, but now you took it to another level. I never really got into Steve Vai, but you definitely did a great job show casing him. Awesome video.
This is great!!! My guitar teacher turned me on to Zappa and Vai the same way I turned him on to Mr. Bungle and TSOL... I took lessons with him from the time I was 15 till I was 18, then he kicked me out!!! Only because he no longer wanted to take my money for tabs I could've done myself. He wanted to teach me about music theory, I wasn't interested at the time, so he told me "I can't take your money anymore, unless you want to learn theory, there's nothing more I can teach you." My guitar teacher was THE MAN!!! He would LITERALLY wear a Darth Vadar mask and breathe heavy during a student's first lesson!!! I halfway saw it! Steve Vai was also the only instrumental artist that I owned 5 cd's of. I'm not talking about "Sex and Religion". Good album, don't get me wrong, but I've never owned that one. My guitar teacher Bob, even came to my dad's funeral... He's a GREAT person that loves to share music.
Steve Vai is a great artist, not just a guitar player: recognizable not just for his tone, but his technique is so original, especially his use of the whammy bar. I also have the Passion and Warfare book, I remember creating on the Digitech GSP2101 a patch to recreate the Ballerina 12/24 pitch delay. Btw, congrats for the recreation of the talk part of "Audience is listening"! Nailed it completely!
That “open string support” idea works *really* well in certain keys that aren’t C or G. If you can work a few open strings in a key that naturally creates a tritone, b9, etc. (Bb-, Eb-, F-), it creates some really incredible “out” type lines while bringing you RIGHT BACK as soon as you fret another note. You’ll occasionally get some modal flavors too…little bit of Dorian, little Phrygian. The key is to do it quickly and with authority.
Hey man this technique is fairly new that vai does but it’s called the double joint shifting technique. It’s dope check it out from his new album, the song he does it on is candlepower
In all seriousness, love this. Could you do one on Jason Becker? I know his career was way shorter but he definitely had a style and sound that was developing.
Man this is awesome , you should do a course incorporating these techniques ,some theory & thinking behind them & a bit more detail . Thanks ,enjoy your videos
3:04 is a pretty common sweep picking idea that a lot of guitarists use. Jason Becker does it, Marty Friedman does it, I think I've heard yngwie do it too
I'm a bass player that has been inspired by Mr Via. There isn't another guitar player that can express themselves like he does. He inspired me so much I went and made a small investment by buying a Jem Jr. I'm in a couple of bands playing bass but in church I've been playing guitar. Not a lot of solos in church but I do throw in some Via inspired licks in . I must say by watching this video I have learned some new things I'm going to throw in to give God glory. Thanks bro
OO - you forgot.the kitties from the Kittens Got Claws! This is a fantastic video for Steve in case he ever needs a refresher on himself. He may not sign your book unless you sign his guitar. Did you ever notice how Steve played a little tribute at the beginning of the Audience solo to the similarly themed Hot For Teacher because Ed's solo has that pull off lick from the 2nd to 5th fret back to the 2nd and then open on the B string. Favorite Steve Vai solo for me, either Hot Dog and a Shake or Deep Down Into the Pain.
I enjoyed this video. Your break downs on this really helps. I am also a Vai fan. So without any further ado could you do at least another Vai video? ( In the style of James Brown) please...please.. please. I just had to add that last part in.
Damn started guitar a few months ago,really kept at it and made some good progress but those techniques are so far beyond my reach really motivated my to get there one day
Idk if u remember but my name used to be Lee on an old yt account and ur streams used to help me get through life with your streams, like quite literally I would watch your live streams and videos and somehow feel better about life. Anyways idk if u still do live streams but it would be great to see one live again. And if I remember correctly your name is Mike anyways dude u helped me a lot like a year or over ago, I love the stuff you do to this day
Great job as always, love your sense for details, always did. It would be great if you ever decide to do Billy Gibbons greatest techniques, don't know how much are you familiar with his playing especially with his early work and if you listen carefully you can find so many great things. The guy is a library of cool tricks, very percussive, groovy and weird in his own way. People tend to label him as a sloppy player, but they also undermine Kurt Cobain as a guitar player. Anyway great Vai techniques coverage, whish you all the best dude.
i was 18 or so and was sick. My mom went to the store and she said "I got you a magazine with that Stevie Ray guy you always talk about" it was Guitar World with Steve Vai , had Eugenes Trick Bag tabbed in it.
Awesome as always man, I’d love to see an Artist Series video on Daron Malakian from Syatem of a Down in a future instalment or Zakk Wylde if you haven’t talked about him yet
Did you have to adjust the height of your pickups to get clarity with the natural harmonics and what is your signal chain, your tone is super clean with high gain and I love it, I am currently working in my time and vai songs as well
Hi Mike! After watching your new video about kings of downstrocke, I am interested in Kirk Hammett's downstroke technique. Could you, please, tell us some more about it? Also that would be great if you do a video about greatest Gilbert's or Malmsteen's techniques, I really enjoy this type of your content! Thanks.
I asked Steve about the Fish scale in Alien water kiss. Steve had a good laugh when I joked about it. He signed the page and had a chuckle explaining what it actually was.
Could you do something similar to this for the band Her’s? I saw you commented on one of their videos, so if you’re a fan of them it would be cool to see. Thanks Mike
I also consider Steve Vai to be one of my influences. I don't know that it comes through a lot, but . . . I actually wanted a 7-string guitar specifically because of Steve Vai.
Steve is one of those legendary guitars prodigy of frank zappa who probably wrote the most technical music ever he refuses alternate picking speed and shred making statements saying his pick doesn't go over certain speed and doesn't want to known as a shredder strange statements coming from one of the original 80s shredder
0:45 Bad Horsie Effect
1:13 Melodic Bend-Taps
1:42 Theremin Effect
2:06 Slidegato
2:43 Alt Finger Tapping
2:52 Arpeggio Rakes
3:19 Full Legato Walk-Downs
3:36 G-String Killer
4:02 Open String Support
4:48 Touch Harmonics
5:21 Bar-Dip Slides
6:05 Octave Runs
6:50 Dynamic Alterations
7:31 Unison Bends
8:26 Circular Vibrato
9:00 Finger Exchange
9:31 Exotic Hammer-Slides
10:24 Pinch Harmonic Slide
10:50 Trem Bar Boost
11:20 Giant Leaps
11:44 Talking Guitar
12:29 Screaming Double-Stops
12:44 Open-String Trem Slides
13:00 Bar Flutters
13:28 Contrary Slides
13:44 Walking Bass Runs
14:13 Record Startup Effect
14:55 Harmonic Integration
15:29 Hendrix Fills
Doing god’s work
Steve Vai was my first live music experience. Saw him when I was maybe 11, and there was about 200 people in attendance. The adults were nice and let me move to the front of the stage. I held my hand out for a high five, and Steve gave me his pink guitar pick he had for the tour. I was absolutely thrilled. I held that pick in my fist in my pocket the rest of the show. I gave it to my dad for Fathers Day. He gave it back to me for my birthday. It was a reoccurring theme until he passed, and I had it buried with him. Steve Vai has impacted me in more ways than musically.
That’s a beautiful story.
I loved Vai after hearing Flex-Able, but Passion and Warfare completely blew my mind when it came out. He's been by far my favorite guitarist ever since.
I saw Steve last friday and one of my first thoughts after the show was “I hope Mike has a guitar techniques video on him.” I wanted to learn the ins and outs of his playing and knew you’d be the best to teach it. So excited to try to incorporate these techniques into my playing - thanks Mike!
Vai will forever be one of the best and most creative guitarists
Buckethead is the best
@@joeygouda I’m inclined to agree with you, hold me forever is the single greatest moment of guitar expression
Wow dude that was so great. I’m a huge fan of Steve too.
I was in high school when passion and warfare came out and it blew my mind.
There was no internet so I never had access to videos on how he played those songs. Until today. Seriously, thank you for making this video. Having you break down his techniques from this record is awesome. I’ve learned so much! Thanks man
You've really inspired me to play guitar and now I'm going on two years of playing you've me helped alot!!!
11:59
When the guitar said: wamp wamp.... I really felt that.
That would be rad if Steve signs that book. There was a guy @ CRHS in '92 named Chris Munns that carried the Passion and Warfare tab book around to every class. He was the first guy I saw ripping Vai licks in person.
Great video as usual Mikey!!
My favourite from Passion and Warfare is "Answers". Sounds to me that you'd be able to do a stunning cover of that song. You have SO many techniques down tight. Amazing playing Mike !
A dude in my guitar class showed me the notation for “The Riddle” from that very tab book. And then the intro to “The Audience is Listening”. Completely changed how I saw guitar from that moment on. I’ll be seeing him on the 30th. It’s great to see Vai still pushing boundaries with him playing “Teeth of the Hydra” live.
Best video on Steve Vai techinique ever on TH-cam !
Thanks !
This is hands down the best Vai style tutorial I've ever watched and I love how quick and efficient you are with time. Bravo
This channel is turning more and more into my favorite when it comes to really learning guitar things! You sir do an awesome job, I love how you explain things! Keep doing what you do, greetings from Germany 🤘🏾
Yess! I've been looking forward to this! Such an awesome video, I love these artist series. Hope you have a great time seeing Mr. Vai do his thing on Friday and get the book signed🤘🔥 Congrats on 762k Subscribers!
Hey man, I just wanted to say that I am enjoying your channel. It seems we have a ton of the same influences and experiences growing up in the 80s and 90s. Keep up the good work!
Just saw Steve Vai the other night at The Pageant in STL. He killed it, amazing show. You gotta look up Larry Mitchell, the guy that opened for him, dude was awesome. Haven’t stopped listening to him since the show.
I cannot help but LOVE the lunacy of Vai's guitar playing! He makes guitar so much fun to play! :)
Thanks for another great video. These artist videos help to see guitar from another angle
Hey art of guitar I love your content it’s very great do you think at some point you could do a Steve Clark and a Phil collen technique video there my favorite players and I would love to learn more about there techniques on the guitar
Definitely one of the better Steve Vai technique videos I've seen. Very useful. Thank You.
Good work on this video. Love the segment on talking guitar, sounds great with the wah pedal!.
For any further artist videos, may I suggest:
Geordie Walker (Killing Joke)
Robert Smith (The Cure)
John McGeough (Magazine/Siouxsie and the Banshees)
Bones (Discharge/Broken Bones)
Andy Gill (Gang of Four)
Your videos are great man! I love Steve’s playing and hope you got your book signed!! I just bought my first guitar with a Floyd Rose so I’m excited to learn these Steve Vai techniques! Thank you for posting these videos you’ve taught me a lot!!
Great video! Steve is a wizard and it is cool to see some of his stuff broken down 👍
Your videos are always so well produced and you're so fun to watch! I really appreciate you sharing your knowledge, passion and experience with the rest of us 💗
Wow man, I knew you were really good, but now you took it to another level. I never really got into Steve Vai, but you definitely did a great job show casing him.
Awesome video.
This is great!!! My guitar teacher turned me on to Zappa and Vai the same way I turned him on to Mr. Bungle and TSOL... I took lessons with him from the time I was 15 till I was 18, then he kicked me out!!! Only because he no longer wanted to take my money for tabs I could've done myself. He wanted to teach me about music theory, I wasn't interested at the time, so he told me "I can't take your money anymore, unless you want to learn theory, there's nothing more I can teach you." My guitar teacher was THE MAN!!! He would LITERALLY wear a Darth Vadar mask and breathe heavy during a student's first lesson!!! I halfway saw it! Steve Vai was also the only instrumental artist that I owned 5 cd's of. I'm not talking about "Sex and Religion". Good album, don't get me wrong, but I've never owned that one. My guitar teacher Bob, even came to my dad's funeral... He's a GREAT person that loves to share music.
Great video Mike! Thank you!
Steve Vai is a great artist, not just a guitar player: recognizable not just for his tone, but his technique is so original, especially his use of the whammy bar. I also have the Passion and Warfare book, I remember creating on the Digitech GSP2101 a patch to recreate the Ballerina 12/24 pitch delay. Btw, congrats for the recreation of the talk part of "Audience is listening"! Nailed it completely!
That “open string support” idea works *really* well in certain keys that aren’t C or G. If you can work a few open strings in a key that naturally creates a tritone, b9, etc. (Bb-, Eb-, F-), it creates some really incredible “out” type lines while bringing you RIGHT BACK as soon as you fret another note. You’ll occasionally get some modal flavors too…little bit of Dorian, little Phrygian. The key is to do it quickly and with authority.
Well done on this, great job
Hey man this technique is fairly new that vai does but it’s called the double joint shifting technique. It’s dope check it out from his new album, the song he does it on is candlepower
Great vid man. You definitely got vai down!!! Thanks for showing all these cool techniques!
Woooo, love your artist series!
Love this series , Mike! Glad they are back, and about one of the kings..Steve Vai..
Thanks a lot!
In all seriousness, love this. Could you do one on Jason Becker? I know his career was way shorter but he definitely had a style and sound that was developing.
Nice video. Thank you for share it.
That was fantastic man
Man this is awesome , you should do a course incorporating these techniques ,some theory & thinking behind them & a bit more detail . Thanks ,enjoy your videos
I saw steve and met him a couple of weeks ago. Great show and super nice guy. He would definitely sign the book for you.
What a coincidence. I got exactly same book for my birthday. Very nice presentation in this video. Thumbs up.
3:04 is a pretty common sweep picking idea that a lot of guitarists use. Jason Becker does it, Marty Friedman does it, I think I've heard yngwie do it too
Muitíssimo obrigado pela dica 😎 ganhou mais um inscrito.
Pretty cool stuff man
AWESOME, THANKS
I'm a bass player that has been inspired by Mr Via. There isn't another guitar player that can express themselves like he does. He inspired me so much I went and made a small investment by buying a Jem Jr. I'm in a couple of bands playing bass but in church I've been playing guitar. Not a lot of solos in church but I do throw in some Via inspired licks in . I must say by watching this video I have learned some new things I'm going to throw in to give God glory. Thanks bro
Great playing! Really nailing that Vai tone and feel here.
OO - you forgot.the kitties from the Kittens Got Claws!
This is a fantastic video for Steve in case he ever needs a refresher on himself. He may not sign your book unless you sign his guitar. Did you ever notice how Steve played a little tribute at the beginning of the Audience solo to the similarly themed Hot For Teacher because Ed's solo has that pull off lick from the 2nd to 5th fret back to the 2nd and then open on the B string.
Favorite Steve Vai solo for me, either Hot Dog and a Shake or Deep Down Into the Pain.
Steve Vai... freaking genius
Great vid!
Congratulations🎸
I love videos like this, do more of them :)
Man I wish I could make it to that show this Friday!
I enjoyed this video. Your break downs on this really helps. I am also a Vai fan. So without any further ado could you do at least another Vai video? ( In the style of James Brown) please...please.. please. I just had to add that last part in.
Damn started guitar a few months ago,really kept at it and made some good progress but those techniques are so far beyond my reach really motivated my to get there one day
Great video man. What pedals are you using?
If you show him this video maybe he will sign the book. These videos are always so great
I really hope you can get your tab-book signed! ☺
Met Steve down at the carvin guitar factory in the early 2000s. Got his autograph and got to watch him play live in front of a small audience.
Idk if u remember but my name used to be Lee on an old yt account and ur streams used to help me get through life with your streams, like quite literally I would watch your live streams and videos and somehow feel better about life. Anyways idk if u still do live streams but it would be great to see one live again. And if I remember correctly your name is Mike anyways dude u helped me a lot like a year or over ago, I love the stuff you do to this day
I remember you Lee! Hope you’re well. Gonna be doing more livestreams soon. Probably Thanksgiving weekend. 👍👍🎸
Great job as always, love your sense for details, always did. It would be great if you ever decide to do Billy Gibbons greatest techniques, don't know how much are you familiar with his playing especially with his early work and if you listen carefully you can find so many great things. The guy is a library of cool tricks, very percussive, groovy and weird in his own way. People tend to label him as a sloppy player, but they also undermine Kurt Cobain as a guitar player. Anyway great Vai techniques coverage, whish you all the best dude.
i was 18 or so and was sick. My mom went to the store and she said "I got you a magazine with that Stevie Ray guy you always talk about" it was Guitar World with Steve Vai , had Eugenes Trick Bag tabbed in it.
Great video Mike! I know he's a hard player to emulate, but I'd love to see you cover Jeff Beck one of these days
I just saw steve vai live absolutely insane
Awesome as always man, I’d love to see an Artist Series video on Daron Malakian from Syatem of a Down in a future instalment or Zakk Wylde if you haven’t talked about him yet
I'm learning Liberty now. I can't play those runs fast yet but I'll get there.
The “talking guitar” thing always gets me to laugh. It’s an awesome concept
Did you have to adjust the height of your pickups to get clarity with the natural harmonics and what is your signal chain, your tone is super clean with high gain and I love it, I am currently working in my time and vai songs as well
Did anybody else learn some of these things by way of Alexi Laiho first? I realised much later how much he took from Steve. Fantastic video btw.
really nailed steves sound! also is that a jessica jones shirt?
I'm gonna be at that show too at the Fitz!
Hi Mike! After watching your new video about kings of downstrocke, I am interested in Kirk Hammett's downstroke technique. Could you, please, tell us some more about it? Also that would be great if you do a video about greatest Gilbert's or Malmsteen's techniques, I really enjoy this type of your content! Thanks.
He’s already done a Metallica technique video and I think he talks about it there
I saw him years ago and got him to sign a Frank Zappa DVD (with Vai on the DVD). He was very nice and seemed to like signing that old DVD.
I asked Steve about the Fish scale in Alien water kiss. Steve had a good laugh when I joked about it. He signed the page and had a chuckle explaining what it actually was.
Using a sustainiac pickup with the whammy bar is another one. Whispering a Prayer sounds like the guitar is singing/crying.
Could you do something similar to this for the band Her’s? I saw you commented on one of their videos, so if you’re a fan of them it would be cool to see. Thanks Mike
To show my age (47), Passion & Warfare was the first CD I ever bought. I bought Nelson at the same time but we don’t need to discuss that.
Hey I loved After the Rain. ☺️
Do Tom Scholz of Boston for the next artist series.
Going to the same show!
13:42 - sounds like something Kirk Hammett once said lol
13:42 Just you and kirk 🤣🤣
13:42
“Is it just me or does everything sound cooler with wah pedal?”
No, it’s definitely not just you. Kirk Hammett would agree 100%
I also consider Steve Vai to be one of my influences. I don't know that it comes through a lot, but . . . I actually wanted a 7-string guitar specifically because of Steve Vai.
15:39 i love how it just cuts to him staring into nothingness
That legato line sounds like if Steve played the solo of Echo by Joe Satriani :D
First! Nice video I’ll be watching today. I got a Pia 2 days ago… :P
the white or the black one? (or one of the other limited edition colours?)
@@davidvanderhoeven8560 Black. There was only black in stock no Blue or White. And 2020’s already sold before…
Could you do Joe Satriani next?
suggestion: techniques of chris poland
Fuck ya!!!! U sound fuckin great
Can you do , I have suggestions. Din spitz and the guitarist from extreme
Did he sign it ????
Steve is one of those legendary guitars prodigy of frank zappa who probably wrote the most technical music ever he refuses alternate picking speed and shred making statements saying his pick doesn't go over certain speed and doesn't want to known as a shredder strange statements coming from one of the original 80s shredder
We don't use bars no more only to get drunk, I love my Digitech RP7 Pedal board
Techniques of Eric Johnson, please.
8:27 missed a chance to call that VAIbrato
Dammit!!
Sisters is really good. Sounds like elevator music at times,but keeps your ear!
Does he signed the book?
Hi. 👋
You should do mick ronson
Just watch any solo by Mrs. Smith. She covers all 29, as well as 17 others Vai doesn't know yet.