jakedawgwhite88
Well-known member
A good way to view our practice and keep the inspiration alive!!!
- Thread starter jakedawgwhite88
- Start date
RocketRalf
Well-known member
So true. Thanks for that!
TNT
Well-known member
Man can you just imagine if Steve played EBMM, he is absolutley phenomenal! Because of the Ibanez "stuff" not sure if this thread will last (but he does play EB strings, I think?).
CHill
Well-known member
Thanks for posting this. Great words about the craft and inspiration. This is not about the tools, but about goals and reaching them, one bar at a time. Play on and enjoy the craft that is playing the guitar.
beej
Moderator
jakedawgwhite88
Well-known member
I love the bit about "I don't practice my weaknesses, I cultivate my strengths" I think its ok to work on technique but we are all individuals and know where we gravitate toward in our playing and its important to grow those aspects because that makes up our individuality. now I want to play my luke through my mark III
mesavox
Well-known member
I think for everyone it will be different. For me he didn't say practice weaknesses.. he said work on. I don't think he was addressing technical issues. We gravitate towards things, but for me, my weaknesses are math, being a farmer, being a cop would be a weakness. Determining what is a musical weakness, and what is just a difficult thing to work through... that's tricky. On one hand, I don't see me being Phil Keaggy anytime soon. On the other, I don't intend to live my whole life having never attempted to learn some of what he does.
Technically I have a weakness in piano, but I still work on it because I care about it. Not enough to put it above guitar, but I do still care. Classical guitar is a weakness, but I still care to keep improving. Those are issues of how one divides practice up. A guitar player like Vai can put classical things in a rock song, or jazz things, or country things. He's worked on them somewhere whether they are weaknesses in his own technique or not. That's why he later goes on to say that you push through them. Now, a complete hatred of classical guitar might start fitting into that bit of focusing on what you love that he talks about. But, in this day and age, making it as a musician is likely to include session work at some point for some amount of time.
I say this from having read Vai interviews since I was... I don't even know how young I was... lol He has always stressed the importance of continuing to widen your musical palate. Perhaps when a certain degree of virtuosity is reached one says that those other things are no longer worth cultivating, but it's tricky because there is still what should be considered a kind of standard repertoire for guitar (of which I have yet to achieve but Vai has most certainly far exceeded.)
I think there is a balance in what he is saying because yeah.. he hasn't grown a whole lot in the last 15 years as a guitar player. He's begun focusing on composition. But yet... he burst onto the scene with such a huge rep and skill, and that whole 10 hour workout he used to do was extremely broad.
With all that, I think the most important thing is steps. Conquer where you are. If you want to be a rock player... conquer that as best you can. If you like country and blues... well, a lot of things still fall under the same umbrella here. It's all techniques within a basic blues based and jazz based umbrella. If you want to be a jazz player too, it's going to take longer. But even here... there are basic classical things that fit in the rock umbrella. If you're not studying Chet Atkins and you want to be Steve Vai... you're not going to be Steve Vai until you have some understanding of what Chet does. (stylistically speaking here, no one is every going to be Vai lol)
The vision thing is VERY true. I can very specifically remember many instances of seeing how a pattern should go on the fretboard and seeing myself playing it and willing myself to do something I didn't know how to do. Letting what you hear take you over... it's there on the fretboard. Just get there. lol It is like walking. If you don't put your foot in front of you, you're going to stand there. But, if you want to run, you have to commit to that effort to throw your foot out farther and expelling that extra bit of energy. You may fall on your face for going to fast at first but, you gotta throw it out there.
This video shows why he is great. He moves and speaks with and in excellence. That is the key.
Technically I have a weakness in piano, but I still work on it because I care about it. Not enough to put it above guitar, but I do still care. Classical guitar is a weakness, but I still care to keep improving. Those are issues of how one divides practice up. A guitar player like Vai can put classical things in a rock song, or jazz things, or country things. He's worked on them somewhere whether they are weaknesses in his own technique or not. That's why he later goes on to say that you push through them. Now, a complete hatred of classical guitar might start fitting into that bit of focusing on what you love that he talks about. But, in this day and age, making it as a musician is likely to include session work at some point for some amount of time.
I say this from having read Vai interviews since I was... I don't even know how young I was... lol He has always stressed the importance of continuing to widen your musical palate. Perhaps when a certain degree of virtuosity is reached one says that those other things are no longer worth cultivating, but it's tricky because there is still what should be considered a kind of standard repertoire for guitar (of which I have yet to achieve but Vai has most certainly far exceeded.)
I think there is a balance in what he is saying because yeah.. he hasn't grown a whole lot in the last 15 years as a guitar player. He's begun focusing on composition. But yet... he burst onto the scene with such a huge rep and skill, and that whole 10 hour workout he used to do was extremely broad.
With all that, I think the most important thing is steps. Conquer where you are. If you want to be a rock player... conquer that as best you can. If you like country and blues... well, a lot of things still fall under the same umbrella here. It's all techniques within a basic blues based and jazz based umbrella. If you want to be a jazz player too, it's going to take longer. But even here... there are basic classical things that fit in the rock umbrella. If you're not studying Chet Atkins and you want to be Steve Vai... you're not going to be Steve Vai until you have some understanding of what Chet does. (stylistically speaking here, no one is every going to be Vai lol)
The vision thing is VERY true. I can very specifically remember many instances of seeing how a pattern should go on the fretboard and seeing myself playing it and willing myself to do something I didn't know how to do. Letting what you hear take you over... it's there on the fretboard. Just get there. lol It is like walking. If you don't put your foot in front of you, you're going to stand there. But, if you want to run, you have to commit to that effort to throw your foot out farther and expelling that extra bit of energy. You may fall on your face for going to fast at first but, you gotta throw it out there.
This video shows why he is great. He moves and speaks with and in excellence. That is the key.
walleye
Well-known member
i love that song
Volt
Well-known member
At age 58 I think that the most important thing is to keep practice fun.
Bassmedic14
Well-known member
+1 I agree
