As one of the all-time standout electric guitar virtuosos, it’s fair to say that Steve Vai knows a thing or two when it comes to scaling the heights required to reach the top of the metaphorical technical and melodic guitar mountain.
As such, when Vai talks technique, we listen, and his latest nugget of wisdom – arriving courtesy of his recent conversation with Billy Corgan – has us listening intently.
While in deep discussion with the Smashing Pumpkins frontman about the level of the average guitarist today, Vai proclaimed it’s actually not as complicated as one might think when it comes to becoming a proficient shredder.
“I can tell you how to become a virtuoso very easily,” he says, before laying at a fool-proof – and, to be honest, completely expected – methodology.
“You have to practice nonstop and practice perfectly,” Vai explains. “You have to practice fast, and you have to get bulletproof intonation. This is an intellectual exercise, and when I was younger that’s what I did. I set the clock and I set the metronome.”
Also in his chat with Corgan, Vai shed more light on the gruelling practice routine he adopted as a young aspiring shredder.
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“My schedule back then, I was happy if I got nine hours a day,” he recalls. “I was very neurotic, very myopic. It just had such a pull, such a joy.
“Sometimes I would go to sleep early on a Friday so I could wake up and practice all the way till Monday, when I had to go to school. So I get like, 20–30 hours in. I’m not a very disciplined person; it was a passion. Because passion is a much more powerful engine of creation than discipline.
“Discipline implies you have to fight something, you have to push yourself to do something that you really don’t want to do. But passion says, ‘You’re going to do this because you want to do it.’ There will be challenges along the way, but there’s never the thought of giving up.”
Technical proficiency aside, an appreciation for melody – and how these technical skills can be channelled accordingly – is equally important.
“I love melody. The ability to shred is fine and good, but without melody, there’s no shelf life in a performer’s career,” he asserts.
Elsewhere in his Magnificent Others guest spot, Vai discussed his guitar battles with Yngwie Malmsteen and reflected on what it was like going up against Van Halen when he joined David Lee Roth’s band.
