Steve Vai had started out as a hired gun working with the likes of Frank Zappa, Alcatraz, David Lee Roth and Whitesnake, but had always been active as a solo artist as well. Both Satch and Vai were the undoubted leaders of the genre, and continue to fly the flag for instrumental guitar. Both artists took guitar instrumental music to the next level, and instead of simply shredding over a hard Rock backing track, crafted beautifully rich compositions, with the guitar featured as if it were a vocal. There was a host of prominent players throughout the decade, many of them signed to Mike Varney’s Shrapnel Records but two names that launched instrumental guitar music into the mainstream, and even scored chart success, were Joe Satriani and his former pupil Steve Vai. The 1980’s saw a huge jump in technique for Rock guitar, and also saw instrumental guitar music become a credible and popular genre of music.
For this track I would aim for a fairly high gain sound, with a thick low end, but some boosted upper mid range to aid pinched harmonics when on the bridge pickup, but retains a warm rich tone when switched to the neck pickup. For the verse harmony I used a Digitech Whammy pedal. This was plugged into an MXR 5150 pedal, for some extra crunch, and then into a Mesa Boogie combo. Our final lick is performed over the F# augmented chord, and is based on shifting augmented arpeggios, implying the Lydian Augmented scale, the third mode of the Melodic minor scale.įor this lesson I used a Sterling by Musicman John Petrucci signature guitar, fitted with DiMarzio pickups. Include a signature ascending 5 th interval run that covers a large area of the neck, and concludes with a slurring C Lydian figure.Ĭonclude our Vai style track with some classic licks, and kick off with a descending sweeping figure based on stacked 4 th and 5 th intervals, reminiscent to a lick heard in the solo to Ladies Night in Buffalo. The lick concludes with some whammy bar slurs and scoops, and a descending A minor pentatonic run.įeatures a bending phrase performed over the Em9 chord that concludes with a descending E Dorian string-skipping lick, reminiscent of a lick heard in Die to Live. This arpeggio covers a very large portion of the neck, and appears to flow across the beats. Wekick off with an extended B minor 9 th arpeggio, performed with sweep picking. This is followed by a descending legato and tapping lick based around the E Aeolian mode.Ĭonclude the first half of our track with some 4 th intervals and some whammy bar “gargles” produce by flicking a floating bridge.ĭemonstrate Vai’s use of metric modulation, with the feel of our track shifting from a swing 16 th groove, to a straight half time feel. The interval lick produces a very effective sound, but again take care when jumping strings.Ĭonclude our first solo with a wide stretch picking/pull off lick that uses the E minor pentatonic with an added 2 nd. See us heading back to the chord I riff, and kick off with a wide interval sliding lick, and a tapping lick, that borrow ideas from the track Juice. Bar 12 features an ascending tapping arpeggio figure based around G major 7 th and A minor 7 th arpeggio’s, performed on the 1 st and 2 nd strings.
Also take care with the open strings when string skipping. This lick uses two tapping fingers, so be sure to study the instruction portion of the video. The first solo section concludes with another whammy bar dive and a tapping and bending style lick similar to something you would hear in The Attitude Song.Īre performed over the D riff, chord IV of our riff progression, and kick off with a signature A Dorian string skipping tapping lick. Introduce the solo over the A riff, chord I, and is based around the A minor pentatonic scale, using bluesy bends and sliding phrasing. As the riff concludes the Whammy pedal is turned off and we exit the riff with a whammy bar dive on the open 3 rd string. This riff has a harmony added a 5 th lower, courtesy of an original Digitech Whammy pedal, which adds extra weight to the riff. Kick things off with an A minor pentatonic riff that uses a sixteenth note groove. Our song begins as a I, IV, V Steve Vai style guitar riff and chord progression based around a heavy 16 th note swing groove, and concludes with a straight half time ethereal progression, that mixes Aeolian, Lydian, and Lydian Augmented scales.