Steve Vai has a theory book coming out called Vaideology

digitalkettle

Philly_Q said:

fastonebaz said:

I finally finished reading my copy.   I knew only about 5% of it already.

How much had you forgotten again by the time you finished reading?

Most of it but he's now fluent in Spanish!

racefaceec90

i will def have to buy this at some point (along with his 10 hour guitar workout).

i have always been bloody awful at guitar after decades of trying to understand/play guitar/get better (am 49 now).

music theory i have always wanted to learn/understand but i never have been able to (i call it musical dyslexia/stupidity lol).

i know that only practise/learning will improve my playing at the end of the day but i am a huge fan of mr vai both his music and how he seems in interviews etc a genuinely nice guy but monster musical brain.

  

ICBM

This book has been a huge inspiration to me even though I came to this type of music very late - although I’ll never be able to play like Steve, or get anywhere near being able to do most of what’s in the book, it’s made me a much better player just by understanding a lot more of what I’m doing, and at least trying to improve my technicality a bit. I must go back and have another read, in fact…

DLM

fastonebaz said:

guitarjack66 said:

Is Vai a singer as well or solely an instrumentalist?

He sings on several of his songs but I wouldn't class him as a decent singer though. 

I was really pleasantly surprised and impressed when I heard his singing on Fire Garden.

ICBM

I think he’s a decent enough singer, but not one who would have had any success if he wasn’t an amazing guitarist.

carlos

racefaceec90 said:

i will def have to buy this at some point (along with his 10 hour guitar workout).  

I wouldn't recommend the 10 hour guitar workout. Most of it are exercises which Steve himself says are outdated in Vaideology. I agree with him.

carlos

Waiting to start a new job next Monday so I spent two days on this book, going from start to finish.

Some if it is as stated basic, foundational music knowledge, but some of it is very, very advanced which feels out of place. For example, the explanation of scales and modes is basic, but then the part about polyrhythms is something I wasn't expecting in this book. I'd challenge most musicians I know, even the professional ones, to sight read the examples on page 49, 50, and 54.

Overall, I liked it. Some of this stuff will take months to digest or properly go through. For example on page 45 writing 3-5 ways of playing each chord in the Chord Symbol Library. There are 45 chords in the Library earlier. So that's from 150 to 200 chord voicings for a single key. Fine. I can do that in an afternoon, but then "figure out all inversions for them". Hahahahah, Steve, you big joker! We're talking around 2k voicings here, on a conservative estimate depending on how comprehensive you want to be regarding voicings which use all 6 strings, like on a 11 or a 13 chord. But hey, learning music is a lifelong exploration and nobody can ever master everything, not even Vai.

If you're looking for technique, don't expect it here, though.

Overall, within similar types of guitar theory books, I preferred The Advancing Guitarist, but I'm glad I worked through both. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.