Thank you for this video, my friend. It was very well done. Steve Vai has grown in some very eccentric directions since the 80's, and I must admit that much of his latest music seems to move him more than anyone...but I still totally respect him as one of the greatest guitar masters of all time. And yes, the Crossroads duel...that is still a truly amazing piece of work, that never gets old.
I actually love seeing an artist so excited about their own music & proud of it. I’m sure we’ve all seen bands put out new music with far less enthusiasm because for whatever reason perhaps they’re just not as passionate about what they have created. Perhaps they had to sacrifice musical expression for what sells, therefore have a slight disconnect. But Vai puts out what he wants to put out.
@@RobGalley Indeed...and that is a lot of the reason that he has the respect of so many (and also because he is a genuinely nice and caring person). Much love from Costa Rica, Clinton
You did this video só well. Steve uses his guitar as an expression. Sometimes it hits you and you love it, other times you turn it down and think to yourself: "Not today Steve!". See you around, Rob! Bat-Mandy. 🦇
Truth! I totally respect Steve for his technical and artistic ability but find listening to a lot of his music in a single session hard work. It can be rather jarring and unmelodic at times but is certainly unique and distinctly 'Vai'. I have similar issues with listening to Malmsteen but that's different - I can only get bombarded by so many notes before my brain 'gives in'. Satch & eVh (RIP) create far better melodic rock IMO
I get it. I have to be in the mood to accept a bit of uniqueness on the music front at times hah. Other times I just want to hear some melody & what not
Not many people understand the depths that his tracks go to cuz, frankly, most people's brains just can't. He's not an Yngwie who just shreds without emotion, neither is he as palatable as Satriani. He's an anomaly in this space and music in general, a true artist who never stops innovating. Frankly, most people shouldn't even make a video on him because they will come out as unfair as this one. I don't get all genres either, it's okay...
He is absurdly fast and still can make the guitar express sounds i never once deemed possible. I love the likes of Govan, Shawn Lane, Eric Johnson, Jason Becker,EVH, Abasi, etc, but Vai is guitar god to me.
Tantacrul (a fantastic music and software youtuber) debunked that video by Thoughty2. In fact Tantacrul's video is under the Thoughty2 video in your screenshot.
I play drums and guitar, and I tend to dislike Steve Vais music in general. Obviously, he is one of the best guitar players alive, and the things he does on guitar are incredibly creative. I will probably never be able to play most of his songs. The issue for me is that his music tends to be only about guitar. The music is written for Vai, for guitar, and that's it. So after listening to the 3rd or 4th song in a row, it just gets repetitive. I like music that sounds like all of the instruments are getting a piece of the action and play an important role, and, for some reason, I don't get that with Vai.
I never really thought about it like that before! It’s interesting because he’s had some amazing drummers in his live bands. When I saw him in 2005 his drummer was running across the stage during the acoustic break & drumming on literally everything 😂
I just saw the G3 concert with Satriani and Eric Johnson and Vai. I thought Steve Vai was the worst thing I’ve ever heard and I’ve been listening to guitar players since the ‘70s. Vai has good tone and is a great rhythm player, but his soloing is stunningly bad and he would launch into his improve within the first two bars. Sounded like he couldn’t pick chords within a key to build a solid line on or even stay in the key he’d picked. Not hating on him, his tone is great, but his soloing sounded like someone playing a joke on the audience. During Crossroads, now we’re onto some blues and Satriani knew how to create a solo with context to the track but Vai didn’t. Is Vai an acquired taste? I’m a blues rock fan and blues players live or die by their soloing. Is that why Vai sounded so bad to me?
Interesting - how so? My experience has definitely been that his music/playing is pretty love or hate. I obviously lean on the love side! But I know lots of guitar players who don’t gel with it
The onley guitarist that comes in the Vai zone is Guthrie Govan, if Steve has to stop Guthrie is number one for a realy, realy long time! What about you? ♨️♨️♨️
I can appreciate how much technical ability vai has, but I wanna hear a good tune. Players like vai , satriani or yngwie absolutely bore the ass off me. I could listen to Rory Gallagher forever.
@Heavy Metal it's interesting that you group Satch in the same category as Vai & Malmsteen. I think Satch is different, as he inherently does craft a 'catchy' (is that melodic?) tune. I can happily listen to a complete Satch album but Vai & Malmsteen literally 'do my head in' after a track or two
A better title might have been: A Stupid Comment I Read About Steve Vai One Time Stupid because the person who wrote it is clearly a hater, the type that feels trapped by their own failures and thinks the solution is to belittle those who've succeeded. You said the comment had a point, then spent the rest of the video basically refuting it, so I'm a little lost here.
No I didn’t - they’re definitely a hater for sure. But their ‘point’ was that yes, his playing at times isn’t melodic. I wasn’t refuting that, I was explaining why it’s not a bad thing to deviate from the norms of what people think makes good guitar playing.
@@BTS4990Did you even watch the video? The comment he mentions was (paraphrase) 'Steve Vai wouldn't know/be able to play a melody if it slapped him in the face'. You can dislike whomever you wish but anyone making statements like that is clearly covering up their own insecurities, or is just plain ignorant. There are players/genres I don't care for but I can still listen objectively and honestly and admire their strengths. Has nothing to do with my personal tastes.
Imagine claiming that a virtuoso like Vai can't play a melody. Most of the people holding those opinions are practically deaf bluesdads who can barely play a pentatonic lick.
Political angst over Vai music just seems like the kind of comedy that Frank Zappa would LOVE. I also have an opinion and mine is, who cares. Love what Steve Vai does.
He's incredibly overrated. And no I'm not trolling. I know he has chops, but it seems every time I give him another chance or check out one of his "legendary solos" it's just a bunch of pentatonic smear lyrics with a lot of obnoxious whammy bar dives and other effects. He does a lot of legato things, rarely hear alternate picking runs like Malmsteen or DiMeola. And then there's his sense of melody and song writing, whew boy!
First off I don't know if I should be in awe of life just moving along, or upset to see how much is missing from this analysis... I think you're trying to establish yourself, and content is difficult to come up with...but to call Steve Vai polarizing or melodically inept is something someone either new to the scene/instrument would say, or someone that is so disjointed from the ACTUAL culture of guitar would say. And I'm not sure if this is just because of Internet brain or...if you LEGITIMATELY have a case here...but saying he's not melodic is mind numbingly not true. Starting with him moving through the music industry, at such a young age, to not only catch the eye of but earn the respect of one of the most cut and dry artists/rock composers ever, is impressive at the age of 20. But beyond that, going from performance art arrangements, the guy steps into the shoes of what Eddie Van Halen was to David Lee Roth. And he kicked fuck in that position. Just Like Living In Paradise was an incredible tune, and the production on that ablum is pretty stellar for what it was for. But then he broke out on his own and literally became the Mario Lemieux to Satriani's Gretzky during the 80s. The arms race was on, and by the 90s Steve Vai outperformed just about anyone out there due to his absolute control of notes. The man literally leaks notes onto the fretboard. Yes his music isn't for everyone...not everyone likes blues but Stevie Ray Vaughn is pretty goddamn good, right? Vai has such a touch and attack to his playing that it's intense how expressive he actually is with the instrument. If he writes a song, with melodic interchanges, which ...he does... and then expresses himself over top of that harmonically....which he does...with the control of micro movements and analogous expression...it's literally what control artists SHOULD aspire to have with their instrument. The man put Ibanez, AND the 7 string guitar on the map so well that even to today, everything is based after the RG necks/bodies, and the Universe is STILL 3000 dollars. Yes he was in Crossroads, and ya know...that was one of those things that everyone had to learn to prove their worth back in the day. He literally took the flag and said...follow me boys...wait til you hear this guy Petrucci...Now again, it might not be peoples style... He was one of the 3 people at that point that literally got kids listening to elite level musicianship, that were also listening to Slayer and Metallica, etc. These guys, I mean there were more than 3...it's actually disgusting how many talented players there were back then...but they were absolutely knowledgeable about theory. They knew their stuff...so to say they weren't melodic is flat out um...dumb? or on purpose to spur arguments because their taste didn't align...but it's a dumb statement. Not to mention Vai working with Devin Townsend...Devin was his singer back in the day. When Dev, nowadays, asks Vai to play on his records...it's so expressive. It's TOTALLY Vai. You know it's him and you know what he's saying within the music...that's melody man...And not to mention he's a great guy with a great sense of humour and I've never heard anyone have anything bad to say about him and I've never come away from an interview with him that I didn't think...damn I wish I knew Steve, he's a nice dude. Honestly. Go watch his interviews, he's genuine, he's supportive of the audiences that brought him where he is, he's humbled by those he was with before, and he's got the grace of an absolute guitar hero that lead an ENTIRE generation towards progressive music. That guy is a keystone. And maybe you just didn't grow up when it was important, but...he's a hero. So...this video is like, did Superman Supe? You bet your ass he did, because every other supe after him was 1000 fold because of him.
I’m confused - did you take my video as a diss to Steve Vai? Because I thought it was the opposite & agree with everything you said. The original statement about him not being able to play melodically isn’t my words - & me saying it had a point was in relation to the fact that his solo work as opposed to his band stuff with Roth, Whitesnake, Alcatraz etc can be a bit outside the ordinary for what is seen as melodic. But it wasn’t me saying it’s bad, because I put his talent & artistic expression as what makes him so great - as yes, he’s a genuine down to earth guy & is all the more likeable for it! As I said I saw him live in 2005 & it’s one of the best shows I’ve been to.
@woocifer I think you may have misinterpreted whAt @Rob Galley is saying. Vai can write good melodies. He's proven that many times ovet the years. It's more that he's become far more experimental during recent times and that just isn't as palatable commercially. One reason we don't hear much/any Vai on the radio. He can still craft a decent tune but some of his indulgent techno wankery on guitar can get a bit tiring on your ears after a while - and I say that as a huge Vai fan...
Thank you for this video, my friend. It was very well done.
Steve Vai has grown in some very eccentric directions since the 80's, and I must admit that much of his latest music seems to move him more than anyone...but I still totally respect him as one of the greatest guitar masters of all time.
And yes, the Crossroads duel...that is still a truly amazing piece of work, that never gets old.
I actually love seeing an artist so excited about their own music & proud of it. I’m sure we’ve all seen bands put out new music with far less enthusiasm because for whatever reason perhaps they’re just not as passionate about what they have created. Perhaps they had to sacrifice musical expression for what sells, therefore have a slight disconnect. But Vai puts out what he wants to put out.
@@RobGalley
Indeed...and that is a lot of the reason that he has the respect of so many (and also because he is a genuinely nice and caring person).
Much love from Costa Rica,
Clinton
Yep.
Some people can play an instrument while others can do music.
That is one step beyond, but, Steve Vai is an artist.
You did this video só well. Steve uses his guitar as an expression. Sometimes it hits you and you love it, other times you turn it down and think to yourself: "Not today Steve!". See you around, Rob! Bat-Mandy. 🦇
Aw thanks (bat)Mandy! 😃
What Steve does on guitar is specialized exactly as Frank Zappa said about his playing.
It's a good word to use. I think everyone should view their playing as specialised!
@@RobGalley i believe im specialized, mostly improv.
@@mannyfragoza9652 I do enjoy improv! Always working on building it
Truth! I totally respect Steve for his technical and artistic ability but find listening to a lot of his music in a single session hard work. It can be rather jarring and unmelodic at times but is certainly unique and distinctly 'Vai'. I have similar issues with listening to Malmsteen but that's different - I can only get bombarded by so many notes before my brain 'gives in'. Satch & eVh (RIP) create far better melodic rock IMO
I get it. I have to be in the mood to accept a bit of uniqueness on the music front at times hah. Other times I just want to hear some melody & what not
💜💜💜
Thanks for watching!
Not many people understand the depths that his tracks go to cuz, frankly, most people's brains just can't. He's not an Yngwie who just shreds without emotion, neither is he as palatable as Satriani. He's an anomaly in this space and music in general, a true artist who never stops innovating.
Frankly, most people shouldn't even make a video on him because they will come out as unfair as this one. I don't get all genres either, it's okay...
He is absurdly fast and still can make the guitar express sounds i never once deemed possible. I love the likes of Govan, Shawn Lane, Eric Johnson, Jason Becker,EVH, Abasi, etc, but Vai is guitar god to me.
Top vid Rob, he's a toasssssssssstie.
😂 interesting one!
For anyone who just wants an answer to the question in the title: yes.
Tantacrul (a fantastic music and software youtuber) debunked that video by Thoughty2. In fact Tantacrul's video is under the Thoughty2 video in your screenshot.
Steve is one of the best ever. In my opinion, It's Jason Becker > Steve Vai > Marty Friedman > Vinnie Moore > Yngwie Malmsteen > Tony Macalpine
Fire list
Facts ...they say Eddie is the best ever and e everyone copy him 🙄..Eddie was amazing but he wasn't so a head of everyone else ...
You get feed up with anything after listening to it too much...that's life...
Nice to have a good mix 🤟
I play drums and guitar, and I tend to dislike Steve Vais music in general. Obviously, he is one of the best guitar players alive, and the things he does on guitar are incredibly creative. I will probably never be able to play most of his songs.
The issue for me is that his music tends to be only about guitar. The music is written for Vai, for guitar, and that's it. So after listening to the 3rd or 4th song in a row, it just gets repetitive. I like music that sounds like all of the instruments are getting a piece of the action and play an important role, and, for some reason, I don't get that with Vai.
I never really thought about it like that before! It’s interesting because he’s had some amazing drummers in his live bands. When I saw him in 2005 his drummer was running across the stage during the acoustic break & drumming on literally everything 😂
@@RobGalley It's all good. There's a lot of music out in the world, and we don't have to like all of it.
I just saw the G3 concert with Satriani and Eric Johnson and Vai. I thought Steve Vai was the worst thing I’ve ever heard and I’ve been listening to guitar players since the ‘70s. Vai has good tone and is a great rhythm player, but his soloing is stunningly bad and he would launch into his improve within the first two bars. Sounded like he couldn’t pick chords within a key to build a solid line on or even stay in the key he’d picked. Not hating on him, his tone is great, but his soloing sounded like someone playing a joke on the audience. During Crossroads, now we’re onto some blues and Satriani knew how to create a solo with context to the track but Vai didn’t. Is Vai an acquired taste? I’m a blues rock fan and blues players live or die by their soloing. Is that why Vai sounded so bad to me?
I wouldn't say Steve is polarizing at all.
Interesting - how so? My experience has definitely been that his music/playing is pretty love or hate. I obviously lean on the love side! But I know lots of guitar players who don’t gel with it
The onley guitarist that comes in the Vai zone is Guthrie Govan, if Steve has to stop Guthrie is number one for a realy, realy long time! What about you? ♨️♨️♨️
I can appreciate how much technical ability vai has, but I wanna hear a good tune. Players like vai , satriani or yngwie absolutely bore the ass off me. I could listen to Rory Gallagher forever.
It all depends what mood I’m in. But I’d never get bored of SRV 🤟
@Heavy Metal it's interesting that you group Satch in the same category as Vai & Malmsteen. I think Satch is different, as he inherently does craft a 'catchy' (is that melodic?) tune. I can happily listen to a complete Satch album but Vai & Malmsteen literally 'do my head in' after a track or two
A better title might have been: A Stupid Comment I Read About Steve Vai One Time
Stupid because the person who wrote it is clearly a hater, the type that feels trapped by their own failures and thinks the solution is to belittle those who've succeeded. You said the comment had a point, then spent the rest of the video basically refuting it, so I'm a little lost here.
No I didn’t - they’re definitely a hater for sure. But their ‘point’ was that yes, his playing at times isn’t melodic. I wasn’t refuting that, I was explaining why it’s not a bad thing to deviate from the norms of what people think makes good guitar playing.
Ah I gotcha. I think it's just the title that threw me off more than anything x)
@@BTS4990Did you even watch the video? The comment he mentions was (paraphrase) 'Steve Vai wouldn't know/be able to play a melody if it slapped him in the face'.
You can dislike whomever you wish but anyone making statements like that is clearly covering up their own insecurities, or is just plain ignorant. There are players/genres I don't care for but I can still listen objectively and honestly and admire their strengths. Has nothing to do with my personal tastes.
Imagine claiming that a virtuoso like Vai can't play a melody. Most of the people holding those opinions are practically deaf bluesdads who can barely play a pentatonic lick.
Political angst over Vai music just seems like the kind of comedy that Frank Zappa would LOVE. I also have an opinion and mine is, who cares. Love what Steve Vai does.
Vai is style over substance personified.
He's incredibly overrated. And no I'm not trolling. I know he has chops, but it seems every time I give him another chance or check out one of his "legendary solos" it's just a bunch of pentatonic smear lyrics with a lot of obnoxious whammy bar dives and other effects. He does a lot of legato things, rarely hear alternate picking runs like Malmsteen or DiMeola. And then there's his sense of melody and song writing, whew boy!
First off I don't know if I should be in awe of life just moving along, or upset to see how much is missing from this analysis... I think you're trying to establish yourself, and content is difficult to come up with...but to call Steve Vai polarizing or melodically inept is something someone either new to the scene/instrument would say, or someone that is so disjointed from the ACTUAL culture of guitar would say. And I'm not sure if this is just because of Internet brain or...if you LEGITIMATELY have a case here...but saying he's not melodic is mind numbingly not true.
Starting with him moving through the music industry, at such a young age, to not only catch the eye of but earn the respect of one of the most cut and dry artists/rock composers ever, is impressive at the age of 20. But beyond that, going from performance art arrangements, the guy steps into the shoes of what Eddie Van Halen was to David Lee Roth. And he kicked fuck in that position. Just Like Living In Paradise was an incredible tune, and the production on that ablum is pretty stellar for what it was for. But then he broke out on his own and literally became the Mario Lemieux to Satriani's Gretzky during the 80s. The arms race was on, and by the 90s Steve Vai outperformed just about anyone out there due to his absolute control of notes. The man literally leaks notes onto the fretboard. Yes his music isn't for everyone...not everyone likes blues but Stevie Ray Vaughn is pretty goddamn good, right? Vai has such a touch and attack to his playing that it's intense how expressive he actually is with the instrument. If he writes a song, with melodic interchanges, which ...he does... and then expresses himself over top of that harmonically....which he does...with the control of micro movements and analogous expression...it's literally what control artists SHOULD aspire to have with their instrument. The man put Ibanez, AND the 7 string guitar on the map so well that even to today, everything is based after the RG necks/bodies, and the Universe is STILL 3000 dollars.
Yes he was in Crossroads, and ya know...that was one of those things that everyone had to learn to prove their worth back in the day. He literally took the flag and said...follow me boys...wait til you hear this guy Petrucci...Now again, it might not be peoples style... He was one of the 3 people at that point that literally got kids listening to elite level musicianship, that were also listening to Slayer and Metallica, etc. These guys, I mean there were more than 3...it's actually disgusting how many talented players there were back then...but they were absolutely knowledgeable about theory. They knew their stuff...so to say they weren't melodic is flat out um...dumb? or on purpose to spur arguments because their taste didn't align...but it's a dumb statement.
Not to mention Vai working with Devin Townsend...Devin was his singer back in the day. When Dev, nowadays, asks Vai to play on his records...it's so expressive. It's TOTALLY Vai. You know it's him and you know what he's saying within the music...that's melody man...And not to mention he's a great guy with a great sense of humour and I've never heard anyone have anything bad to say about him and I've never come away from an interview with him that I didn't think...damn I wish I knew Steve, he's a nice dude. Honestly. Go watch his interviews, he's genuine, he's supportive of the audiences that brought him where he is, he's humbled by those he was with before, and he's got the grace of an absolute guitar hero that lead an ENTIRE generation towards progressive music. That guy is a keystone. And maybe you just didn't grow up when it was important, but...he's a hero. So...this video is like, did Superman Supe? You bet your ass he did, because every other supe after him was 1000 fold because of him.
I’m confused - did you take my video as a diss to Steve Vai? Because I thought it was the opposite & agree with everything you said. The original statement about him not being able to play melodically isn’t my words - & me saying it had a point was in relation to the fact that his solo work as opposed to his band stuff with Roth, Whitesnake, Alcatraz etc can be a bit outside the ordinary for what is seen as melodic. But it wasn’t me saying it’s bad, because I put his talent & artistic expression as what makes him so great - as yes, he’s a genuine down to earth guy & is all the more likeable for it! As I said I saw him live in 2005 & it’s one of the best shows I’ve been to.
@woocifer I think you may have misinterpreted whAt @Rob Galley is saying. Vai can write good melodies. He's proven that many times ovet the years. It's more that he's become far more experimental during recent times and that just isn't as palatable commercially. One reason we don't hear much/any Vai on the radio. He can still craft a decent tune but some of his indulgent techno wankery on guitar can get a bit tiring on your ears after a while - and I say that as a huge Vai fan...