Liks steve vai biography

For Vai, virtuosity and versatility are not mutually exclusive. He has created music for blockbuster films, bestselling video games, national sports franchises, and corporate brand initiatives. Having conquered Europe and the U. In addition to his solo tour work, Vai is known for his creative live performances with orchestras around the world and for projects such as Vai Academy his yearly guitar campAlien Guitar Secrets master classes, and Generation Axe — a unique combination of five fiercely talented guitar players in which he currently tours internationally with Zakk Wylde, Yngwie Malmsteen, Nuno Bettencourt, and Tosin Abasi.

Vai is liks steve vai biography known for his self-composed, performed and produced guitar instrumental music, but he has also played on the recordings of several other rock acts. Steve Vai made his name playing 'stunt guitar' with the legendary rock performer, composer, music producer, and publishing mogul Frank Zappa. In the early 80's he replaced Yngwie Malmsteen a good friend as lead guitarist in Graham Bonnett 's Alcatrazz.

Vai also stepped into guitarist Adrian Vandenberg 's shoes to record with British rock legends Whitesnake after Adrian Vandenberg injured his wrist due to some exercises he found in a book and tried out shortly before recording was due to begin for the album Slip of the Tongue. Steve Vai continues to tour regularly, both with his own group and with his one time teacher and fellow Grammy award winning guitar instrumentalist friend Joe Satriani on the G3 series of tours.

Although many consider Vai to be the inventor of the electric seven-string guitar, he admits that he had never heard of the seven-string guitars used by gypsies. In his mind, he is credited with the invention, but in reality, such a guitar existed before him, and artists like Lenny Bro performed on it. However, Vai's influence has led many young musicians to adopt the seven-string guitar themselves.

When asked about whether guitarists should respect traditions, Vai believes that while many people are content playing traditional blues, jazz, or rock 'n' roll, there should be no limitations if someone wants to expand the possibilities of the instrument. Vai admits that he no longer requires extensive practice, but he is currently preparing for the Zappa Plays Zappa Tour and practices Frank Zappa's songs daily.

Roth's subsequent album Skyscraperreleased inwas produced by both Roth and Vai. Infollowing the successful Skyscraper TourVai departed from the band. Inafter having joined Roth's band, Vai designed the JEM guitar, a unique instrument that incorporated a series of groundbreaking designs that have since become staples in feature throughout the guitar industry, such as the inclusion of 24 frets on a guitar with humbuckers, single-coil middle pickup and a locking tremolo system.

From toVai recorded Passion and Warfare at his home studio, his second studio solo album. Upon its release in NovemberSlip of the Tongue sold over three million copies worldwide, reaching number 10 on the Billboard while Vai joined the band on their thirteen-month world tour. In MayVai released Passion and Warfare through Relativity Records, [ 40 ] [ 43 ] and following its release, the album had reached number 18 in the Billboardselling over a million and a half copies worldwide.

Vai left Whitesnake in to pursue his own musical avenues and formed a band that included Devin Townsend on vocals, T. Stevens on bass, and Terry Bozzio on drums. Due to conflicts, the album was re-written and recorded with Zakk Wylde on guitar. I was more concerned with making the record that I wanted to make, and not worry about what some others thought I should be doing.

On September 17,Vai released Fire Gardentrack double album, through Epic, [ 54 ] with the first half being primarily instrumental while the second half featured Vai on vocals. On each G3 tour, three guitar-centric headlining acts are chosen to perform their own sets, and then collectively jam to fan favorite songs at the end of the show.

The goal of the foundation was to provide funding for musical education to those otherwise unable to attain it. Today, Vai often auctions items in his possession with proceeds going to the foundation. The release, which Vai himself produced and engineered, won him his second Grammy award for Best Pop Instrumental Album in February While most widely recognized for his stature as a rock guitar player, Vai is also a musical composer fluent in the composition and arranging of orchestral music.

While reflecting on his time with Westcott, Vai said "He taught me how to write, compose and appreciate music. There was no greater musical influence in my life. InVai released Real Illusions: Reflectionsthe first installment in an ongoing three-part trilogy concept album. Each of the three installments to the series contain material songs, lyrics, and both spoken and written narration with particular relationships to the storyline, purposefully left out of order.

Upon the release of the third installment, Vai intends to complete a fourth album of material, which will then be released with the previous three installments and completed storyline in order. It's a story about this man who has a traumatic experience in his life, and it drives him insane. We see the story through his eyes. It also involves the town he lives in and this stranger that enters the town who's like a shaman; he builds this giant edifice, like a reflecting pond, and when people come to it they see aspects of their personalities and identities and discover things about themselves.

There's some comedy involved, too, but it's pretty esoteric. It's about a lot of lofty liks steves vai biography, so it's not a bad idea to dish this all out slowly. In support of Sound Theories Vol. During a month of twelve- to fifteen-hour a day rehearsals, Vai and the band perfected the performance which consisted of pieces from Vai's catalog, arranged by Vai to include the two violins.

Made of an acrylic body with three-dimensional "swirl painted" interior, this guitar can be seen in the beginning of the Where the Wild Things Are DVD. InVai announced the release of his signature Ibanez Jemini distortion pedala twin distortion pedal with both a custom overdrive and lead distortion section. In FebruaryVai announced the introduction of "VaiTunes", a platform used to release digital-only singles via iTunes and other digital media outlets.

October saw more movement from Vai as a composer, with the premiere of two original symphonies at the Steve Vai Festival in Groningenthe Netherlands, and performed by the North Netherlands Orchestra. In MarchVai in conjunction with the online education division of Berklee College of Music set a Guinness World Record for the world's largest online guitar lesson.

Vai's eighth studio album, The Story of Lightwas released in August as the second installment in the Real Illusions concept album trilogy. Released on April 7, the double-disc set contained a copy of the Stillness in Motion concert footage and a special bonus feature disc called The Space Between the Notes. The latter is a complete chronological timeline of the Story of Light tour, with a video or picture representation of each show of all of the engagements attended.

Each year the camp is held, Vai creates a syllabus with a particular theme and invites special guests to help him teach it. During the day, Vai and the special guests some of whom have been Guthrie GovanJeff BaxterVernon Reid, Eric Johnson, Sonny Landrethand others hold classes in which they add their insight and perspective to the theme. Each evening, Vai and the special guests jam with the campers.

Vai has announced an upcoming release commemorating the 25th anniversary of Passion and Warfare. This release contains remastered songs from the album, as well as the inclusion of a new album of material written from the time between the recording of Passion and Warfare and his first solo album Flex-Able. After the release, Vai held a world tour in which he played the entire Passion and Warfare album, along with material from the new release.

The tour would continue during the first half of InVai played an uncredited guitar solo on the track " Go! Starting in June, Vai embarked on the Passion and Warfare 25th Anniversary World Tour, liks steve vai biography he played the album in its entirety for the first time. On December 1,Steve Vai announced the release of his tenth studio album, entitled Inviolatealongside its lead single "Little Pretty".

The album was released on January 28, Upon release, it debuted at No. InVai was featured on Polyphia 's track "Ego Death". Vai and singer Johnny "Gash" Sombrotto had recorded the album inbut it remained unpublished after Sombrotto's death in a motorcycle accident on September 7, Vai and Sombrotto had bonded over a shared love of motorcycles.

The album cover features a photo of Sombretto, showing the extensive burn scars he sustained in a motorcycle crash. Ina 77 minutes long documentary was released to honor his first 30 years. This is the first documentary covering Vai's life from to It was co-written by Steve Vai. He also performed on the track "Never Surrender". He later featured in the second volume of the soundtrack, where he performed on the track "Reclaimer".

Vai returned to re-record his Halo work for the Halo 2 Anniversary Original Soundtrackwhich was released in and included as part of the anniversary edition of Halo 2. InVai performed "Amazing Grace" in the film Dudes. InVai's record label Favored Nations produced and released the award-winning original motion picture Crazy. An independent film, Crazy was inspired by the life and music of the guitarist Hank Garland.

At the age of thirteen, after having purchased his first guitar and begun taking his first lessons from fellow New York native Joe SatrianiVai became obsessed with the discipline of practice. Vai's practice routine, consisting of a rigid and structured regimen of ten-to-fifteen hour-a-day practice schedules, became the basis of his work ethic for the rest of his career.

Vai's first solo album, Flex-Ablebegan his career as a solo artist in During the period of time that the album was recorded, Vai was heavily influenced by his previous tenure in Frank Zappa 's band.

Liks steve vai biography

Vai's playing style utilizes specialized guitar techniques such as two-handed tappingalternate pickinglegatohybrid pickingsweep pickingwhammy bar acrobatics, and circular vibrato in his music, as well as a wide range of recording techniques. As a transcriptionist for Frank Zappa, Vai transcribed some of Zappa's most rhythmically complex music, using a range of conceptualizations for the notation of rhythmic music.

Vai says "While transcribing the material, I was often confronted with situations that led me to reach into the intuitional areas of my imagination to come up with various notational devices and constructions that I had never seen before. I soon discovered that many contemporary composers were then and are still using these notations".

These concepts can be seen throughout the "Frank Zappa Guitar Book", which were composed of Vai's guitar and drum transcriptions from various Zappa albums. Vai toured with Zappa from toperforming selections of this technically demanding music with Zappa's band at the time. Vai designed the Ibanez JEM guitar, a unique instrument that incorporated a series of groundbreaking designs that have since become staples in feature throughout the guitar industry, in In speaking of the development of the guitar, Vai says, " Stratocasters had whammy bars —which were fantastic—but they were very limited, were always going out of tune, and had single-coil pickups.

Les Pauls had humbuckers —which gave you that real scream in the bridge position—but no whammy bar, and I didn't like the way they sat. Neither guitar had twenty-four frets. So I went to a guitar shop in Hollywood, where I had these elements implemented into a guitar what would have been considered a Superstrat at the time. The guitar was designed with a sharper body shape, a large cutaway around the neck, twenty-four frets, a fully floating tremolo system, a specially wired five-way pickup selector switch, and an output jack angled on the side of the body so that when you step on the cable, it doesn't pull out of your guitar.

I knew of course that these features would eventually be taken and used in other guitars, so I did something completely preposterous: I said, 'Put a handle in it! Vai had several custom prototypes of these guitars built which were used on the Eat 'Em and Smile tour by Joe "Jem" Despagni, a custom guitar luthier and friend of Vai's.