Jack here, Jbf music and guitar lessons, in this quick guitar tricks, we’re looking
3 signature Steve Vai licks, they’ll all be in E Lydian; links to my E Lydian Jam track
with the card in the top right.
This one is all over his playing, and although it could easily be a blues lick over a G#
minor these little slides and playing over an E major instantly has that Vai sound . But
why? Alright, for those interested I’ll go into the theory, if that’s not your cup
of tea, check the pinned comment, or description for time codes for the other two licks. Please
let me know if that is a good system, of if none of youse care about the music theory!
Anyway, this grace note adds some whiney character and we’re sliding to the 5th of E, down
to the #4; pretty much the money maker for Lydian; then 3rd, then 2nd, which is up an
octave so really a 9th, I suppose. So these notes over an E drone are gonna sound pretty
Vai . In fact, bonus tip! Using these five notes, over that E drone, you can get a tonne
of Vai ideas. Secondary bonus tip, it’s sometimes much better to limit yourself to
a couple of notes like that and really try to get all you can out of them, rather than
meandering up and down a scale in the hope that something interesting happens . Back
to our interval analysis, grace note slide down to the 6th, 5th, 3rd, 2nd, 3rd to resolve
the lick. If you end on the 2nd, you can probably feel that the note wants to go up to the 3rd.
Same with the #4, it either wants to go up to the 5th, or down to the 3rd. Next Lick!
Hammer this triplet , then some more legato on the next string, but a group of 5; I’ve
done in depth lessons on this before, so check out the card in the top right for ways of
tackling this. In a nutshell , 5 notes in the space of 4 . Then some more triplets on
the next string in a group of 6 up at speed I tend to hammer this final triplet on the
A string, em hammer it on form nowhere, on that 11th fret; you can pick it if you want;
whatever suits. I’ll often pick it when it at slower tempos, hammer it when faster.
Bonus tip! I’ve given you a lot of building blocks here. For example we could take the
group of 5s through the scale . Or that group of 6. Or the triplets, going up or down . We
can also combine these, so lets take a triplet going up, then another, say a group of 5,
and a triplet going down. That makes a nice little group of 4 beats and, again, lets take
it through the scale. and a bit more speed.
And the trickiest one for last! It’s just this shape which goes Root, 5th, b7, 9th.
So it’s, em I suppose a 9th arpeggio without a 3rd. What this means is we can play it over
the ii chord, V chord and also vi chord; since they all have a major 2nd; 9th; 5th and b7th.
In terms of sort of your modes in this key it would be; C# dorian; the ii chord; F# mixolydian;
the V chord; and G# Aeolian over the vi chord. In terms of the picking, I’m sweeping; down,
down, down, down. Sliding that E string, up on the B, up on the G, up on the d string
as well. Slide again, but downward this time. Down on the G,B and E strings, then slide
up. Picking up on the B, G and D, then slide again. I’ve resolve this to the major 7th,
so this lick will work best over an E major7, but will still sound nice, if a tad tense
over an E major. So bonus tip; before how I mentioned the 2nd and #4 want to resolve?
Here, the major 7th sort of does as well, but it still sounds good without going to
the root; just to point out that you don’t always need to resolve the lick. I’d suggest
resolving most licks to begin with; to train your ear, then when that’s more internalised
you can make an, eh, artistic decision as to whether you want to do that or not.
Those were 3 signature Vai Licks, let me know on the comments if you want more signature
lick, different modes, different player? This has been quick tricks; that’s the playlist
there. For more Vai Lydian Licks and Tricks click on this video. Hit subscribe, share,
like and enable notifications with the little bell on the side, if you feel so inclined,
cheers guys.