I'm always thrilled when a master unveils the machinery: you think the guy was born gifted (ok maybe that's the case sometimes) but in reality it's been hours and hours and hours of hard work
This really shows how much of Vai's virtuosity comes from his relentless practice methods. I believe most of us would practice bending for 15 minutes a day max because "it's too boring". But he spent a whole hour, for months, every single day, only focusing on his bending technique. No wonder the guy can bend effortlessly
Good point. I was wondering that. Now I know longer wonder. It's possible. Notice how far out of kilter the G string is? I always knew that string was different.
I just saw one of the greatest string benders of all----- Joe Walsh. I saw the Eagles show a few weeks back, with their fantastic giant video projection system that makes them all 30 feet high. The cameraman frequently zoomed in on Joe's hands during his solos, which was really amazing to watch. Also his Eagles partner, the great Steuart Smith, who is another string-bending virtuoso. Joe is playing as great as ever.
There is a ridiculous amount of wisdom in 6 minutes and ten seconds here. Always had problems with bending with good vibrato, after 35 years of playing. Now I know I was just using my fingers too much and the problem is gone. Thanks Steve! Guess I better buy the course now :)
I’ve always liked him, but when I was trying so desperately to figure out bending in the beginning and found this video my mind was blown and I fell in love with him and his work
Good lesson. My guitar teacher had me do the same drills and I was terrible. I only got better because all the practice helped improve my ears and being able to discriminate between pitches. I thought I had a bending problem but it was more an ear problem in retrospect.
I learnt that by instinct hearing and watching Joe Satriani (including the wrist rotation to bend instead of using the fingers). Thank god my ear already knew the pitches somehow
same here and still working on getting mine right. I don't give a crap what anyone says, it takes YEARS of practice to get good at it for most people on guitar.
00:53 This right here is key for me. When your neck is way up at 45deg (classical position) it's perfectly comfortable on the wrist aligning your fingers parallel to frets. But neck down low with wrist locked full left to get the same finger parallel, I'll leave that to younger more rubbery wrists than mine.
@@Kewickviper the idea against bending with them is that because of the inconsistency of the frets(curving in and out of them) that when bending a string up to the altered positioning of that fret would mean it would be inconsistent as far as how much you would have to bend or not bend depending on which fret you were on a given string.
@@joryaock but isn’t bending is simply contact pulling the note up/down? The string would maintain fret contact thusly the bend would be unaffected even w true intonation frets? I’m confused.
La ''Joconde de Léonard de Vinci'' et la ''guitare de Steve Vai'': deux chefs -d'oeuvre! Génie en peinture, et génie en musique. -Que ce soit au ciel ou en enfer, je veux être assis aux premières loges pour assister aux concerts de Steve Vai, pour l"Éternité! Quelle virtuosité!
Thank you. I've always wanted to be able to make my guitar 'sing beautifully' like yours does. This helps me to better understand my relationship with the strings. My playing still doesn't sound much like yours, but it is still beautiful! Thanks! :)
Look at them frets !!! I finally see how the alien sounds are made ..so I guess you gotta have the Ibanez signature JEM to achieve the sound he produces
+Buffer Zone You're an idiot. Vai played the devil's guitarist in the 80's movie "Crossroads" where he had a guitar duel against a classically trained kid, played by Ralph Macchio a.k.a. "The Karate Kid". Save your "edge" for an actual Christian whackjob who gives a fuck.
Wow what an awesome teacher Steve Vai really is and humble as well. Glad that bending is difficult for me as well. Vibrato on the high E string is especially tricky! My teacher showed me that use wrist and arm motion and fingers as placeholders. Muting strings is tricky during bends but crucial.
Thank you. This helped me to figure out why I was not able to bend a full note properly on the E1 at the 20th fret (with floating tremolo strat). The problem was that I was doing the finger bending technique instead of bending from the wirst.
Steve is such a great player and a seemingly great guy too. Who'd of thunk it... I always notice a signature wah wah sound in his solo's ,is that something he just uses a lot of is it just in his style of play and bending? I swear I hear it in every song he does. It sounds great too. I wonder how Steve and Eddie get along? I would think they are buds...
Since 1988 I have never been able to bend notes as accurate as this - and that is why I have always been "the rhythm guitarist" throughout my days as a guitarist. But I never gave up, and have always been begging for that "extra" bit of talent - until I had my fifth stroke, making it impossible to ever play a guitar again 😪
So difficult, but I like to practice not just bending up a fret or 2 or 3 or even 5 but trying to hit half fret bends, picking two frets, playing the first, pretending a quarter step and then playing the next note trying to really get a feel for how to hit those microtonal notes when I want to. Can be fun to get a clean microtonal flavour and experiment with microtonal scales, major too happy? Mixolydian have a bit more edge than you want? Or nott quite enough? Lol. But great advice! Guy's a guitar genious!
It's a kind of fretboard that has something called true temperament, in which they bend the frets to get absolute perfect pitch on every note of the fretboard. Equal temperament fretboards, which are the common ones, have the problem that a lot of notes sound slightly off pitch and that is because of the frets being in slightly the wrong place, that is corrected with those crazy frets.
I had tape on my neck pick-up (for my Duncan Hot Rails) because I broke a coil on one with a string snapping on it during a wild solo, and had to replace it for $100.00!! Glad to see the protective tape here. Oh, and great lesson. I have much respect for Steve Vai. Are those mirco-tonal frets?
yay... im so happy how we bend is the same... hahaa.. alot of people told me to bend with the finger with straight position. but it's just not comfortable to me...
LoL. I‘ve been playing the guitar for about 10 years. recently i started learning Gravity by JM, and i noticed string noise when bending and thereby touching the strings with my fingertips i was bendin into. i never was aware of this sound.. i was starting to feel really dump, since ive been playing for so long and looked up bending videos. found this one and i see that this noise unavoidable, juding by the fact that even he is doing that noise
I’ve only been playing for a year or so and don’t understand what he means by bending 2, 3, 4 frets etc. I understand bending up a half or whole step etc but how does this relate to bending a certain amount of frets? Thank you.
OK so I've just seen these frets for the first time today; done a little look around and I understand they correct what has always been a slightly inaccurate situation with conventional straight frets. But do they work on barre chords?
This is a cute video haha. Btw If anyone here is actually interested in learning how to bend properly and accurately Guthrie Govan has some tutorials out there.
I'm guessing he must use light-gauge strings to achieve bends that wide. I have 10's on my ax, and I have a hell of a time trying to do whole-step bends, so anything more than that is out of the question unless I want to break a string or make it go way out of tune.
He uses 9's. You can bend 10's more than a whole step, just gotta practice and endure the pain for the first times that you practice it. Also, raising your action gives you a better grip on the string.
Good point. A lot of people will laugh, but higher action has a lot more going for it than some folks can imagine. Guitar is not necessarily supposed to be 'easy' to play. There is a happy medium.
i use 10's and i can do up to 2 whole steps bend, it just needs practice to build about the finger strength and the elephant skin needed on your fingers.
How amazing that we live in an age where you can just get a guitar lesson from Steve Vai, instantly, for free.
SHHHHHHH!
It sure is a blessing. Any tip from Maestro Vai is worth listening to.
@@vincemagowan3975 Even if I didn't play guitar I'd love to hear Steve's lessons.
yeah!!!!
Steve Vai's bends are so powerful that he not only bends the notes, but also the frets.
Lol
He even bent his guitar neck on flexible.
1000 + dexterity
now that's some power
that was true temperament frets
every time you hit the right note.... its a victory!
Love Steve Vai
I'm always thrilled when a master unveils the machinery: you think the guy was born gifted (ok maybe that's the case sometimes) but in reality it's been hours and hours and hours of hard work
Very good point. There's some things I can do now and I think back to where I started, or where I was a year ago and how good I am now with practice.
10k hours to be a master.
This really shows how much of Vai's virtuosity comes from his relentless practice methods. I believe most of us would practice bending for 15 minutes a day max because "it's too boring". But he spent a whole hour, for months, every single day, only focusing on his bending technique. No wonder the guy can bend effortlessly
3:20 "and still is, occasionally"
Massive doses of normality from the most alien Player of us all :)
This man is not only a musical genius, but he's got the wisdom of a sage.
I love this guy
Good point. I was wondering that. Now I know longer wonder. It's possible. Notice how far out of kilter the G string is? I always knew that string was different.
I just saw one of the greatest string benders of all----- Joe Walsh. I saw the Eagles show a few weeks back, with their fantastic giant video projection system that makes them all 30 feet high. The cameraman frequently zoomed in on Joe's hands during his solos, which was really amazing to watch. Also his Eagles partner, the great Steuart Smith, who is another string-bending virtuoso. Joe is playing as great as ever.
The Mozart of guitar, still so humble too. What a legend.
class act. No ego. Just a good dude with god like talent. So rare a combo in todays world
There is a ridiculous amount of wisdom in 6 minutes and ten seconds here. Always had problems with bending with good vibrato, after 35 years of playing. Now I know I was just using my fingers too much and the problem is gone. Thanks Steve! Guess I better buy the course now :)
You have to add to the list of admirable skills of Steve Vai, he can really express his ideas in a very accessible way; he's a gifted teacher.
These tutorials is what made me a Steve Vai fan.
Steve!!!!! I still have your homemade xeroxed guitar lessons in the little plastic holder from long ago, I cherish them. Wonderful lesson!
I’ve always liked him, but when I was trying so desperately to figure out bending in the beginning and found this video my mind was blown and I fell in love with him and his work
Good lesson. My guitar teacher had me do the same drills and I was terrible. I only got better because all the practice helped improve my ears and being able to discriminate between pitches. I thought I had a bending problem but it was more an ear problem in retrospect.
I learnt that by instinct hearing and watching Joe Satriani (including the wrist rotation to bend instead of using the fingers). Thank god my ear already knew the pitches somehow
same here and still working on getting mine right. I don't give a crap what anyone says, it takes YEARS of practice to get good at it for most people on guitar.
listening really is one of the best ways to fix your technique. somehow you will end up doing it correct if you use your era.
Just remember when he lost the battle on the movie "Crossroads"! He got really good after that! No! Really what a great lesson! Thanks Steve!
this guy is good..he's got a career ahead of him.
At 4:37 it's funny how he reaches for the whammy bar even before he realizes he will need it to reach the note. Muscle memory on that level lol.....
Talk about a GOAT! He is literally a guitar god!
00:53 This right here is key for me. When your neck is way up at 45deg (classical position) it's perfectly comfortable on the wrist aligning your fingers parallel to frets. But neck down low with wrist locked full left to get the same finger parallel, I'll leave that to younger more rubbery wrists than mine.
lol he prob used true temperament frets in this vid specifically for people that say you cant bend with them
Why would you not be able to bend with them?
Exactly they're all whole frets, the string will stay on the Fret no matter where the string or the Fret is bent! :-)
it actually made me a bit dizzy
@@Kewickviper the idea against bending with them is that because of the inconsistency of the frets(curving in and out of them) that when bending a string up to the altered positioning of that fret would mean it would be inconsistent as far as how much you would have to bend or not bend depending on which fret you were on a given string.
@@joryaock but isn’t bending is simply contact pulling the note up/down? The string would maintain fret contact thusly the bend would be unaffected even w true intonation frets? I’m confused.
La ''Joconde de Léonard de Vinci'' et la ''guitare de Steve Vai'': deux chefs -d'oeuvre! Génie en peinture, et génie en musique. -Que ce soit au ciel ou en enfer, je veux être assis aux premières loges pour assister aux concerts de Steve Vai, pour l"Éternité! Quelle virtuosité!
Stunning tone
Funny, in the upper register bends you can hear Beckism's who is the master of expressive playing. These vids are incredible True Fire, thanks.
“I usually do this, with an occasional that” god I love Steve Vai
Beautiful words of wisdom from Jedi Master Vai 🙏
I love this guy. The way he talking about his instrument is just amazing.
Thank you. I've always wanted to be able to make my guitar 'sing beautifully' like yours does. This helps me to better understand my relationship with the strings. My playing still doesn't sound much like yours, but it is still beautiful! Thanks! :)
Look at them frets !!! I finally see how the alien sounds are made ..so I guess you gotta have the Ibanez signature JEM to achieve the sound he produces
Thanx. Wow. Very cool. 😊
Who knew the devil's guitarist was such a nice guy?
Actually, why am I watching this? I want to know what the Karate Kid has to say about bending!
+Buffer Zone You're an idiot. Vai played the devil's guitarist in the 80's movie "Crossroads" where he had a guitar duel against a classically trained kid, played by Ralph Macchio a.k.a. "The Karate Kid". Save your "edge" for an actual Christian whackjob who gives a fuck.
Yup. A christian.
+Buffer Zone Nice try son. You got owned. Live and learn.
Owned. In your dreams. You are owned. By your system. By your banks. In debt for ever. You are owned.
Great lesson by the great musician. Thank you!
there's no one better than SV when it comes to high bends and speed.The Bonafide master. @5:53 i can hear some Just like paradise in there.
Such a master.
Steve's always had killer bend intonation.
Wow, what a nice business move.
You put one of the best guitarist to make video lesson for bending notes.
Great move true temprament, proud of you
I'm about to get True Temperament frets on my guitar. It's a shame i can only name a handful of people who use it. It's really amazing.
Wow what an awesome teacher Steve Vai really is and humble as well. Glad that bending is difficult for me as well. Vibrato on the high E string is especially tricky! My teacher showed me that use wrist and arm motion and fingers as placeholders. Muting strings is tricky during bends but crucial.
Oh new knowledge,thank you!!
Spitting out those licks! 😮
That was pretty cool to see his technique for bending the notes. 😄👍🏻👌🏻🎸👏🏻
All hail Steve Vai.
Huge inspiration and just classy as hell.
Good Human...killer guitarist...arguably best of craft!
Thank you. This helped me to figure out why I was not able to bend a full note properly on the E1 at the 20th fret (with floating tremolo strat). The problem was that I was doing the finger bending technique instead of bending from the wirst.
Thats sweet bro it teat me alot about the reach of a not the intention of a note very beautiful its all about the reach the bend of a note.! 👍
Excellent Lesson
A must have.
1:47 i used to spontaneously drool while i was shedding, still happens every once in a while.
i love that bendy face your making Steve. Brilliant
Fantastic! 🎼🎵🎶 Thanks Steve!
"I usually do this with an occasional that" Well said!
Steve is such a great player and a seemingly great guy too. Who'd of thunk it... I always notice a signature wah wah sound in his solo's ,is that something he just uses a lot of is it just in his style of play and bending? I swear I hear it in every song he does. It sounds great too. I wonder how Steve and Eddie get along? I would think they are buds...
Since 1988 I have never been able to bend notes as accurate as this - and that is why I have always been "the rhythm guitarist" throughout my days as a guitarist. But I never gave up, and have always been begging for that "extra" bit of talent - until I had my fifth stroke, making it impossible to ever play a guitar again 😪
sucks to be you
vai idea is different then the others and so cool...
Great lesson !
So difficult, but I like to practice not just bending up a fret or 2 or 3 or even 5 but trying to hit half fret bends, picking two frets, playing the first, pretending a quarter step and then playing the next note trying to really get a feel for how to hit those microtonal notes when I want to. Can be fun to get a clean microtonal flavour and experiment with microtonal scales, major too happy? Mixolydian have a bit more edge than you want? Or nott quite enough? Lol. But great advice! Guy's a guitar genious!
Insane frets on that thing.
such a great teacher too :) just looks like a giant Mantis when he's bending and watching you ! ;)
This was very helpful!
If you upload the tutorial of the final cadenza from "Liberty" I can die happy
If you really want it then of course you can buy it. Happiness can begin.... :)
I'll try
On the topic of bending. What is the secret to keeping a floating trem from diving when playing a droning open E during a bend?
Sweet. Thanks Steve.
Fantastic
4:21 listen to the bending melody. Oh man! :)
Amazing!
Can someone please explain to my why the frets are crazy?
It's a kind of fretboard that has something called true temperament, in which they bend the frets to get absolute perfect pitch on every note of the fretboard. Equal temperament fretboards, which are the common ones, have the problem that a lot of notes sound slightly off pitch and that is because of the frets being in slightly the wrong place, that is corrected with those crazy frets.
Ok thank you for the info!
I think the video is messed up I was wondering as well
His guitar luthier was blind
And that's how a REAL guitar looks like, boys
How awesome is it when you've been doing something regularly in your personal practice and then Vai comes along and says you should do that?! Lol
those frets are crazy
Awesome. Just awesome. I’m learning. This must be what Padawan’s felt like in the Jedi temple. 😂😂😂😂
I had tape on my neck pick-up (for my Duncan Hot Rails) because I broke a coil on one with a string snapping on it during a wild solo, and had to replace it for $100.00!! Glad to see the protective tape here. Oh, and great lesson. I have much respect for Steve Vai. Are those mirco-tonal frets?
Oh, temperament frets....interesting.
ok its steve vai,lets first like the video ,comment positive things and then watch it
Of course he practiced his bending. He'll never forget that's how he lost to Ralph Macchio.
nice lesson thanks sir
master 🙏🔥
yay... im so happy how we bend is the same... hahaa.. alot of people told me to bend with the finger with straight position. but it's just not comfortable to me...
i love u steve vai ...
Does anyone know if there is a video where Steve talks about the off-set fret wires on that guitar?
LoL. I‘ve been playing the guitar for about 10 years. recently i started learning Gravity by JM, and i noticed string noise when bending and thereby touching the strings with my fingertips i was bendin into. i never was aware of this sound.. i was starting to feel really dump, since ive been playing for so long and looked up bending videos. found this one and i see that this noise unavoidable, juding by the fact that even he is doing that noise
kirk hammet needs to watch this
Can someone explain me about
bending in flyod rose and getting out of tune
WOOOW!!! VTHE FRETS LOOKS SOOO FUNNY!!! CRAZY & COOL~ ;DDD
I’ve only been playing for a year or so and don’t understand what he means by bending 2, 3, 4 frets etc. I understand bending up a half or whole step etc but how does this relate to bending a certain amount of frets? Thank you.
I just clicked to find where these guitar frets can be purchased. Cool bending excercise though
How I never noticed this before I have no idea… But what's the crooked Frets?
How the living jebus is fret wires like that work like that with intonation. I’m mesmerized and confused at the same time
I dont know if I would put TT frets in my ICONIC "EVO" Guitar. This Steve is really crazy my friends...
MrFefete 😂😂😂 I see what you did there. Lol
My friend: where'd you learn to bend like that?
.
Me: Steve Vai taught me.
Would love to hear him play with Jeff Beck.
What a beautiful 🎸 what kind is it?
when do you y talk about muting the other strings?
OK so I've just seen these frets for the first time today; done a little look around and I understand they correct what has always been a slightly inaccurate situation with conventional straight frets. But do they work on barre chords?
What I coincidence, I start spitting while I'm bending as well!
5:28
No one:
The guitar Subtitles: YOU
i spit a lot when I bend notes hahahaha!!!! steve is masterful.
This is a cute video haha.
Btw If anyone here is actually interested in learning how to bend properly and accurately Guthrie Govan has some tutorials out there.
I'm guessing he must use light-gauge strings to achieve bends that wide. I have 10's on my ax, and I have a hell of a time trying to do whole-step bends, so anything more than that is out of the question unless I want to break a string or make it go way out of tune.
He uses 9's. You can bend 10's more than a whole step, just gotta practice and endure the pain for the first times that you practice it. Also, raising your action gives you a better grip on the string.
Good point. A lot of people will laugh, but higher action has a lot more going for it than some folks can imagine. Guitar is not necessarily supposed to be 'easy' to play. There is a happy medium.
Indeed higher action is better for the tone (Steve shreds at times but he still has a high action) and other things.
I used to play on 010 on a jem, it was all ok but one day the neck cracked at toplock area. Jem is simply not designed for fat strings
i use 10's and i can do up to 2 whole steps bend, it just needs practice to build about the finger strength and the elephant skin needed on your fingers.
You know you've got good feel when your saliva glands are connected to your fingers.
Bend should do with 1finger or3finger?