) kL aa a ; => —S _ 10 HOUR GUITAR vaINCEITS APPEARANCE in Guitar Werld in 1990, Vai’ intensive guitar ‘gimen has been the Holy Grail for serous players. Here, forthe first time ini?years, is the lesson that shaped a dwn with guitarst/transcriber Dave Whitchil and outlined his practice octne forthe January 1990 issue of Guitar World. Never before had a fart given such an in-depth explana tin ofhis musical exercise regimen. [ebecame a mustchave for guitarists; ‘many ofthe players interviewed in GWhave cited itas an influence on their development a guitarists. We thought it would be cool to give you the chance to experience the workout ints original form and to learn some ‘ofthe things Vai has done to develop hisformidable chops and remarkable ‘music vocabulary. To start, Vai presents the general pilesophy behind his approach to the guitar. “T could sit here and tll you, Rule of thumb: try to always Play clean’ or ‘Rule of thumb: think Imelody” But | wouldn't because I realy dont think there are any rules of thumb, Ifyou ty t do something that somebody else says isa rule of thumb, you might be going against your better jadement. Most of the time, innovation happens when people break the rules. "A rule of thumb I could offer is: never take what anybody tells you as gospel. Music isan artform; isan expression of yourself, and you have todo ithe way you do it. Pm not say- ing don' listen to what anybody else says either, because its very helpful to hear about what other people have Jearmed. Ie’ very helpful to build your technique around someone's lesson in magazine. [may show you certain exercises I did that I ehought were helpful, but you shouldn't get carried away with what I or anyone else does because youl start sounding like me or the next guy and lose sight of your own musical identity. “Tcould tell you, Play from the heart ut what the hell does that mean? It's easy to say, but it's ahard thing to understand, When you say, ‘Play from the heart’ you mean, ‘Play fom your own heart; but whats in ‘your own heart? To know your heart, ou have to know yourself and to know yourself you have tobe yourself and to be yourself, you have to like yourself. This goes into all these realms of psychology, but this is what | think fs important toa person's playing and the way he expresses himself.” ‘THE 10-HOUR WORKOUT On his way to becoming a guitar vir- ‘uoso, Vai would practice 10 hours per day and document everything he did. “The frst hour was devoted to techni- calexercises, the second to scales and FIGUREthe third to some “chord thing" He'd | REURE10 repeat theseareasthrestimesand FF devote the remaining time to a“Sen- | (AEE ae Siig Hour? during which hewould | 1B tr torepreducespoken phrases 38 passtges onthe gitar In aditon, the txeretses were divided int three cat- ‘core inca picking stretching ana gular All af them are oslned inthe flowing text. LINEAR PICKING EXERCISES ‘Todevelopa strong ent alternate (own up) picking technique, ai ree commends practicing "things that are {echnealy awkward ike picking three orfournotesona sting and erossing Covert the next string and doing it sean Bin vey slowiyenduecaret- | PAURETZ ronome; go all the way up and down ees —_theneck- Once you fel comfortable kf i = playingsa certain pattern, set the met ronome alittle faster. Keep doing this and eventually, after several months, you're just wailing” ‘The first example of this type oflinear exercise is based on an ascending pattern well simply call, “1-2-3-4," as this refers to the order inwhich the fret-hand fingers are FIGURE 13, placed on each string (HGURE ). When fa playing this exercise, try to keep your fretting hand fingers as close as pos- |___ sible to the fingerboard, You should keep your firs finger on the string until the fourth finger makes con [= tact, at which point the first finger. | [-—— moves over to the next string. This is = ‘great, uncomplicated exercise for a novice guitarist ‘Vai then demonstrates an alternat- ing variation (FGURE2) in which the = Ss Sn = fingering pattern (represented numer- ically below the tablature) follows the repeating Sequence 1-2-3-4, 2-3-4, 3421-2, 4-1-2-3. This altern is also played on a singles ‘UgE) and has the added benefit of offering a great exercise is shifting. The next ste other permutations ofthe 1-2-3-4 or any other four-note combination you find awkward and practice them ina Similar manner. If we apply Vai’ pragmatic approach to three-note-per-string. ombinations—for example, -3-4—the result would be the three exercises show in FGURES 4-6. These exercises presenta workout forthe brain as well asthe fingers. Approach them slowly at first, until the logic behind each pat- tem sinks in. (Of course, two-note-per-string patterns could also be used for lin- ‘ear picking exercises (FIGURES 7 and 9). Ifyou have problems crossing strings with the same finger, you'll find the exercise shown in FIGURE to be particularly beneficial. Roll your fretting finger over the strings as you ‘witch from one to the next to keep he notes from ‘bleeding’ or ringing Gnajint B