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In 2007, Guitar World Magazine reprinted an interview with Steve Vai, in which he describes the details of his practice approach. Because of the huge impact this article had on my practice discipline, I am presenting it to you. Even if you do not play the guitar, you may still find it interesting just how one would go about becoming a great guitar player. While you may be very familiar with the idea that becoming great in anything will require a huge amount of practice and discipline, you are probably unaware of the types of practices and the kind of discipline a guitarist would have to perform in order to increase their skill and achieve results. To provide you with a bit of data about that here’s a brief summary of Steve Vai’s 10-Hour Guitar Workout. Basically, what he describes is the disciplined way he approaches his practice time.
If you don’t know who Steve Vai is and would like to acquaint yourself about him before continuing, click here. And to see him perform one of his most loved pieces called “For the Love of God” watch the video below.
Ever since I’ve used the information in this article my skill set has improved dramatically. It helped me to become more results-oriented, it encouraged me to challenge myself to reach for the attainment of ever higher levels of difficult skills, so now I practice for a purpose, and I’m always trying to develop my skill set to match my understanding that the guitar is a secondary “voice box” for creative expression.
Here is the summary of the 10-Hour Workout:
The first hour focuses on technical exercises, the second on scales, the third to some “chord thing”. Repeating them three times, he’d devote the remaining hour to “sensitivity” training, where he would reproduce spoken phrases like words or a sentence as passages on the guitar.
The technical exercises are categorized into three groups: linear picking, stretching, and angular exercises. The linear picking exercises are used “To develop a strong, fluent alternate (down-up) picking technique,” and Vai recommends practicing “things that are technically awkward.” The stretching exercises “…are played…to gradually increase the span of your fretting hand…[so] try spanning four or five frets with the first and fourth fingers…[but] STOP if you feel ANY DISCOMFORT.” Lastly, “angular exercises improve your string-crossing chops…the more adept you are at crossing strings with the pick, the better your picking technique.”
The scale/mode studies involve “…playing the major scale in all 12 keys at 10 different tempos, and practicing scales in interval patterns.” The first goal here is to “make sure they’re perfect—clean, even, and right in sync with the metronome…making sure your pick isn’t moving that much.” Next, taking any scale shape, learn to play through it in thirds, fourths, and fifths.
Now with chord studies Vai’s approach was to devote the first hour to studying chord charts. On the second hour, he’d spend time “experimenting with unusual chords and voicings”, and in the third hour just jam on a rhythm. Using whatever chords he found and liked, he would then incorporate their inversions and arpeggios. Once he had a groove going, he’d record it, and solo over it.
In the “Sensitivity Hour”, he would think of phrase like a word or sentence and try to play it on the guitar. “Each note corresponds to a syllable, and the rhythms follow the natural speech pattern.”
To hear a sample of how he does this and what it sounds like, here’s a video to watch. The part I want you to hear begins at 1:08 min.
The purpose of all this is “to try and balance the technical with the emotional...and [discover] that, once I got my motor skills sharpened, it’s a lot easier for me to express myself, as long as I didn’t get carried away with my chops…It’s very expressive and a lot better than thinking, Okay, I’m in the key of E minor and…,” so I can play these chords with these notes. So by practicing these exercises and mastering them, when one plays the instrument he starts to say things that are “extremely personal [where] the personality behind each phrase will reach the audience. It’ll make your solo mean something very special and it’ll add a certain feel to the way you play it.”
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Marc
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