Steve Vai - Juice

This is a live performance by guitarist Steve Vai playing his instrumental song "Juice" live. The performance is from 2003 and it was shot in Denver.
Juice is the second track on Steve Vai's 1995 EP "Alien Love Secrets". The song is a fast instrumental in a boogie-woogie style time signature. Also the riffs used in the song are very boogie-woogie like.
It's basically Vai's take on a boogie-woogie, using a lot of advanced techniques like tapping and pinch harmonics, but also with a lot of traditional boogie-woogie and rock 'n' roll licks thrown in. The performance style is that flashy style Vai is known for.
It's a great performance of a little instrumental by a really good guitarist.

Enjoy ; )

Steve Vai - Jibboom

This is a performance by guitarist Steve Vai playing something a little more bluesy and outside his comfort-zone. The song appears on Vai's 1999 album "The Ultra Zone".
On the album Vai mentions that this track is an homage to blues guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan. And you can definitely hear the resemblance, it's a classic blues progression that sort of is a take-off/sounds similar to songs recorded by SRV song like Scuttle Buttin', Mary Had a Little Lamb and Testify. It's an homage and it's own original thing, but the general feel and groove of the song is similar to many SRV songs.
Steve Vai recently said in a video posted on his official youtube channel that blues is outside his comfort-zone. He jokingly says that he plays blues within the comforts of his own home which is a pretty funny thing to say. (I've embeded the video below, he also shares some very good practice-techniques for guitar)

I really love how long this performance is. It starts out with the basic song, and then goes into Vai soloing. Then it turns into a "call and response" sort of thing between Vai and the bassist which is just awesome. The bassist really does an amazing job, and the two performers play to well together and interact so well on stage. At the end Vai goes into a Hendrix style guitar thing, making sounds by using the whammy bar, the natural harmonics and the control knobs to really make the guitar scream.
This is an awesome performance and awesome showmanship. Gotta love that!!

Enjoy ; )

Steve Vai - Building The Church

This is a live performance by guitarist Steve Vai performing one of his original instrumental guitar pieces. It was released in 2009 on both CD, DVD and Blu-ray. This number is really good, and it's not just a guitarist showing off. I've always loved Steve Vai because he is an original. He really tries to be innovative and push the envelope as far as what is possible on guitar. On top of that he's also a great composer who does some really good guitar instrumentals. He plays fast, but has a lot of feeling in his playing as well. He's really good, and you gotta respect that!

Enjoy ; )

Steve Vai - For the Love of God

This is a guitar instrumental piece by guitar legend Steve Vai. The song was originally recorded and released in 1990 on Steve Vai's album "Passion and Warfare".
It's a long instrumental featuring a wide variety of different guitar techniques, one more impressive than the other. He uses the whammy-bar on the song a lot, he uses pinch harmonics, natural harmonics, two finger tapping and it all adds up to something amazing and out of this world.
Vai himself has stated that when he's making music he likes to try and enter different states of consciousness. So there is a, hmm... religious or spiritual overtone at work here, and you can hear that emotion channelled through Vai's playing.
That is what I love about Vai's playing, it's ultra-technical and out of this world difficult. But through his hands it's still played with emotion. There are very few players who can be speed demons and still emote, and for that Vai, I personally salute you.
A high point of this performance, in my opinion, is when he towards the end of his performance makes the guitar sound like dolphin screams. I mean who else could do that but him? This is an all over awesome performance.

Enjoy ; )

Steve Vai - Bad Horsie

This is a hard rock instrumental by guitarist Steve Vai. Steve is known for his technical abilities on guitar, he started out playing as one of Joe Satriani's students, and today they are both among some of the best. Steve plays with a lot of intricate techniques and with a very high skill level and difficulty to his playing. He does however also draw from a number of artists who wouldn't fall into that category like Hendrix for instance, so Steve's playing is a nice mix of technical skill level and playing with emotion. He's innovative, and has made his own line of revolutionary guitars and is just a master of the trade that is guitar playing.

The song "Bad Horsie" is the opening track on Vai's EP named "Alien Love Secrets" that came out in 1995. The song "Bad Horsie" is derived from a riff Vai contributed to the film "Crossroads" where he played the devil. The song is played tuned down to what would be Drop C tuning, a very low tuning (CGCFAD). It's a great song, and it has one hell of a groove, love it!
(As a little fun thing, I've added the guitar duel from Crossroads, you can definitely recognize the intro, it's a little silly, but great 80's retro fun)


Enjoy ; )