Most difficult Vai song?

[JCM]

Hi guys... since there is an "Easy song?" thread... why not your hardest Vai song to learn?

I will name one from each album that I think are quite complex to interpret:

P&W > Blue Powder [This one is signature Vai... all the elements!]
S&R > Pig [Hard rhythmic stuff in there!]
ALS > Kill the guy with the ball [Uptempo controlled caos!]
FG > Fire Garden suite [Big Meola style suite!]
UZ > Oooo [more work in there than you might have thought!]

[Nick.]

hard vai songs..err...all of them..they're all hard in some way or another. be it in the actual playing, or the feel of the song or the musical understanding of what makes the song what it is.

[Kamenrider Ryuuki]

...i think, only people who understands him and get a good picture of what he's been doing will play exactly like him...ha ha !! am i nuts!!?? i take that back!!

...i dont think Vai is a great guitar player, he is, what we called...a good storyteller!! he feels for us, and plays what we REALLY want to hear, he seems like, know how to wake us from our sonic dreams with his absolute storytelling thru his music...i feel like Vai's music is a part of me that i'd been searching all along.

[earthh]

[quote="Kamenrider Ryuuki"]...i dont think Vai is a great guitar player.[/quote]

I'm not wanting an argument just curious as to who you like more than Steve?

Just curious

[Insert A Nickname]

MMMM..... I think Oooo should be changed with Jibboom. That's the hardest song of UZ.

And the hardest song ever, it's, believe it or not... Whispering a Prayer.

I know, the melody is really simple, but it takes a lot to get the right intonation with the wammy bar on the right tempo. Besides, ain't you hear the fast part? MEN!!! There's so much energy in there... It makes me feel full of joy.

Peace

[jmchambers5]

I think that "Ooo" is the hardest Vai song that i've ever tried to play, but then again, i've only really tried to play stuff off Ultra Zone and Flexable Leftovers for the most part, and some of that stuff on Passion and Warfare is just crazy fast, like that riff in "The Animal", you know the one i mean.

Jay
Peace

[Whookam]

The solo to "Tender Surrender" is a strained hand muscle just waiting to happen! That's the toughest thing of Vai's that I've encountered, I believe.

[Zebula77]

Definitely 'Kill the Guy...' Some of the rythm stuff boggles my mind, and it's really har to play as well.

Of course, some of the Zappa stuff he's done in the past like 'Moggio' is way harder, I think.

[earthman]

all of them...

I've never managed to learn an entire syvy song, not counting the DLR stuff, which is much simpler. I've got most of "viv woman" and "call it sleep" plus fair chunks of "FTLOG", "blue powder" and "erotic nightmares" down, but there's always whole sections that make my hands blow a fuse.

satch's stuff, now that I can play. I learned most of the "surfing" album by rote, plus large chunks of "flying", "the extremist" and "crystal planet".

I just *get* satch's patterns and fluidity, whereas I just cannot reproduce vai's musicality. which is probably why my own music sounds more like joe than steve!

oh hang on - there's one vai tune I can play the same as the man himself - "ballerina 12/24". I just don't have a multi-fx that will reproduce the extra lines for me!

peace,
--c.

[Nick.]

MMMM..... And the hardest song ever, it's, believe it or not... Whispering a Prayer.

I know, the melody is really simple, but it takes a lot to get the right intonation with the wammy bar on the right tempo. Besides, ain't you hear the fast part? MEN!!! There's so much energy in there... It makes me feel full of joy.

Peace

i agree with you..getting the feel, the tone and everything else you said must be really hard

[Nilsefix]

I would say , that from ultrazone , and maybe vai in general , Windows to The Soul , is one of his hardest tunes...

[962]

If you include Bangkok, then the Fire Garden Suite. If you don't include Bangkok, then the Fire Garden Suite. Steve literally recorded everything, and not many of his tunes have parts for Sitar in them, alongside an awesome drum track, amazing keys, a solid bass line and a total work out for the guitarist.

From what I could see at the London show, the Suite really means something to Steve - kinda like FTLOG, but on a different level. It has every Vai-ism engrained in it. Okay maybe not every one, but most of 'em!

Whispering a Prayer is cool, and is largely about feedback control, something he's particularly good at. oh, and inovative use of the trem arm is always better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.

[GGGrev]

How about the tapping solos on the G3 answers?? That was a hard part...

But if you're saying a whole song then it is Jibboom...

[dex]

Although I can't play anywhere near as well as earthman (I'm still having difficulty believing how he pulled off "The mystical potato head groove thing" tapping while casually resting on his half stack. ) but for me is also really easy to get Joe's way of playing.

Steve on the other hand........wow.
The most I've learned of a song is Sisters and I still can't play big chunks of it.
I mean Joe's stuff is very fast but once you get your sweep picking and legato runs up to speed you can almost pull off his music where's with Steve the fingerings are always unortodox.
It's almost like you have to practise completely new fingerings to even try and do a Steve tune.
And I agree about Jibboom.... from my point of view that is something that I could never pull off.

ilia

[Junebughunter]

Whispering a prayer I don't think is the most difficult and it isn't feedback control it is called a sustainer.

Anyway, the attitude song isn't super hard, but to play the whole thing through without getting mixed up or confused is a challenge...

Eugene's trick bag seems almost impossible to play up to speed flawlessly