My guitar teacher reckons vai wouldnt know phrasing, feel or emotion if it slapped him on the arse. he reckons he cant play blues at all and reckons that all he does is play a million notes per second. He reckons Eric clapton is better for feel along with a long list of other players.

My question is, Has anyone ever come up to you and said Vai is crap and stupid and what was your reply?

Tobi Atkins

i suppose thats your guitar teachers opinion, i myself diagree, how can someone like vai play like does and not have no feel? I'v noticed that most 'good' guitar players call people like vai saying he does'nt have feel or emotion in his playing, i for 1 think there just jelous...i would'nt mind being able to play like him.

i may be biased when it comes to vai simply because i think he is the best there is, but your guitar teacher is an idiot. i have nothing more to say on the matter

First off, as a guitar teacher it is COMPLETELY irresponsible to talk down about ANY guitar player to a student. That person should be slapped.

Second, Steve Vai isn`t a blues player. You`ll never find one of his albums in the blues aisle at warehouse music. Can he play inside the context of a blues oriented song? You bet he can.

As for feel, that`s up to you. If you connect to his music, you can hear him play with feel. If not, big deal. Appreciate it for what you get from it.

Lastly: God Bless the man, but let BB King try and play "answers". Let Clapton have a shot at The Attitude Song. They would both fail miserably I`m afraid.

It`s not what you play that matters. It`s how you deliver what you play. If you`re playing with a fire from your soul then you might just play a little faster than the next guy, but if you`re playing from a broken heart, you may not feel like blazing away.

Clapton is great at what he does, and "If I Had Possesion Over Judgement Day (the live version)" is one of my all time favorite songs. The point is, do not write off another musician because they don`t do what you do, or what some schmuck said about them.
(BTW, wasn`t there a mamber here from back in the day that called himself Schmuck?)

Well your teacher really shouldn't said that

Totally disagree. Just for starters:

Tender Surrender
Hand On Heart
For The Love Of God
Sisters
Touching Tongues
Rescue Me Or Bury Me
Blue Powder
Whispering A Prayer

Tell him to listen to those and say it again. Your teacher, as far as this is concerned, is a moron.

Whenever I want to turn someone's head around about Mr. Vai (especially older players who pre-date the shred era), I play "Boy From Seattle" for them. These are guys like me who grew up on Hendrix and the other elder statesmen (Clapton, Peter Green,...), and later maybe SRV and a few others. If there was ever any question about Steve's versatility and taste, that tune puts the issue to rest.
Bert

the way look at matters a guitar teacher is a teacher for two reasons, because they like to help people bein educated or they did'nt make it anywhere themselves and in this case, i think he is a loser and should'nt be teaching, i suppose he has great feel and emotion in his albums lol what albums..

Time to get a new guitar teacher in my opinion.

I don't really give a fuck what people think about anything,especially their taste or lack of taste in music.Clapton's not my cup of tea but to some Vai isn't their cup of tea and EC is.There's some people who like both and some who like neither.I see no reason why it should matter to you at all what people think.It's irrelevent.FUCK 'EM!

That's an unusual analogy BBB, drink his bathwater??? Hmmmm are we talking before or after he's had the bath? And can you get drunk on Radox??

Who cares if some guitar teacher hates Vai? Just tell him the next time he bitches about it: "Ok mate fair enough, you don't like Steve's stuff, then don't listen to it, you'll be happier...meanwhile I'll carry on listening, while you listen to your Clapton unplugged (again) singalong CD, ok?"

At the end of the day you're gonna listen and play the stuff you like no matter what anybody says so don't worry about it...

I think Steve is a wonderful player. I also suggest you think about finding another teacher. Hopefully you're not paying this guy for his advice.

Yea , ive had this too . My brother once asked some guitarist he knows what he thought of Steve Vai as he knew i liked him , and his response was that he is a show off and only trys to show up other guitarists .

My thoughts on this are that maybe back in his time with DLR and the early P&W years Steve may have shown himself off a bit . But thats because thats what music was like then , all about showing off . Now days Steve has a very honest and true way of playing . I think some people can only think of Steve as that kick ass guitarist back in the eighties who showed off in DLR . They havent even looked at him these days , cos if they did they wouldn't be saying that stuff about him . They are obviously just jealous of his technique , because when you come across any good guitarist , if they know of steve they always say he was an inspiration .