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Steve Vai

Steve Vai Quotes

Guitarist

Steve Vai is an influential guitarist known for his unique playing techniques and musical style. Born on June 6, 1960, Vai has shown a passion for music from a young age and has continuously explored and pushed boundaries in his career. His music spans various genres including rock, jazz, and classical, and has had a profound impact on guitarists and music enthusiasts alike.

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Famous Steve Vai Quotes

“I loved the guitar, and I had all of this music in my head. My passion for the guitar and the ideas for what I could create musically were equal. So that's where I was.”

Ideas Passion Equal Guitar My Passion

Author:Steve Vai

“I've always considered transcribing to be an invaluable tool in the development of one's musical ear and, over the years, I have spent countless glorious hours transcribing different kinds of music, either guitar-oriented or not.”

Years Kind Different Hours Development Tools Ears Guitar Musical Glorious Different Kinds Invaluable Different Kinds Of Music Transcribing

Author:Steve Vai

“I saw this trend happening with the proliferation of guitar clinics and schools. And I was approached to do a camp in the past, but I wanted to have a good enough idea because most of them are just about jamming and learning. I decided I wanted a theme for each camp.”

Ideas Enough Wanted School Past Saws Happenings Decided Guitar Theme Good Enough Trends Camps Proliferation Clinic

Author:Steve Vai

“The classical guitar has a dynamic to it unlike a regular acoustic guitar or an electric guitar. You know, there's times when you should play and there's times when you gotta hold back. It's an extremely dynamic instrument.”

Knows Should Play Instruments Guitar Electric Acoustics Acoustic Guitar Electric Guitar Classical Guitar

Author:Steve Vai

“Besides being a guitar player, I'm a big fan of the guitar. I love that damn instrument.”

Bigs Player Fans Instruments Guitar Damn Being In Love Guitar Player Gamer Playing Guitar

Author:Steve Vai

“I loved the idea of recording. The idea of sound-on-sound-recording captured me as a young kid, and once I realized what it was I had an epiphany. Before I was even playing the guitar, I would create these lists of how I would record things and overdub them, like Led Zeppelin song, 'I could put this guitar on this track...' and so on.”

Ideas Kids Young Song Sound Records Guitar Track Lists I Realized Captured Epiphany Zeppelins

Author:Steve Vai

“Still to this day, I am deeply satisfied when watching a guitar player who is connected with their art and instrument. GuitarTV helps you tap into that connection, and to each other.”

Art Stills Helping Player Connections Instruments Guitar Connected Satisfied This Day Guitar Player

Author:Steve Vai

“I dedicated all the time I had to it. The 10 hour workout was just what I put in the magazine at the time, but for me it was every waking moment.”

Moments Hours Player Guitar Magazines Waking Dedicated Workout Guitar Player

Author:Steve Vai

“Lenny Breau was a genius - inspired and really loose. I loved how he used the guitar as an extension of his inner freedom, because, obviously, on the outside there were a lot of trainwrecks going on. But when you listen to him play, you hear what kind of guy he really is”

Kind Play Used Guy Music Genius Inspired Guitar Extensions Trainwrecks

Author:Steve Vai

“There is still a very strong subculture of people who want to do great things on an instrument, and who are stimulated by hearing people who can. That's reassuring. But it's gonna take a person - and I don't know who this is - to come along and reinvent the guitar as a virtuosic instrument in a completely different realm than any of us have done, or anybody else in the past. That's the clincher. Maybe that will happen and maybe it won't.”

People Knows Want Persons Stills Different Done Happens Past Strong Music Instruments Guitar Hearing Great Things Realms Very Strong Reassuring Subculture

Author:Steve Vai

“In the physical universe, there are objects that include suns, planets, all life, and all matter in all dimensions. And then there is the space where all these things exist. That space is the vital element. For virtually every kid since 1968 who picked up a guitar to find his voice on the instrument, Jimmy Page has been the space that enables all our notes to be played.”

Has Beens Matter Kids Universe Voice Space Sun Objects Planets Elements Pages Instruments Notes Guitar Dimensions Jimmy

Author:Steve Vai

“It's always funny to me when people use the phrase 'Best guitar player in the world'. There are too many variables such as technique, uniqueness, emotional investment in the notes, etc. But If I had to pick one, it would be Tommy Emmanuel. Watching him perform can be a study in artistic and virtuosic human achievement.”

“If you want to play something that you hear, you need to listen with your mind's eye. You've heard of the mind's eye, right? Your mind has an ear too. It's a kind of listening, but it's not using your ears to listen. It's listening with your inner ear, and that's what you want to translate onto the guitar.”

Ifs Want Needs Mind Kind Play Eye Music Heard Listening Musician Ears Guitar What You Want Translate

Author:Steve Vai

“So that's the challenge for me and that has always been the challenge - finding that melody, that riff, that thing that just lights me up and makes me feel like it's Christmas.”

Feels Light Challenges Music Findings Guitar Melody

Author:Steve Vai

“I designed a guitar for Ibanez and then they started manufacturing it - it's called the Jem - it's 26 years old and I still play it. As a kid I liked Les Pauls and Strats, but they had limitations for the kind of playing I wanted to do.”

Years Kind Stills Play Kids Wanted Guitar Limitation Manufacturing Jem

Author:Steve Vai

“It's hilarious, because my guitar has what's known as a tremolo bar or a whammy bar. And the whammy bar is probably the most alien thing on my guitar that could possibly relate to a classical guitar.”

Known Guitar Bars Aliens Relate Classical Guitar

Author:Steve Vai

“The guitar is the coolest instrument in the world.”

World Instruments Guitar

Author:Steve Vai

About the Author

Born: June 6, 1960
Known for: Guitarist
Quotes: 87

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