Steve Vai's martian love secrets and tempo mental articles

Matcher · Post by **Matcher** » Tue Jun 12, 2007 4:50 pm

I've read these articles about musical expression and rhythm a couple of times, and always find something new and inspiring. Check 'em out yo!

http://www.vai.com/LittleBlackDots/MLS_index.html

http://www.vai.com/LittleBlackDots/tempomental.html

nickysnd · Post by **nickysnd** » Wed Jun 13, 2007 11:46 pm

I didn't know that Steve Vai is such a fine intellectual. Here is a gem:

"I believe that individuality is defined, for the most part, by how well you exercise your imagination with the proper blend of emotion and physical, technical, and mental ability."

Wonderful definition! That sums up pretty much everything about how to best play/improvise/compose music. There is only one tiny little thing that is left to each one of us to figure it out: the meaning of the term "proper" in Vai's definition. Once one gets the meaning of that word, one has learned everything worth knowing about music.

Matcher · Post by **Matcher** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 2:30 pm

Ah, that's it! I'm reading all of it again!

Time to rediscover after some years again

AlMacMeister · Post by **AlMacMeister** » Thu Aug 02, 2007 7:48 pm

Very interesting. My favourite line was from his third article;

"For example, I have the perfect chord for spitting out [an] apple"

and he then proceeds to give the chord that represents the state of mind and feeling of someone spitting out an apple because they were too hungry to chew it properly! Very funny. And deep. I too didn't know he was such a deep thinker...

Thanks for letting us know about the articles!

catfishmusic · Post by **catfishmusic** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 2:49 am

Vai is no slouch. I had read those articles back when they were published in GP. Great to re-read.

Anyone who can transcribe entire Zappa scores note for note gets my respect no matter what kind of music they play!