Learn From Steve Vai To Greatly Improve Your Guitar Playing: Part 2

Begin to analyze guitar players like Steve Vai and soon you will learn lots of thing... if you know what to look for. Like any other great guitar player, Steve Vai's musical greatness was not the result of his perfect guitar playing technique alone, but due to his ability to express himself with music.

Before you read the rest of this article, check out the first three guitar secret lessons from Steve Vai. Here are three more:

Why Steve Vai Has Achieved Greatness - Reason #4: He's Had Total Commitment To Becoming An Incredible Player

Everybody knows how intense and dedicated Steve Vai's guitar practice routines have been... not to mention the huge amount of hours he's invested into becoming one of the best guitarists ever. However, Vai didn't achieve his musical greatness as a "result" of the amount of hours he practiced, or because of the difficulty of his guitar practice routines. Discipline and natural talent have nothing to do with this. Instead, it was Vai's passion - his true love and burning desire for become a master of guitar - that motivated him to practice every single day. That is the behind-the-scenes secret that has allowed Vai to achieve his unbelievable guitar playing level. Learn how to transform yourself as a great guitar player.

How to use this to improve your own guitar playing

To achieve musical greatness you don't need to invest crazy amounts of hours into practicing guitar. Let me show you how you can easily accelerate your progress towards becoming a great guitar player... Here is exactly what you have to do:

  1. Increase your desire for becoming a killer guitar player.
  2. Learn how to make your guitar practice routine effective and fun.
  3. Don't practice guitar without direction. You must understand which exercises are most important for your practice routine and which ones need to be left out. Discover how to manifest your guitar playing goals by taking this test.

Why Steve Vai Has Achieved Greatness - Reason #5: He Uses Several Songwriting Approaches To Compose Great Music

Steve Vai is well known for his amazing ability to create great music. Vai can take a single technique (like a slide) and implement it in many different ways to create a unique sound. Furthermore, the true secret of Vai's songwriting skills is in the variety of musical styles and techniques he has mastered. This allows him to use multiple approaches when writing music, so he doesn't have to rely exclusively on his guitar as his main songwriting tool.

How to use this to improve your own guitar playing

Having only one songwriting approach will always be a limiting approach if you are trying to compose innovative pieces of music. Start learning many other songwriting methods so you can use them to fully express yourself in music - Take a look at this articles about how to become creative at songwriting.

Why Steve Vai Has Achieved Greatness - Reason #6: His Ability To Turn Difficult Rhythms Into Great Music

Vai can easily make uncommon rhythms sound simple and catchy. Instead of trying to impress the audience by playing overlycomplicated rhythmic ideas, he turns complex ideas into easily accessible music.

How to use this to transform your own guitar playing:

  1. Great rhythm skills (like any other guitar skill) don't develop for you unless you actively practice them. Do not neglect this key area of your guitar playing - include it into your daily practice routine.
  2. Don't lose your focus by playing mindless rhythm guitar exercises. Instead, center your attention on developing the two key factors for great rhythm guitar playing: precision and articulation.
  3. Challenge yourself to practice playing over unusual time signatures. Pick some of your favorite songs that are in 4/4 time and play them over several different time signatures, like 7/4 or 5/4. By doing this exercise, your mind will start to think differently and begin getting used to complex rhythms.

Read this rhythm guitar article to get more creative ideas for writing guitar riffs.

Now you have a deep understanding of Steve Vai's guitar playing greatness, and is up to you to start implementing these lessons into your practice routine and start growing yourself as a great guitar player. To achieve massive results in your guitar playing, work with an electric guitar teacher who can help you in the journey towards reaching your musical goals.

Tom Hess is a professional touring guitarist and recording artist. He teaches, trains and mentors musicians from around the world.

Visit his site to discover highly effective music learning resources, guitar lessons, music career mentoring and tools including free online assessments, surveys, mini courses and more.

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