Opinions regarding Steve Vai's practice routine

Playing Technique
#1

Hello Masters in Mechanics!

I’ve been reading a lot of super interesting topics regarding the practice routine. And they have opened my eyes in a certain way. But I wanted to make a very specific query about a routine that blew my mind (probably you too, I don’t know …):

“Steve Vai Freak Show Excess - The 30 Hours Workout”

One of my biggest inspirations since I first heard him was Mr. Vai. And my main objective for a long time was to play like him. And when I found this book I said well here I have the Holy Grail. But well actually that place has been taken by CTC.

But still I would like to know: What do you think of this practice routine or at least the topics you mention?

Thank you very much for your attention and sorry for my bad English.

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#2

It’s crazy how he could manage to concentrate for 10 hours every day, I can’t focus for that long even if I just have to do it once. But do I get a lot of inspiration from the categories he mentions, those are great. Hopefully it’s possible to get something out of it even if I don’t put in as many hours as he did.

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#3

Vai’s 10 & 30 Hour Workouts are great for mapping out the different categories of techniques and types of musical skills you should be working towards in your practice. I like that the system isn’t simply: practice technical exercises for 10 hours.

He breaks down the workout into different skills:

  1. Technique Exercises
  2. Scales
  3. Chords & Arpeggios
  4. Ear Training
  5. Sight Reading
  6. Composing / Songwriting
  7. Music Theory
  8. Jamming

The workouts do not, however, include much material on how to actually develop technical mechanics. He gives a few finger exercises, but certainly not enough material to practice even 1 hour, much less 30 hours! I think the idea is to take a concept, like Tapping, and explore many creative possibilities of the technique for an hour or so.

CtC is a great resource to learn actual technical mechanics, especially for the right hand :wink:

Obviously, you don’t need to practice for 10 hours every day to get great results. I think a good range is probably closer to 2-4 hours. If you plan your practice over the entire week, you can hit this entire list.

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#4

I came back to Steve’s cross-picking exercise many years later after learning more about it from CtC:

Now it’s one of my favorite warm-up exercises. I didn’t spend time working on trying to be good at that exercise, but when I can move through it with relative ease it generally lets me know I’m having an “on” day.

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#5

Can you do it ergonomically, with good physical awareness and not physical discomfort?

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#6

I wasn’t sure if you were referring to my comment on the cross-picking exercise or not, but I’ll assume you were. :smile:

I remember when I first read about some 25+ years ago and saw that it was all alternate picking. I had just gotten into Gambale and was a bit of a sweep/economy acolyte at the time so the thought of cross-picking seemed like ergonomic heresy to me. It wasn’t until many years later, after discovering CTC, that I made a concerted effort to up my alternate-picking game. As a result I got over my dumb dogmatic hang ups and generally progressed as a player.

As for this exercise, it’s still hard. Metronome-wise I can’t blaze through this much faster than 16th notes at 100bpm. I suppose I could get faster at it, but I don’t really use it so much as a technique-developer as much as a sort of gauge of how everything is synchronizing today.

But I know that I’m doing it right when it flows without a lot of arm-tension (usually in the upper-arm for me). For me, there is definitely a mental perception aspect to how this exercise feels. I don’t have a better way of describing it than seeing/feeling it in larger chunks. When I’m focused on individual pick-strokes I usually run out of steam. When I can feel/visualize it larger chunks (usually four-note groupings) it feels a lot better. I’m sure Troy could weigh in on the mental whys and what-fors.

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#7

Steve Vai’s practice regime is ideal for those who wish to become better musicians, not just shredders. That’s why there are not many technique-oriented exercises in there.

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#8

To me these sorts of exercises do not seem very musical. There is no harmony, no melody, only symmetrical patterns. I agree they could be useful to develop control.

In contrast, you could take one of my exercises which requires mental agility I can actually help you develop and strengthen neural networks.

Take an easy example 6/9, cycle four.

  1. Play C 6/9 arpeggio in seventh position (same notes as A minor pentatonic).

  2. Raise that arpeggio’s third by a minor second. (What’s the third of C-major? Look it up if you don’t know.)

You just substituted C Major 6/9 for a 6/9 chord a perfect fourth away. What’s a fourth away from C? Again, Google.

Take the cord that you changed to and apply the interval change pattern as defined in step two (raise the third by a minor second). Continue the process since you complete the cycle back to C major.

The idea of the exercises that you shouldn’t have to go and look up, but should be able to play it slowly in time. You should be sufficiently challenged by the amount of focus required to concentrate on the notes you’re playing, how you’re playing them, either the next chord of the sequence or the notes to apply the intervallic change pattern (3rd + min 2nd), and the sound.

#9

I think there are valid reasons to have both musical and non-musical exercises. More musical ones make it fun and are potentially more usable in real world, but sometimes you need a non-musical, shapes based exercise to work on a very specific thing, such as picking.

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