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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#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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#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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