Private Lesson from Joe Satriani

This is amazing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBKevuPFrpE

Joe offers some amazing advice to a player who is already very accomplished. I can see why Joe created so many great guitar players. I'm a big fan of Joe's music, but it was amazing to see this other side of him and to see his teaching style at work.

There's no ego here, no showing off. Just constructive honest criticism and advice on how to move forward and expand as a musician. I was blown away at how the "student" could play - what more could he do? But Joe offered a wonderful critique.

Much of what was discussed was way over my head, but one thing I took away from it was that mindlessly practicing scales up and down in different nonmusic patterns "rots the brain" and "nobody is going to pay to listen to you play that.". He suggests writing passages or riffs which exercise the skill or scale being worked on and do that repetetively.

Joe also gives a wonderful demonstration of modes and how they can be used in a musical context.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=2ZQtX_ibmSs
what a lucky guy,as well as a great player.i had seen that video a long time ago
this young girl plays it well,she can play it better then me.love this jam.

Originally Posted by: maggiorThis is amazing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBKevuPFrpE

Joe offers some amazing advice to a player who is already very accomplished. I can see why Joe created so many great guitar players. I'm a big fan of Joe's music, but it was amazing to see this other side of him and to see his teaching style at work.

There's no ego here, no showing off. Just constructive honest criticism and advice on how to move forward and expand as a musician. I was blown away at how the "student" could play - what more could he do? But Joe offered a wonderful critique.

Much of what was discussed was way over my head, but one thing I took away from it was that mindlessly practicing scales up and down in different nonmusic patterns "rots the brain" and "nobody is going to pay to listen to you play that.". He suggests writing passages or riffs which exercise the skill or scale being worked on and do that repetetively.

Joe also gives a wonderful demonstration of modes and how they can be used in a musical context.

iam with you on that one,playing scales up and down,thats all i use too do .not good at all unless your just learning the scale fo memory,then move on too riffs ,passages ect,thats the way to go.how u doin.

Btw You Can Learn To Play This Song @ Guitarlessons365.com.he Breaks Down The Whole Song Note For Note,solo Included.thats Were I Had Learned It,its A Really Fun Song To Play....how U Doin

Axe, why did you have to post that...now I feel like I suck!!

Kidding aside, that's a great rendition. I've seen so many of these vidoes where the player looks like a robot. She is clearly enjoying herself, as she should...wow!

Maybe I'll get there one day, but for now I've put this type of playing out of my head - ain't happening at the moment...but there's plenty of other stuff I can do.

I didn't realize the private lesson video was old. Guess I'm just catching up :-). I saw it posted on facebook and thought WOW! Joe seems like such a knowledgable and personable guy, in addition to being amazingly talented.

Oh, really? I didn't realize there was a full breakdown of the song. I don't have a guitar with a wammy bar, so I wouldn't be able to do those parts.

I'll check the breakdown out, but I think this one is beyond me at the moment.

It's an awesome tune though. I never tire of listening to anything off Surfing with the Alien!

I'm hanging in there Axe...how are you managing?

Its looks harder then it is.i had a wammy and couldn't do those dive bombs.u can so play that tune,carl brown teaches the song.GUITAR LESSONS 365.he a good teacher,its free.had u should looj at his page,ton of songs,theory ect.i was using him for a good while,before turning to GT..I STILL GO TO HIS PAGE TOO SEE WHAT'S KNEW.ENJOY MY FRIEND.

That's all i can do brother,is take one day at a time.i know this much i will insure all my knew gear,with photos serial # ect.this wont happen again.i miss my prs so much.i may get another DSL.

Enjoyed the private lesson video... agreed with everything that he recommended. You guys might not believe this, but I recognized the Lydian scale right away... as soon as he said "if I play this..." I blurted out to my wife "that's Lydian!"... good to know at least I'm on the right track.

Hope you get your gear back Axe!

yo slip why u lieing,u thought it was the dorian.
just kidding my friend,thats pretty cool when u can point out any scale.i really need to get them modes down,i know any mj scale is lydian,thats about it.but hey man thanks for helping me get through troubled times.if anything i want my usa,prs back my god how i miss it.so im gonna get another DSL i really loved that amp,and when i do get that amp and another guitar,im gonna open my window in my guitar room,and crank it so load everyday.im hopeing i can draw these bastar3s back.oh yeah ill be ready this time....thanks again....

Originally Posted by: Slipin LizardEnjoyed the private lesson video... agreed with everything that he recommended. You guys might not believe this, but I recognized the Lydian scale right away... as soon as he said "if I play this..." I blurted out to my wife "that's Lydian!"... good to know at least I'm on the right track.

Hope you get your gear back Axe!

That's cool!!! He's big on ear training, so you are definitely on the right path. Was your wife impressed, or were you met with "that's nice...". :-)The way you illustrated modes was how I finally got it. I went to our piano and demonstrated to my wife with the C scale, and then the Am scale. Same notes, different mood and sound....AH HAH!! My wife's response was "oh, OK". She plays piano, but never got into modes and stuff.

For me, I'm doing better with my knowledge of the fretboard and am getting much better with the fretboard trainer. I wish it went the other way - find the note C# on the 2nd string - that sort of thing. That's really what you are after when you are "in the moment".

Yeah, the wife was really impressed, both with me naming the mode and also hearing some of the stuff he said later in the video; when my wife and I go on walks, I get babbling about guitar, and some of the stuff I've been talking about was essentially the same idea as what he talks about in video (mainly the stuff about the technical exercises "rotting the brain").

I seem to have a pretty good ear, but I couldn't by any stretch of the imagination recognize "any scale". I've been working on modes a lot lately, but also in the video, Satriani used Lydian as an example. Once you're familiar with how that mode sounds, its pretty easy to recognize. Satriani breaks into a really beautiful Lydian riff/sequence in his song "Cryin". That's what got me interested in that mode. After that (and this is fairly recent) I started learning and playing all the modes, just in one key and one position, just to get a feel for how they sound. I did as he suggested (there's another video of his where he suggests the same thing) and wrote out the sequence of each mode (W W H W W W H etc...) and thought about what each mode meant to me personally.

Thanks again for posting that!

Hi Guys- I concur, that was a really interesting watch. I'd be happy to get a lesson from the "student"!

For me, it's funny how something like this will, on the one hand, motivate and excite me ... and at the same time kinda kick the ego down a few notches and remind me, on a relative scale (pun intended), that I'm really much lower on the skills totem than I sometimes give myself credit for. Very humbling.

Same scene when I go out to hear live (local) bands. If the guitarist is just a little better than me it really fires me up and makes me want to push.I'll get home and play immediately till 3-4 a.m. But, If the guitarist is WAY better than me I might not pick up a guitar for a couple of days and kind of sulk musically. Not that I didn't enjoy it immensely, it just sets the bar high and I need to come to terms with what "league" I'm (really) in.

Established acts are different. I EXPECT them to be great ( and significantly better than myself ) so the ego doesn't take a bruising.

Can anybody relate? I'm not suggesting this is, at all, a healthy attitude ...I just wonder if anyone else ever feels like a scolded dog after they've been "schooled" by a vastly superior player? ((even if it's that 13 yr old kid at Guitar Center smoking thru "Eruption".... for 45 min .... :)

T-Care Y'all

Originally Posted by: fretsmithHi Guys- I concur, that was a really interesting watch. I'd be happy to get a lesson from the "student"!

For me, it's funny how something like this will, on the one hand, motivate and excite me ... and at the same time kinda kick the ego down a few notches and remind me, on a relative scale (pun intended), that I'm really much lower on the skills totem than I sometimes give myself credit for. Very humbling.

Same scene when I go out to hear live (local) bands. If the guitarist is just a little better than me it really fires me up and makes me want to push.I'll get home and play immediately till 3-4 a.m. But, If the guitarist is WAY better than me I might not pick up a guitar for a couple of days and kind of sulk musically. Not that I didn't enjoy it immensely, it just sets the bar high and I need to come to terms with what "league" I'm (really) in.

Established acts are different. I EXPECT them to be great ( and significantly better than myself ) so the ego doesn't take a bruising.

Can anybody relate? I'm not suggesting this is, at all, a healthy attitude ...I just wonder if anyone else ever feels like a scolded dog after they've been "schooled" by a vastly superior player? ((even if it's that 13 yr old kid at Guitar Center smoking thru "Eruption".... for 45 min .... :)

T-Care Y'all

I hear what you are saying and use to feel that way sometimes . But now I just see music as all fun and not as a competition.
Heck I'm 50 and learned some songs from 8 year olds on YouTube that could play circles around me! lol and I think it's great that they are that good.

Originally Posted by: markm0926I hear what you are saying and use to feel that way sometimes . But now I just see music as all fun and not as a competition.
Heck I'm 50 and learned some songs from 8 year olds on YouTube that could play circles around me! lol and I think it's great that they are that good.

+1

And once my attitude changed I started feeling better. It use to bother me to the point of depression -- "I'll never be that good." But now I've learned to let that go, to appreciate what others can do (that appreciation opened or reopened me to more genres) and to be mindful that it's 'the journey, not the destination.'

For a great read (and re-reads as us fans have learned) see, [U]zen guitar[/U] by Philip Toshio Sudo. It's short, it's cheap and it's really, really good.

Originally Posted by: fretsmithHi Guys- I concur, that was a really interesting watch. I'd be happy to get a lesson from the "student"!

For me, it's funny how something like this will, on the one hand, motivate and excite me ... and at the same time kinda kick the ego down a few notches and remind me, on a relative scale (pun intended), that I'm really much lower on the skills totem than I sometimes give myself credit for. Very humbling.

Same scene when I go out to hear live (local) bands. If the guitarist is just a little better than me it really fires me up and makes me want to push.I'll get home and play immediately till 3-4 a.m. But, If the guitarist is WAY better than me I might not pick up a guitar for a couple of days and kind of sulk musically. Not that I didn't enjoy it immensely, it just sets the bar high and I need to come to terms with what "league" I'm (really) in.

Established acts are different. I EXPECT them to be great ( and significantly better than myself ) so the ego doesn't take a bruising.

Can anybody relate? I'm not suggesting this is, at all, a healthy attitude ...I just wonder if anyone else ever feels like a scolded dog after they've been "schooled" by a vastly superior player? ((even if it's that 13 yr old kid at Guitar Center smoking thru "Eruption".... for 45 min .... :)

T-Care Y'all

I'm with you! There have been quite a number of times that I've heard live bands and subsequently felt totally depressed about my guitar playing. Same thing when I hear kids playing awesome stuff in the guitar stores!

If somebody purposely "schools you" by showing off, well they are just an a$$hole. Just think to yourself "good for you, do you want a medal?". Nobody likes a show off!

Perhaps I've grown wiser with age, but I don't let it bother me any more. I can play what I can play and my skills are improving. It's part of the human condition to not be satisfied with the status quo - we get bored and want things to change and improve. 2 years ago, anything I improvised sounded horrible to me. Today I'm satisfied with what I can improvise, but I wish it could be faster. Never totally satisfied...

There is always room for improvement. As awesome as the student was in the video, Joe had no trouble finding things he could improve and offered plenty of suggestions. I'm sure Joe has things he wants to improve.

I periodically remind myself that the best players worked hard for years to attain their skills - full time in many cases. They also actively practice *a lot* to maintain them - again full time in many cases. They weren't born with natural talent. Joe even points out that he doesn't have perfect pitch, but worked hard to develop relative pitch.

Hi guys, I took John (of MT)'s advice back in September when he first recommended 'Zen Guitar' by Phil Sudo. And what Sudo says is very relevant to what you're all discussing here. Like he writes that playing the guitar ...'is not a competition. We all have a song we are meant to play inside of us......Witnessing true genius should inspire us to find our own path in life, not discourage us because we can't follow someone else's.... The only opponent is within'. It's a great book and I'd like to thank John for the recommendation. (Sadly, Phil Sudo died aged 42 of cancer a few years after writing it). Best wishes, Steve

I'm convinced...I'll definitely have to check that book out. Sounds like good advice that my recent experience seems to support.

Thanks, Steve.

I frequently look at guitar books offered by Amazon to see what's new or to see what's been price reduced. I think that's where I learned of the book. Or...someone tipped me off to the book and that someone is lost in the dimmer reaches of my memory. It coulda been in a forum but not necessarily this one. In any case, I offer thanks to the author of that forgotten tip. I go through the book repeatedly and my guitar buddy who's been visiting the past week just finished his first pass thru my copy.

Most readers really appreciate the book but for those who aren't familiar:

It's not a how-to play guitar book. It's more like a how-to be...the attitude and approach to playing. Is that Zen enough? :D

I grabbed "Zen Guitar" from Amazon on my kindle last night. I've already read up to the 12 misteps to avoid. It's a very interesting book with an approach that's new to me. I can already tell I will be reading this through multiple times. I predict getting stuck in a rut or getting frustrated with myself and my playing and rereading this book to get my mindset back on track.

Many of the points are things I already knew at some level, but this book puts it into words that you can directly relate to...if that makes sense.

I like the notion of "wearing the white belt"...there's always something new to learn were we become a "beginner" again. It's a journey, not a destination.

I wish I had this book years ago :-). Thanks for recommeding it.