The level of achievement that we have at anything, is a reflection, of how well, we were able to focus on it. Because the only thing that's holding you back, is the way you're thinking. Steve Vai More Quotes by Steve Vai More Quotes From Steve Vai That's the thing about great artists: They find the thing that's most obvious to themselves, what's most conscious and natural, and they put it out there and the audience comes. Steve Vai conscious artist natural Ray and I do not draw salaries. Any profits will be re-invested into marketing the music we believe in. Steve Vai rays marketing believe There is still a very strong subculture of people who want to do great things on an instrument, and who are stimulated by hearing people who can. That's reassuring. But it's gonna take a person - and I don't know who this is - to come along and reinvent the guitar as a virtuosic instrument in a completely different realm than any of us have done, or anybody else in the past. That's the clincher. Maybe that will happen and maybe it won't. Steve Vai music strong past My main calling in life is to seek and achieve spiritual balance, and to express that through my instrument. Everything else is here today, gone later today. Steve Vai balance spiritual today A lot of those little things that I really like doing are just moments of cool articulation, just little moments of phrasing that probably go over everybody's head. Steve Vai little-things moments littles As a musician, I look for certain things that stimulate me. And what I look for is something that's an evolution on a particular genre that I never heard before. Steve Vai musician evolution looks The cool thing about playing is that the more you do it, the better you get. Steve Vai cool-things I'm always pursuing knowledge; I'm a seeker of spiritual equilibrium - and music is a big part of that. Steve Vai equilibrium bigs spiritual I loved the idea of recording. The idea of sound-on-sound-recording captured me as a young kid, and once I realized what it was I had an epiphany. Before I was even playing the guitar, I would create these lists of how I would record things and overdub them, like Led Zeppelin song, 'I could put this guitar on this track...' and so on. Steve Vai song kids ideas Make an exercise out of everything you can’t do. Steve Vai exercise We may be human, but we're still animals. Steve Vai humans may animal I've never really heard anybody imitating anything of mine the way they do with Edward Van Halen's stuff. Steve Vai vans stuff way I don't believe in 'greatest'. I believe in favorites. Steve Vai i-believe-in i-believe believe I designed a guitar for Ibanez and then they started manufacturing it - it's called the Jem - it's 26 years old and I still play it. As a kid I liked Les Pauls and Strats, but they had limitations for the kind of playing I wanted to do. Steve Vai guitar kids years It is only the most elite of elite musicians whose unconventional approach becomes convention. Steve Vai unconventional conventions musician I like my voice, but I can't deliver as much as I wish I could. Steve Vai i-can voice wish I think the thing that I got most from working with Frank Zappa is that I was able to see someone who completely independent. The most beautiful thing about Frank was that he was completely in the moment and present and eternally creative. Steve Vai independent beautiful thinking Most of my records are very dense, composition-heavy, and there's bits of different kinds of music like an acoustic ballad, instrumental trio pieces, and vocal tracks. Steve Vai track pieces different I'm a big fan of cultural music, and that's how I try to expand my playing, by listening to music that is not conventionally American. Steve Vai fans listening trying The blues scale was the first thing I learned. It's just a pentatonic scale with a flat seventh and a few notes that sound cool when you bend them. And because people have amalgamated the blues into this rock-blues scale, if you're using it, you better sound like a real authentic blues player. Steve Vai rocks real player
