![]() ![]() He was within a few years of knowing what instrument he was destined to conquer next.Īlso at age nine, Vai formed his first band and wrote his first song both were called “Hot Chocolate.” Vai said, “When I was nine years old, I started a little band with my younger sister Lillian who was six. Although this would be short-lived, he did connect some essential musical dots with his squeezebox. Young Vai was enamored but felt maybe he wasn’t “cool enough” to play such an instrument.Īt age nine, Steve took another step to becoming an acclaimed musician by following in the path of many other Italian kids growing up on the east coast by taking up the accordion. He walked into his school’s auditorium and saw an older classmate on the stage playing a guitar. The Guitar Love Affair begins: Steve and Lillian VaiĪround the age of 7, Steve’s love affair with the guitar began. Thirteen years later, he would be the man’s “stunt” guitarist. ![]() #STEVE VAI PASSION AND WARFARE SONGBOOK PDF FREE MOVIE#The movie scared me to death, and the melody haunted me until I plucked it out, and then I thought, ’Hmmm, that’s not so scary.’“Īt around seven years old, he was given his first record, Yogi Bear and Friends, and then he made a giant leap for his second piece of vinyl by buying Frank Zappa’s Freak Out. Steve described the first time he played an actual song: “I walked up to my little spinet organ and played the theme song for the horror flick with Bette Davis called Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte. His mom, Theresa, took note of her son’s fascination with music by buying him a Spinet organ for his 6th birthday, and he quickly started playing melodies with his newfound passion. He loved the drama, the incredible melodies, the uncanny orchestration, and upon hearing it, he knew immediately he wanted to understand and compose music. And the creation of music was infinite - you could do whatever you wanted with it.ĭiscovering the first musical thing he really loved came from listening to his parent’s copy of the West Side Story original soundtrack. ![]() At that very moment, he realized two things: When he heard music, he could kind of see it. In one of his first acts of rebellion, little Stevie pushed down on the forbidden ivory keys and had a musical epiphany. His aunt had a piano that no one was allowed to touch. His first musical revelation came at the young age of four years old. Overall, Vai had what he called a tight-knit typical Italian Catholic family unit. This would later give Vai plenty of reasons to stay away from booze and drugs as an adult. At that time, his father kicked the habit for good cold turkey. ![]() His father was a liquor salesman and a bartender and for a while, drifted into alcoholism until Steve was 12 years old. He had a loving mom that gave him security and kindness and a father, who, by example, showed him the value of hard work and having a sense of humor. One of five siblings, Steve Vai, was born on June 6, 1960, in the Long Island Hamlet of Carle Place. His name is Steven Siro Vai, and this is the history of his first 30 years. He’s played with top-selling acts like David Lee Roth and Whitesnake, built his own guitar, made arguably the best solo guitar album ever, and stole an entire movie without saying a word. He’s one of the world’s greatest guitarists - lucky enough to have taken lessons from Joe Satriani at age 12 and gifted enough to play in Frank Zappa’s band by age 20. Brad Tolinski, Guitar World magazine editor “Steve Vai’s guitar wizardry is so profound that in earlier times he would have been burned as a witch.” Thanks to Ronald Cunsolo and Steve Vai for allowing me to share this incredible piece of Vai history. When he first got to California, he stayed with his cousin Stephani and Mark Horowitz for six weeks and then moved into his apartment at 1435 North Fairfax Street in Hollywood. In June of the same year, he would move to California to work and be closer to Frank Zappa. In 1980, Vai returned home after dropping out of Berklee College of Music. Ronald Cunsolo, in January of 1980, took six lessons from Vai and recently said, “those six lessons gave me the basics that I needed (along with several years of piano lessons) to enjoy a lifetime of playing music.” Backstory belowĭuring my research for the Steve Vai documentary, one of his former students reached out to me to let me know he still had his original guitar notebook that Vai had written in. You can download, for free, six lessons Vai gave to his former student Ronald Cunsolo. Do you wish you could have taken guitar lessons from Steve Vai in 1980? ![]()
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