Help: What to know for this style

[6StringGod]

What kind of stuff should i get really good at to be really good at instrumental melodic (Satriani and Vai style)? I was thinking being excellent at all the modal scales and chord theory, etc. What do you guys think? What are some books that might be great? Let me know. I really want to get great at this style. By the way what excactly is the style called? Instrumental melodic is just a guess...
Thanks!

[Mr Orange]

Originally Posted by Bruce Lee

"To know is not enough. We must apply.
We must not only will. We must do."

Learn these to the extreme:
-Ear training
-Play alot with other people. Gig whenever you can.
-All the modes, scales, and arpeggios (also 5-part) from major, melodic minor, harmonic minor and harmonic major
-Technique
-Transcribe a couple of hundred solos and learn them: Jazz, Zappa, all your favourite shredders and Holdsworth
-About 300 songs: Jazz, rock, classical.
-Digest the Slonimsky book
-Learn everything in Goodrick's The Advancing Guitarist
-Find your very own voice and style

That should do the trick. See you in the next world!

[6StringGod]

Originally Posted by Mr Orange

Learn these to the extreme:
-Ear training
-Play alot with other people. Gig whenever you can.
-All the modes, scales, and arpeggios (also 5-part) from major, melodic minor, harmonic minor and harmonic major
-Technique
-Transcribe a couple of hundred solos and learn them: Jazz, Zappa, all your favourite shredders and Holdsworth
-About 300 songs: Jazz, rock, classical.
-Digest the Slonimsky book
-Learn everything in Goodrick's The Advancing Guitarist
-Find your very own voice and style

That should do the trick. See you in the next world!

Yeah i didnt say i wanted to be as good as vai... WOA!

[Mr Orange]

That list may be slightly exaggerated, but somewhere between the lines lies the par.

To me, par is Ribot, Björkenheim, Henderson, Krantz. Below that level, it's a sub-par accomplishment. If and when you reach the par, you keep pushing.

Just start doing the stuff, and you'll get somewhere. All the things mentioned I've done to some extent, and I believe they've helped me going ahead. I really recommend learning how to read music and transcribing to standard notation. They open up so many doors.