Disclaimer stuff-----------------
Any and all transcriptions of music herein is the authors interpretation and is posted for educational purposes only.
This song, "Hina" is available on
David Lee Roth's album "Skyscraper". *A full transcription can be found in THE STEVE VAI GUITAR EXTRAVAGANZA available from
http://www.vai.com
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Setup
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Vai's sound on this track is pretty heavily processed. *Let's try and pull it apart. *For this album his rack was gigantic. *But he was still running his Pink Jackson and a number of JEM777's into a BOSS SD-1
distortion pedal into a Marshall 100 watt head into 4X12 cabinets loaded with 50 watt celestian speakers. *Additionally, this track has a bit of chorusing and two seperate delay effects. *Throughout the song, Steve uses a slapback type of delay set at 360mS. *Then during the choruses, a second delay, set at 720 mS appears also.
Intro
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(NOTE: *while I have referenced a number of transcriptions, I have excluded some articulations I'm sure. *For instance, grace notes and slurs have been omitted. This lesson is not to serve as a final transcript but a jumping off point.)
According to the transcription Steve taps the twelth fret while voicing a the 5th fret on the g-string. *It appears tabbed like this:
[font=courier]
e-----
B-----
G-(5)-
D-----
A-----
E-----
[/font]
In my experience, it's hard to recreate this sound using that transcription. *I have better luck slapping artificial harmonics an octave above an e-major barre chord like this:
[font=courier]
e-------
B-------
G-9-(21)
D-9-(21)
A-7-(19)
E-------
[/font]
Whichever of these sounds you decide to use, the idea here is to reproduce them in rhythm with the strumming pattern that will mutate into the opening chords of the song.
After a bit of strumming the opening chord (E Major), the drums kick in and the song moves into the first theme, outlined below. *You'll have to listen to the song to get a sense of the strumming pattern.
[font=courier]
e----|---|---|-0-
B----|---|-3-|-0-
G-9--|-7-|-2-|-2-
D-9--|-7-|-2-|-2-
A-7--|-5-|---|---
E----|---|---|---
[/font]
Bridge
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Between the waves of strummed chords and the Hendrix-esque arpeggiated verses of this song, there's a little passage full of harmonics and typical Vai phrasing. *It begins after the 2nd repetition of the last chord structure in the intro.
Typical of mid-80's metal and Vai at the time the phrase begins with some natural harmonics at the 5th and 12 fret and then moves into some more melodic ideas.
[font=courier]
e---(5)--------(5)-(12)---------------------------------------------
B-------(5)----(5)------(12)---------------------6p5--------4-4-2-4-
G-----------(5)(5)-----------(12)--0h2p0---0h2p0-----5---5--4-4-2-4-
D--------------------------------3-------3-------------5----4-4-2-4-
A-3-----------------------------------------------------------------
E-------------------------------------------------------------------
e-----0-----0-----0----
B-4/5---5\4---4\2------
G-------------------2/4
D----------------------
A----------------------
E----------------------
[/font]
This finishes the bridge and drops us right into the first verse.
The next lesson will begin with the verse, give you a few ideas to toss around with the solo and discuss a little theory behind the song.
