Well, I'm at Berklee! - Holy ****!

Vai is God · #1 08-21-2001, 10:25 AM

I'm going to my second day of classes in about a half hour, and I have excellent teachers. I got Bob Thompson as a fretboard harmony teacher! My friend got Tomo Fujita, who is probably the best guitar player I've ever heard in my life. Some of the professors hear are sooo much better than any famous musician anyone's ever heard of. These guys are in-fu*king-sane. I've NEVER experienced this kind of perfection on the instrument. Vai ( EDIT -actually, now that I think about it, Vai was the only one that I could continually compare to some of the teachers. Vai is probably one of the few people that still kicks most of the professors' butts. Mabye Petrucci too ), Petrucci, Gilbert, Yngwie look like school girls compared to these guys. I was lucky to get in the most advanced positioning (1,2, or 3) so I could get all the amazing teachers.

Andrew, I met you're friend in my jam class! Small world that he's in my jam class of 3 people. *He's pretty darn cool! I also met someone named Tony who's a really cool shredder. He's got a UV777, a Jem7v, a Jem7dbk, and a Jem10. Mabye I can convince him to start posting instead of just reading.

Well, I'll try to keep updating but I have very little time.

What did you edit Kevan? I don't remeber the original message.

(Edited by Kevan at 11:00 am on Aug. 21, 2001)

(Edited by Vai is God at 8:35 pm on Aug. 25, 2001)

ripl3y · #2 08-21-2001, 11:17 AM

Sounds like a blast!

Keep enjoying it.

Steve

Carlo · #3 08-21-2001, 02:09 PM

Have fun out there!

chilln2music · #4 08-21-2001, 05:15 PM

That's awesome man I wish I could be there! Keep me posted and take notes so you can post them here for everyone to see!

AJ Love · #5 08-22-2001, 03:11 AM

sounds great! yes please do post about your experiences there when you can!

Devine · #6 08-23-2001, 05:59 PM

Vai is God-

* * I'll bet in less than a year your friend sells every JEM and buy a jazz guitar; it happens to almost everyone - beware.

Practice hard.

-Devin

ashlock · #7 08-24-2001, 02:15 PM

*sob* *that's beautiful, man, you are living my dream for me while I sit here and do this engineering BS all day.

Vai is God · #8 08-25-2001, 10:26 PM

Well, I got back today. I'll try to post a huge (and if I have the patients it will be HUGE) explanation of everything sometime soon... Just not right now.

Andrew, Robbie and I really got along well. My friend Ned, Robbie, and I spent the whole last day together and went to the airport together. He's really cool, and he's a great player. YOU need to send me some of your stuff (which from what I hear from Robbie is pretty amazing).

The place is amazing though, I had Don Lappin (INSANE, INSANE two hand), Bob Thompson (Jazz-man-theory like a mofo), Dave Marton (I have never witnessed such amazing chops in my life), and Neil somethingorother (Blues man).

Later...

Hmm, that's funny. I have a strange urge to stare at pictures of ES335s........

Chan · #9 08-26-2001, 02:01 PM

I'm really intrested in hearing about all the stuff that happened there(please explain in detail). I'll be starting school there in a few weeks, so I want to know what it's like. I was thinking of requesting Jon Finn as my instuctor, but now I might request Don Lappin(I heard some samples of his music and his playing is sick). What kind of tapping does he do, any 8 finger solo stuff like Stanley Jordan? Sorry to bother you with all the questions, but I'm jusr curious what it's like.

Vai is God · #10 08-26-2001, 02:14 PM

Actually, he has a whole four finger system worked out. It's amazing, I'll try to explain it when I write (hopefully what will essientially be a small book) about my experience at Berklee. He's a really nice guy too, says ****
a lot though...

I highly recommend him if you're really into the whole tapping thing because his technique is almost strictly that. He's been developing the system for fifteen years and he can do anything people who don't tap can. I think a heard him play a little bit of Serrana completely tapped. He pretty much completely threw away his pick, it's really something.

chilln2music · #11 08-26-2001, 07:28 PM

Sam I'll try to get some of my music on the computer so you can hear it. I just don't know how to do it. I have all my stuff on 4 track tape. Any suggestions?

Robby told me it was pretty awesome. I'm going to get copies of some of the material he brought back but I'm really looking foward to the write up of your whole experiance as well. He did say Dave Marton was a phenomenal player and that Fujita guy had insane chops. Anyway it sounds like you guys had a blast...I'm going next year for sure!!

JS Clone 2 · #12 08-28-2001, 03:16 PM

Wow.....these guys sound really really amazing. *I would like to go to Berklee, but I'm sorta stuck on career options right now. *Sounds like a great place with some pretty wild profs.

JT Szymanski · #13 08-28-2001, 04:08 PM

I know I'm the only one who has not heard of this program, but I'm curious. *So instead of sit here woundering I'll just ask: what exactly is at Berklee for the guitarist? *Is it just like any college music department or is there actually courses specifically for the electrict guitar and its music?

(Edited by JT Szymanski at 2:09 pm on Aug. 28, 2001)

(Edited by JT Szymanski at 4:22 pm on Aug. 28, 2001)

AJ Love · #14 08-28-2001, 06:04 PM

Berklee is a music school, one of the best in the world...many of the best musicians, (including Steve Vai) have attended there....the summer programs look very cool

http://www.berklee.edu/

Chan · #15 08-28-2001, 06:33 PM

Vai is God - Please tell the story I really want to hear what happened.

Quote:

So instead of sit here woundering I'll just ask: what exactly is at Berkley for the guitarist?

Berklee is the college to go if you play electric guitar(i.e not classical). I think about 5,000 people go there and about 1,000 are guitarist. There are alot of guitarist and alot of classes for guitarist. They are know for they're jazz program, but they have alot of other programs there too. Check out there website www.berklee.edu . It's the only college I know of that has classes for contemprary music(jazz,fusion,rock,country, R&B, ect).