Steve Vai: The Frank Zappa Guitar Book

PDF | 1982 | 302 pages | 11.72 Mb
Frank Zappa's music transcribed by Steve Vai.

From the Introduction, by Steve Vai

The works in this book were transcribed between January, 1979, and August, 1981, whenever I wasn't touring with Frank.
The songs were first taken off the album and put onto cassettes. The songs from Joe's Garage were transcribed off a small Sony tape machine. The stuff from the guitar albums were bounced to a four-track tape deck, and some were done at half speed.
The guitar solos from Joe's Garage (except "Watermelon In Easter Hay") were solo tracks that were taken from different live concerts through the years and printed on studio rhythm tracks. the rest are live recordings from Shut Up 'n Play Your Guitar [sic] albums and others.
If you're into this kind of reading it might be a good idea to study them piece by piece. This may encourage you to transcribe on your own which is good for your ears, reading, soloing, and psychiatrist. It may be a good idea to start on a simpler tune. Let's face it, this isn't "Sight Reading 1."
Some of the rhythmic notation may seem ambiguous. On a few licks, where there qare several ways to write them, I chose the way which accents the phrasing.
The "Theme From The Third Movement Of Sinister Footwear" (formerly titled "Persona Non Grata") appears on the album You Are What You Is. On that track Frank's guitar line was doubled by electric guitar, percussion, and bass clarinet. The original rhythm track was replaced by what you hear on the album.
Best luck to the musicians who appreciate and can benefit by these publishings. Just don't hurt yourself.
If you have questions on some of this stuff, write me Steve Vai, c/o Glotzer Management, 7220 Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, California 90046.