[Vai Freak] Glacius

Mood: Depressed
Listening To: Ocean of Fire - X'Mas Meddley









Of course it's a little bit too early to bounce along with this song because Christmas is about 3 months away.  But this piece is definitely a piece of art.  I remember that all of us in the Equator gig were stunned by his performance.  Truly something really special, and of course,it fit the season.

Hahaha.. Jingle bell rock.. HAHAHAHAAHAHAHAH..damn cute la.

Anyways, ever since I left Penang and started listening to nothing but Joe Satriani, Steve Vai and now, Ocean of Fire, I never put guitars in my mind ever again - until recently, finding out that I can never play as well as I used to 2 years ago, and now, I have the only reason to be depressed.

Listening to this album, watching the band on Youtube.com really motivates me to pick up the guitar.  Earlier on, I was taking on the main structure of Joe Satriani's Ten Words.  And I have to start back on the basics - playing it really clean.  The only way for me to practice on clean playing would be playing the guitar itself.  No gadgets, no amplifiers (like as if I have one).  Just a pick, a guitar with 6 strings, basic scales, and that's it.  I'm tired of jamming with the band finding that my soloes are usually out of timing and exceeding the bars.

Just like everything else, practical is different than theory.  I feel that my theory is expanding more than whatever I play.  So it's about time to fuse those two once again.  The last time I fused a very simple theory was the very first time I recorded A Night In The Sky under FDM.  It was fairly simple.  Play the Dmaj scale until you get sick of it, hit the flat 7th note and give it a full bend to hit the original key of the song but sticking with the same scale but on 3 semitones higher - the Dm/Fmaj scale to add in more flavour.

Undoubtedly, that was my greatest achievement because I went back into the Dmaj scale, but I figured that was child's play.  Now, I'm onto modes - Lydian and Docrian modes.  The sort of modes that would save my ass when I'm playing both minor and major scales.  And the Lydian scale is very simple, suprisingly.  It works a few times.  And no wonder Fragments of Beliefs sounds so different than whatever I've done so far.

Soon, I shall complete Fragments of Beliefs .. After I do Ying Kit's song, and drum programming for a friend's epic/heavy metal song.. Sweet.










Besides all that, I've agreed to stay home and play the guitar on a daily basis!  A week's training without effects should be enough for that video interview now.  Let's see what I can cook up ..










... Of course this is a very stupid thing to be depressed about, but what do you know, anyways?  Not many would understand..