Steve Vai - Passion & Warfare (Paperback)

~ Steve Vai (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

From one of the world's truly great guitarists, this book is a matching folio to his acclaimed solo album - all edited by Steve himself! Complete with color photos and an introduction by Steve. Includes 14 songs: Liberty * The Animal * For the Love of God * I Would Love To * and more. Also includes complete drum transcriptions for 'Liberty' and 'Answers.' A must for any Vai fan!

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Hal Leonard Corporation (August 1, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0793503191
• ISBN-13: 978-0793503193
• Product Dimensions: 12 x 8.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #461,901 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Vai is God., July 12, 2002

By	Dan Cohen (West Newbury, MA, USA) - See all my reviews

If you're a dedicated guitarist seeking a challenge, look no further. The tab book for Passion and Warfare attempts to show you every note that Stevie played on this wacky album. Sometimes this is not possible, because tunes like Alien Water Kiss are "entirely processed sounds," so there is actually an artistic rendering in place of a transcription.

The notes included at the beginning of the book show Vai at his literary best: creative, insightful, and interesting. The tab itself has a few problems, though. The notation for string bending is a little different then most guitarists are probably used to. Also, there are a few blatant errors (especially in the Animal and For the Love of God), but they are rare and fairly obvious when you come across them. For the most part, the transcriptions are very accurate.

One final warning: some of the music here is almost physically impossible to play. If you decide to attempt it, good luck. You will become a better guitarist for it. Buy this book.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Un-...-believeable, June 20, 2002

By	Screeemer (Saskatchewan, Canada) - See all my reviews

Buy this book.

For one thing, it's the manuscript to the best story I've ever heard. Why wouldn't you want to delve deeper into the world of Passion and Warfare?
Guitar technique-wise, it has everything in some capacity. At first this scared me off, because I couldn't figurepick or two-hand tap. Then I tried using the book as a learning aid, and things has taken off from there.
The liner notes are there in spades, and itzallgood. They provide an insight into what went on around Steve while this album was barreling through his mind.

Nuff said.

Buy this book.

4.0 out of 5 stars Shun the bass player!, July 18, 2008

By	voL - See all my reviews

I play bass and I decided to learn some Steve Vai songs (namely The Audience is Listening) with my guitarist. We bought this book and were very excited, but only a few songs have a full band score. The rest, including Audience, were a very careful score of the guitar part, excellent for my guitarist, and a score of... well, "Little Stevie Vai's" teacher talking. I'm not sure why those words needed to be put into notes. In any case, this book is excellent for guitarists who want to get better! but very dissapointing for their bassist friends who want to get better with them.

On the other hand, it's much much cheaper to buy this book on Amazon than the actual Vai website. Good deal!