Customer Reviews

Steve Vai - Passion & Warfare

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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!

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.

5 stars on the translation, 4 on the notation used. It is not a common notation I am used to viewing. For example, bends take some time to read quickly and are done with only up or down arrows. Also, sometimes the fonts used are much larger or smaller than other fonts in the same measure. It does take a little getting used to but the translation seems to be very accurate which is most important.

Turn off the phone, lock the door, and put the cat out. The transcriptions in this book are very well done with maybe a few minor glitches, another fine job by the folks at Hal Leonard. I will say it is helpful to be able to read staff notation, but not required. Other than that the layout of the tablature and arrangements make this a very user friendly book considering the contents. Anyone looking to take their playing to the next level (or world), this is for you.

I originally bought this book in 1991 when it was first published. A year or so ago I realized it was missing. I checked other websites, but as another reviewer mentioned, the Amazon price can't be beat. I like these Hal Leonard Recorded Versions tab books a lot because they appear to be very accurate representations of how the artist plays the songs, thanks in part (I believe) because they include input/review from the artists. I also like these books because they do a good job of breaking down all the parts in some very complex songs; for example, all the layers in "Liberty" are there, and I found the same to be true for all the guitar layers in the HL tab book for Def Leppard's "Hysteria" album. If you're looking to learn these songs, or even just some of Vai's technique, this book - plus maybe the Naked Tracks that are available on Amazon as mp3s - is a fantastic resource.