Vai or Satriani

Let's not forget Satriani gave Vai some pointers/lessons on guitar years ago...I find Joe quite cold and calculating,and wouldn't put him in my top 20 guitarists really, though he can certainly play. However, he is miles better than Vai, who is the classic 'twiddly-widdly' let's see how fast I can play this thing' guitarist. Emotionless, and quite weak as a songwriter. I had one cd by him, the atrocious 'Passion And Warfare' - great cover, crap music. Joe gets my vote! Blue Dream is his best album.

Joe is an easy choice for me-

MikeEnRegalia wrote: I guess I'll never understand how fans of progressive music might choose to prefer Satriani over Vai. Maybe I just have to accept the fact that even among prog fans most people don't pay much attention to the actual music.

chessman wrote: However, he is miles better than Vai, who is the classic 'twiddly-widdly' let's see how fast I can play this thing' guitarist. Emotionless

MikeEnRegalia wrote: 1. Satch himself admits that Vai could "easily outplay him". 2. Vai was only a student of Satriani for a small period of time. There is no real influence. Zappa is Vai's main influence. 3. Anything Vai did is 10x more adventurous than what Satch did. And mind you: I like Satch. 4. Vai even outsings Satch. 5. Vai worked with a full symphony orchestra (The Aching Hunger). Still waiting for Satch to do something similar. 6. Vai worked with Chick Corea, Mike Keneally, ... he also wrote music for movies, performed in some movies, played in mainstream bands, played as Eddie Van Halen's and Yngwie Malmsteen's successor etc. 6. Vai founded his own record label and is now in that function working with many brilliant artists. 6. Vai performed on the recently released Yardbird album with some all time great artists. Any questions? You're welcome to still say that Satch is better - but then you should be prepared to sweep his recently released album under the carpet.

These are all true. Satriani was only Vai's teacher for a short period of time when both were growing up in Long Island (coincidentally, also where John Petrucci is from). In later interviews, Satch said that when he was learning new stuff, he would be teaching it to his more talented students (like Vai) only a few weeks later. However, I still think traces of Satch's influence remains in Vai's playing—Vai has admitted so himself.

As for Vai being more experimental than Joe: I definitely agree with this, and that's why Joe Satriani's not on this site. But Satch is responsible for me getting into prog in the first place: listening to him got me into listening to Steve Vai and Steve Morse, which eventually got me into prog. Perhaps other people don't have the same experience as I do, but I think that the fact that so many people prefer Joe Satriani on a progressive website must count for something.

Oh, and I kinda like Super Colossal. It's definitely not his best stuff, but it's still very solid.

I fear that most people who are voting here don't know all there is to know about Vai (or Satriani for that matter) I have pretty much all albums by both of them, and from that perspective I simply cannot believe that it it's reasonable to vote for Satriani here.

^ but why? Remember that this poll is in the proto-prog/prog-related section, so progressiveness matters here.

Now, Mike... I'm as much of a Vai fan as you (at least I think so), but I don't think it's quite fair to say that everything Vai did was 10x as progressive as what Joe did. Perhaps these days, it's true, but as far as stretching the boundaries of the instrument goes, Satch _absolutely_ did that early on in his career. In fact, I'd venture to say that Surfing with the Alien is _more_ progressive than Flex-Able. When Surfing With the Alien was released, there were self-developed techniques used that _no_ one else was using at the time.

Once Passion and Warfare was released, however... I think the torch had passed. Overall, I still maintain my belief that Steve Vai has progressed the instrument of electric guitar more than anyone since Jimi Hendrix (largely thanks to a huge influence from Zappa).

That said, I can definitely understand why people gravitate more towards Joe. Let me make an analogy... some people prefer the minimalism of Philip Glass or Pink Floyd to the density of Gentle Giant or Van der Graaf Generator. Neither preference is wrong... it's just a matter of opinion.

This however, is wrong:

chessman wrote: However, he is miles better than Vai, who is the classic 'twiddly-widdly' let's see how fast I can play this thing' guitarist. Emotionless...

Edited by Empathy - May 20 2006 at 18:27

Here's a question:

Which is your favorite flanged guitar sound out of these two...

The midsection of "Satch Boogie"

or

The end of "Bad Horsie"?

"Bad Horsie" for me!

Something about the flange in that song tickles my neurons in a way that's almost offensive!

chessman wrote: Let's not forget Satriani gave Vai some pointers/lessons on guitar years ago...I find Joe quite cold and calculating,and wouldn't put him in my top 20 guitarists really, though he can certainly play. However, he is miles better than Vai, who is the classic 'twiddly-widdly' let's see how fast I can play this thing' guitarist. Emotionless, and quite weak as a songwriter. I had one cd by him, the atrocious 'Passion And Warfare' - great cover, crap music. Joe gets my vote! Blue Dream is his best album.