10 INCREDIBLE Guitar Secrets In Rock Songs You Totally Missed
2. Joint Shifting - Candle Power
At this point in his career, Steve Vai has already cemented himself as a guitar legend. From his experimentations working with Frank Zappa to his ability to play at warp speed, Vai has been responsible for some of the strangest sounds to ever come from the electric guitar. Even in 2020, Vai has found a way to blow minds yet again on "Candle Power."
In honor of his 60th birthday, Vai set out to construct a song that stretched his playing out even further, which led to him developing what he has dubbed the "Joint Shifting" technique. By utilizing different fingers on your fretting hand, Vai came up with a melody that involved bending two strings in opposing directions at different moments to get the right notes. For your average guitar player, this goes beyond typical scales and is a technique that you almost have to reprogram your brain to fully understand.
It's all the more inspiring to see Vai continue to push himself musically even after decades of reworking the guitar guitar. Any other guitar player of Steve Vai's caliber could have settled into comfortable retirement by now and not bother to pick up the guitar ever again. Lucky for all of us though, Vai is as curious as all of us guitar players as to the possibilities of the instrument going forward.