We recently posted a video of the final solo in the guitar duel from the movie Crossroads called Eugene’s Trick Bag.  The actor Ralph Macchio learned to mimick the movements for the movie in a very convincing way, but it was actually played by Steve Vai. For this video, I got the tab from Songsterr and synced the original audio, and generated the animation with iPracticeMyMusic. While making the video I noticed that the solo was tabbed using fingerings that didn’t seem right, for a moment I was unsure on which fingers and positions to use. At the end I settled for the transcription I learned the song from in the late 90s from a magazine called Total Guitar, so I changed it all. This was the resulting video.

I have always struggled to play the intro arpeggios cleanly at full speed using this fingering, to me it’s clear that Steve Vai didn’t play it that way, it just doesn’t sound the same. But it’s still a mystery in which way he really play it and there isn’t a video recording of this section, except for Ralph Macchio’s acting, which doesn’t seem like a reference to take too seriously despite it fooling most non-guitar players.  I think it’s possible to find this out just by listening and maybe I will set on that task in the future, but before that I want to share an easier and faster way to play it, that avoids big stretches and position shifts altogether in favor of speed and fluidity.

Here’s the result:

We have been working on a new feature for iPracticeMyMusic that adjusts the tab for new positions and fingerings automatically. Useful when the source is a midi file, or for testing new alternatives. This new feature inspired me a journey to investigate new ways of playing this solo, now I can play it cleanly and even faster that the original in this way. Let us know what you think and if you’d like to see the complete solo transformed according to this approach.

If you haven’t tried out iPracticeMyMusic, here’s the link:

https://www.amparosoft.com/ipracticemymusic