Steve Vai reflected on Robert Fripp’s feedback regarding his performance of “Frame by Frame” and how the suggested changes felt like a natural fit for him.
After Adrian Belew, Tony Levin, Steve Vai, and Danny Carey kicked off the BEAT tour earlier this year, Vai demonstrated that he was indeed the guitarist who could best do justice to King Crimson’s “Discipline” era, as both Belew and Fripp had believed. However, preparing for the highly praised tour wasn’t without its challenges. Vai had previously confessed that he struggled with a riff in “Frame by Frame” and wasn’t sure if he could execute it flawlessly.
To his surprise, Robert Fripp reached out after the first show with some helpful suggestions for tackling the song. In a new mini-documentary for Sweetwater, Vai recounted receiving an email from Fripp following the show (transcription via Guitar World):
“So here’s a funny story. We get to our second show, and I get an email from Robert. He commented on some of the clips he saw, which was very nice and constructive. Then he ended with, ‘Can I make a suggestion for ‘Frame By Frame’?’”
“He said, ‘Why don’t you do your hammering with the notes, and then take it out? Improvise your hammering and move from one chord to the other.’”
Vai went on to say:
“That was something I’d thought about doing initially, but it would have strayed too far from the original part. But when it came from Robert as a suggestion, I thought, ‘Yeah, that’s my wheelhouse.'”
“I tried it that night at the show, and it worked beautifully. It was unique to me – yet it was birthed by Robert and Adrian, you know?”
In a previous interview, Vai had discussed the difficulties of performing “Frame by Frame”:
“A lot of the guitar parts were totally within my ability, but there were a couple that I just couldn’t navigate. One of them was ‘Frame by Frame’. It’s a simple riff; it’s only four notes, but it’s this cross-picking riff that’s fast and relentless. He just doesn’t let up.”
“I didn’t have the confidence that I could do it perfectly every night. It was played by a 35-year-old Fripp at the peak of his powers. And 64-year-old Steve Vai doesn’t quite have that technique down!”
Related Topics
- Eplex7 Unveils Progressive Drum Kits Plug-In for Cutting-Edge Music Production
- Trevor Horn Reveals Sampling Secrets and Drum Machine Tips in Exclusive Studio Interview
- Raechel Whitchurch Returns to Golden Guitars
