Vito Bratta, does anyone know...

[ncook]

Does anyone know which scales Vito Bratta plays? I've worked out the Wait and Little Fighter solos but I still don't recognize the scales. They are awesome, I usually play around on the standard plain Jane sliding blues scale, but my recent interest in vintage Vito really has me excited. BTW, if anyone is interested in learning the Wait or Little Fighter solos, let me know, I'll see if I can post them. (they're virtually non existent on the internet).

[Bizarro]

Bravo if you can play Little Fighter note for note. There are some parts in there which are really tough and I never did get it down 100%.

Vito really plays over the chords and uses lots of arpeggio ideas. I wish I could tell you more but I haven't really analyzed them too much. What do you think about his rhythms? They can be harder than the solos in some songs! Little Fighter is another one where the rhythm is challenging.

BTW, I had to learn Wait for an audition back in the 80's. I was sweatin' bullets trying to learn that song! :)

Welcome to ibreathe! :)

[ncook]

Bravo if you can play Little Fighter note for note. There are some parts in there which are really tough and I never did get it down 100%.

Vito really plays over the chords and uses lots of arpeggio ideas. I wish I could tell you more but I haven't really analyzed them too much. What do you think about his rhythms? They can be harder than the solos in some songs! Little Fighter is another one where the rhythm is challenging.

BTW, I had to learn Wait for an audition back in the 80's. I was sweatin' bullets trying to learn that song! :)

Welcome to ibreathe! :)Little Fighter is hard for 2 reasons. 1st, I'm playing a Strat so I'm short on frets, 2nd is probably the same part your referring to. It's not easy but gratifying when it starts to come together.
I like his rhythms as well, I really like everything about his work, he's got such a bright colorful sound. For the better part of my playing years I've been a Steinberger fan because of Vito and now I'm a few days away from ordering my GM-7TA! I can't wait!
When you say playing over chords, what are you referring to?

[LarryJ]

He taps alot too, like instead of doing short stretches he taps notes which gives him a pretty cool sound. I believe and likes slide tapping too!

[SeattleRuss]

I remember the first time I nailed the solo in "Wait" in front of an audience....it kinda does make you proud of yourself! That one took some work.

[Wolfgang]

I studied Vito's style pretty extensively, as i absolutely love how melodic his solos were...
Once you have a chord progression, move over each chord separately... Don't play on the tonality which is under the whole chord progression, but analize each chord as a separate entity... If you have C, Am, G, F don't play C major over all the chords... Play Cmajor over C, Am over Am amd so on... You might say: C = Am. Not really: same notes, diffrent approach to me. A major and a minor chords don't have the same 'quality', so try to bring out the quality of the chord (minor is sad, major is happy).
Also, Vito used triads alot: the Little Fighter solo is almost exclusevly played on triads!!! Up to you to find ways to remain interesting while playin' the same three notes on the whole chord... Octaves, trills, taps and so on...

[ncook]

I studied Vito's style pretty extensively, as i absolutely love how melodic his solos were...
Once you have a chord progression, move over each chord separately... Don't play on the tonality which is under the whole chord progression, but analize each chord as a separate entity... If you have C, Am, G, F don't play C major over all the chords... Play Cmajor over C, Am over Am amd so on... You might say: C = Am. Not really: same notes, diffrent approach to me. A major and a minor chords don't have the same 'quality', so try to bring out the quality of the chord (minor is sad, major is happy).
Also, Vito used triads alot: the Little Fighter solo is almost exclusevly played on triads!!! Up to you to find ways to remain interesting while playin' the same three notes on the whole chord... Octaves, trills, taps and so on...So is there such thing as a C scale, Am scale, F scale etc. or do I implement another type of scale to play in the current key? I'm sorry if this is a stupid question, I've been playing for 15 years and I've only had a passing interest in scales until now. Mostly I've used a basic blues scale that isn't cutting it for the Vito sound.

[Wolfgang]

-do I implement another type of scale to play in the current key?-

Sorry I don't understand what you mean... Yes there are such things as C major scale, A minor scale etc... You know, the 1-1-1/2-1-1-1-1/2 half and whole step stuff... C major scale is composed of C-D-E-F-G-A-B notes...
The major triad for it is C (the root), E (the third, which gives it its quality, be it major or minor), G (the fifth)... C minor triad is the same, but the third is flat... that makes it Eb... Try this stuff... Record a chord progression of G-C-Am and then over the G chord play a G major triad (G-B-D), over the C chord play the C major triad (again, C-E-G), then on two measures of Amin play an A minor triad (A-C-E)... Sounds very very melodic, isn't it? Now start to articulate your phrasing, with bends, slides, whammy bar manipulations, and tapping... You may also want to try to add some 4th and some 2nd to vary a little bit... expecially if you want to play a tapped passage... Listen to the start of Little Fighter Solo or Broken Heart solo to have an idea of how octaves can be used too...
Hope i made myself quite clear =)

[ncook]

You did, thanks, I'll try that and see what I can do

[Bizarro]

Nice explanations Wolfgang!