Tender Surrender

[GtrvVampyre]

Ok, im kinda new learning scales, modes ect.. but i know he starts doing the solos (vai, tender surrender) in the key of "E" and it seems he follows the blues pentatonic or pentatonic minor but everynow and then he hits a not not in the scale and gives it a more melodic light sound and i was wondering what note hes adding or if its a mode hes mixing in there to get that sound. Any help is great, Thanks a bunch.

PS: Any tips for this song, ill be happy to take

[EricV]

It´s been a while since I listened to that piece a lot, and I was occasionally playing along or figuring out some of the licks, but here´s what I remember:

For most of the piece, Steve indeed is playing in the key of Emin, or using the E minor pentatonic. The bridge has a II-V-I in it, and ther also is a F9#11, and I think Steve´s playing implied C melodic minor over that one, and later slips into E Dorian shortly.

For the solos, he mainly stuck to Emin / Emin pentatonic, occasionally adding the flat fifth of Emin ( Bb ), which results in a more bluesy sound.

Those are just some hints... Steve really played some very interesting stuff there, it shows his skills in using the modes to create interesting sounds. "Tender Surrender" is one of my favorite Vai-tunes, because to me, it sounds a lot like "Pure Steve, without overdubs or too much FX, just playing from the heart", quite emotional.
And at the same time, he kept the chords / harmonies in mind and managed to combine interesting, modal playing with pure emotion... IMO
Hope this helps
Eric

[GtrvVampyre]

Yeah, im really starting to get into learning scales and modes and stuff but i'm having problems with what to memorize first in the modes (3nps stuff) cause with the pentatonic i just learned the whole fretboard in all positions in E and shift it for keys but with modes it looks like more of a daughnting task. But yeah, i love tender surrender but its one of the few i like by vai, i dont know why. I loved his blues stuff but i cant ever find any tabs of it.

[Rakuku]

One of my all time Vai-favorites too. I'm working on it now...
You know, there's a powertab for it at www.powertabs.net

Hope this helps,
Raku