Developing your ear is one of the most important lessons you can learn as a guitar player – and there is no better teacher than Steve Vai.

When we go to improvise, we draw from a well of knowledge. This well is filled with things we’ve practiced, listened to, or studied theoretically. The stuff, though, that actually emerges during improvisation is the stuff that we can really hear. Want to change the way you sound? Change the way you hear.

If you’re one of the human beings on Earth born with two functional ears, you should consider yourself lucky. Not only are you a miracle of evolution and natural selection, but you get to experience the vibration of air molecules and interpret them as different sounds! According to Ancient Greek philosopher Epictetus, “we have two ears and one mouth so we can listen twice as much as we speak.”