Berklee Blogs

First-hand accounts of the Berklee experience

Tag: progressive

progressive

Ben Levin: My Private Session with Steve Vai (part two)

After winning a context, guitar performance student Ben Levin—last seen auditioning for Lady Gaga’s band—is in Los Angeles at a master class with his creative hero, Berklee alumnus Steve Vai—and he’s just stuck his foot in his mouth. Fortunately, they move on….


Steve immediately opened the floor for questions and not too many people were raising their hands. Since I had A LOT of questions, I ended up asking a ton of them and I got some incredibly inspiring information out of him! He also asked us what our goals were and offered personal advice.

Here are my two most important questions and Steve’s answers as I understood them:

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Ben Levin: My Private Session with Steve Vai (part one)

Have you ever had a conversation with your biggest creative influence? Guitar performance student Ben Levin did, with Berklee alumnus Steve Vai—and wasn’t disappointed.  Here’s the first part of his kinda crazy, very L.A. experience. More next week.

I recently won a contest where Steve Vai picked 10 guitarists to fly out to Los Angeles for a private master class. Steve Vai has been my greatest musical influence and needless to say, I have been ecstatic about the opportunity. The experience was really fascinating and inspiring, so I thought I’d share it with you and try my best to relay what Steve was telling us.

Steve Vai with Ben Levin. Photo taken by Dan Cristol.

Steve Vai with Ben Levin. Photo taken by Dan Cristol.

I flew from Boston to LAX where a transportation service picked up all the contest winners, and took us to our hotel.

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