For The Love of God Guitar Lesson Video – Steve Vai

By Carl Brown | August 14, 2013 |


I have been given the honor to use a guitar that Steve Vai used extensively for almost 20 years to make this video, so I couldn't resist starting it with a full performance of "For The Love of God". After the performance, I will demonstrate how to play the entire song note-for-note.

When Passion And Warfare (the ground breaking instrumental album featuring "For The Love Of God") was released, it changed my life forever.

For The Love Of God is to me the perfect marriage of emotion and technique. There are soaring melodies and intricate guitar techniques that build and build until an incredibly technical yet extremely emotional climax that is to me one of the most incredible moments in guitar history.

In this For The Love Of God guitar lesson video, I will break down all of those intricate techniques in a way that I hope will be easy for you to understand.

In the end, I hope you can see how Steve Vai builds so much tension and release into this song, which will hopefully become a natural part of your playing as well.

Overall, I hope these For The Love Of God guitar lesson videos will not only raise your technical level on the guitar, but also make you more acutely aware of how to incorporate emotion into even the most technical guitar parts.

This song literally changed my life and made me want to become the best guitarist I could possibly be. I hope it has even a tenth of the effect on you as it did me. 🙂

If these free lessons help you, please donate to keep new ones coming daily. Thanks!! 🙂

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For The Love of God Guitar Lesson - Steve Vai

Posted in Song Lessons and tagged , , , ,

24 Comments

  1. simon bactawar on August 15, 2013 at 11:31 am

    thanks for the lessons!!!!

  2. dp on October 30, 2013 at 2:56 pm

    Hey, Carl! Thank you so much for laying out this Vai’s one. I’d had no idea it would be this careful and so easily presented. What you’re doing here is just amazing. Keep on working, I’m going to get premium any time soon. A slice of donation is also out of question, I’m right on it. Thank you once again.

    • Carl Brown on November 1, 2013 at 12:46 pm

      Thanks a bunch for the support! Glad you like the lessons, I have a TON more on the way and they are getting better and better. 🙂

      Carl…

  3. annonymous on November 1, 2013 at 11:29 pm

    Could you please make a lesson for joe satrianis surfing with the alien. It would be pretty cool

  4. midou on January 6, 2014 at 3:39 pm

    mercii , thank you , الله يهديك للطريق الصواب ^^

  5. Anonymous on May 4, 2014 at 4:39 am

    Karl, what equipment did you use for this song?

  6. Anonymous on July 27, 2014 at 10:05 pm

    Muito Obrigado!! Esta mais uma vez de parabéns.

  7. Erik Endaya on October 31, 2014 at 8:29 am

    Do you have a tab for this one?

    • Carl Brown on October 31, 2014 at 12:23 pm

      Sorry but no. I can’t have TAB for most songs due to international copyright restrictions. 🙁

  8. christopher hawkins on June 17, 2017 at 6:20 pm

    Carl could you please do a song lesson on Joe Bonamassa’s black night?

  9. Derek Martin on January 26, 2018 at 12:02 pm

    Hi Carl
    Any plans to add Tender Surrender to the Vai song lessons?
    Thanks
    Derek

  10. Sam Taz on November 25, 2018 at 3:34 pm

    Hi,
    Thank you a lot for the beautiful song.
    Could you also give us the amp settings for this song?
    I have a modeling amp and no matter what preset I use, it does not get even close to the one this song needs.
    Yours,
    Sam

  11. Ethan on April 8, 2019 at 5:08 pm

    Hi Carl,
    Great lesson! There’s just one thing I can’t figure out: How are you creating those harmonics at the 8:41 mark of the verse 1&2 video? Are they just pinch harmonics?

    • Carl Brown on April 9, 2019 at 5:56 am

      Yep they are just pinch harmonics. Gotta find the right harmonic node points to create those melody notes with harmonics.

  12. Ethan on April 9, 2019 at 8:07 am

    Awesome, thanks. And thanks for such a quick reply!

  13. Gerald Cottone on April 28, 2020 at 9:26 am

    Hi Carl, I am really struggling to get the right tone using amplitube 4. Would you be able to help dial in the pedal settings?
    Love your video’s. Been working in this one for a while and without your awesome work I dont think i would be able to play it at all!!!

    • Carl Brown on April 29, 2020 at 4:11 pm

      Hey Gerald, unfortunately I don’t have any experience with Amplitude at all. 🙁

  14. Tony on January 12, 2023 at 6:09 pm

    Thanks Carl- Another amazing lesson! I’m geeking out on the fact that you have Steve Vais guitar! I can see the glow around it haha.. Would you consider doing a lesson for either Ozzy Killer of Giants, or Warrant Uncle Toms Cabin?

    • Carl Brown on February 22, 2023 at 8:11 am

      Uncle Tom’s Cabin has been on the list for a while. I definitely need to get to it. 🙂

  15. Melo on March 23, 2023 at 6:55 am

    Congrats and thanks a lot !
    How did you manage to achieve that sound? Can you please give us a heads up of your POD HD500 preset setup?

    • Carl Brown on April 1, 2023 at 3:58 pm

      I’m using a Line 6 Helix for this. They have a stock Steve Vai patch in it and that is what I used. It is really great.

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