Notes: Okay, this is not my work, but I heard someone wanted it and I had it lying around the house
I thought I'd do someone a favour. I've taken this from the June '95 edition of "Guitar" magazine. This
the riff that Vai plays when he has a guitar duel with actor Ralph Macchio (The Karate Kid) in the film, "Crossroads".
Vai performs a series of arpeggios in a reprise of an etude by William Kanengiser (who apparently
all the classical parts in the movie). This study in arpeggios is comprised almost entirely of notes from the
harmonic minor scale (A B C D E F G#). The only nondiatonic series of notes would be found in measure 3, an arpeggio, which in this case functions as a secondary dominant to the Dm in measure 4.
E| 8 12^8 |
B| 10 10 |
G| 5 9 9 5 |
D| 7 7 |
A| 7 5 |
E| 5 6 8 |
E| 7 |
B| 9 9 |
G| 7 9 9 7 |
D| 6 9 9 6 |
A| 5 7 7 5 |
E| 7 |
E| 5 |
B| 5 8 8 5 |
G| 6 6 |
D| 5 ^ 7 7 5 |
A| 7 7 |
E| 5 ^ 9 9 |
E| 10 13^10 |
B| 10 10 |
G| 7 10 10 7 |
D| 7 7 |
A| 5 6 |
E| 5 10^8 |
E| |
B| 9 12 9 |
G| 10 10 7 |
D| 9 12 9 6 |
A| 8^11 8 |
E| 7 10 7 |
E| 5 8 12 8 / | / 16
B| 5 5 10 |
G| 5 5 |
D| 7 7 |
A| 7 7 |
E| 5 8 | O
What more can I say? This is just a truly cool riff. It might be a little tough to start on if you
a beginner, but never-the-less, would be a nice riff to learn and use as a warming up exercise.
