The Duel

The Duel - Steve Vai
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    Notes:  Okay, this is not my work, but I heard someone wanted it and I had it lying around the house so I thought I'd do someone a favour.  I've taken this from the June '95 edition of "Guitar" magazine.  This is 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 played all the classical parts in the movie).  This study in arpeggios is comprised almost entirely of notes from the A 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 are a beginner, but never-the-less, would be a nice riff to learn and use as a warming up exercise.