Joe
"Satch" Satriani (born on July 15, 1956, in Westbury, New York, USA)
is an American guitarist and former guitar instructor. His self-released
debut album, Not of This Earth in 1986 opened the way to a world of
instrumental rock music in a pop-dominated world at that time.
Influenced
heavily by Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck, Joe Satriani often
incorporates a warm sound of guitar with a dominant blues and rock tone.
Since 1990, he has used his own signature guitar, the Ibanez Joe Satriani
series, which is widely sold in stores.Joe Satriani
also has a signature series amplifier, the Peavey JSX.
In 1988,
Joe Satriani was recruited by Rolling Stones' Mick Jagger as lead guitarist
for Jagger's first solo tour. Besides that, Joe Satriani was also asked to
be a lead guitarist for Deep Purple in 1994, although he ultimately turned
down the proposal. Satriani has also worked with a wide range of guitarists
from many styles, including Steve Vai, John Petrucci, Eric Johnson, Yngwie
Malmsteen, Paul Gilbert, and Robert Fripp through the annual G3 Jam
Concerts.
Satriani is
widely recognized as a technically proficient rock guitarist. He has
mastered many performance techniques on the instrument, including
two-handed tapping, sweep-picking, volume swells, harmonics, and extreme
whammy bar effects. One of his trademark compositional traits is the use of
Pitch Axis Theory which he applies with a variety of modes. Satriani
approaches scales and soloing differently. Instead of practicing his scales
in positions he practices his scales one string at a time. He calls this
technique ‘linear scales’. He moves into positions on extremely
technical passages. Satriani falls into the category of guitar virtuosos
who primarily achieve speed through hammer-ons and pull-offs (like Allan
Holdsworth), as opposed to guitarists who include lines with very rapid
alternate picking of every note in their playing (like Al Di Meola, Yngwie
Malmsteen,or Michael Angelo Batio).
