“I took lessons from Joe Satriani. I felt like he was trying to build an army of shredders with finger exercises. He hated me because I didn’t practice his stuff enough”: Xan McCurdy of iconic alt-rockers Cake on why he quit taking lessons from Satch

For most players, electric guitar lessons from Joe Satriani – and getting the chance to learn from one of the world’s foremost shredders – sounds like a dream prospect.

After all, in the pantheon of guitar greats, Satch is up there with the best. Not only that, in the early stages of his career he also gave lessons to a generation of emerging musicians, including Steve Vai, Kirk Hammett, Larry LaLonde, Alex Skolnick and more.

The proof is in the pudding – the proof in this case being that Satch is both a virtuoso and an exceptional tutor. One guitarist who didn’t quite warm to his style or teaching technique, though, was Xan McCurdy – who left after a few lessons.

In a new interview with Guitar World, McCurdy, who plays with iconic alt-rockers Cake, looks back on his early playing days, and recalls the time he sought out the wisdom of Satriani in a bid to level up his playing.

“I totally knew what I wanted to play like. Early on, I actually started out wanting to be a hard rock guy to impress my brothers,” he says. “But once I became a teenager, I quickly started to obsess about super mod and British sounds, and that was it.

“Then, I took lessons from several different teachers in Berkeley, California, one of them being Joe Satriani.”

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However, Satch’s curriculum failed to move McCurdy, who wasn’t delighted by the rigorous technical exercises his newfound teacher was putting him through.

“I felt like he was trying to build an army of shredders, like nonsensical, not musical things, but just finger exercises, like da da da da da da da da da da da da da da back then,” McCurdy continues. “It was not even scales, just like getting your hands to flow, and have the ultimate dexterity, you know? And that was not what I was into because I did not care at all.

“I mean, there was a moment when we all got into Van Halen, but I sort of found my little niche subculture world, and I was all about Chuck Berry and the blues guys.”

It was a mutual feeling, though. As McCurdy remembers it, Satch was equally unimpressed with his new pupil, who failed to do his homework.

“I stopped going to Joe Satriani – and by the way, Joe Satriani would have no memory of this whatsoever,” he laughs. “I didn’t take a lot of lessons, and he hated me because I didn’t practice his stuff enough. And then I found a guy who, instead of having this long-hair shred master, this guy would just smoke a joint, and be like, ‘Alright, so what do you wanna do?’”

It’s rare to hear of a player leaving Satch’s tuition methodology a less-than-glowing review, especially when one considers his alumni. Last year, Guitar World unearthed a classic interview with Vai and Satriani, during which Vai revealed one of the biggest lessons Satriani taught him as a young shredder.

The full interview with Xan McCurdy will be published in the coming weeks.