"Tender Surrender" not surprisingly is Track 7 off Alien Love Secrets. I say that because it is a truly fantastic song and it is customary for Vai to make Track 7 off any CD his best song from the CD. "Tender Surrender" is particularly great because of the slow, gradual manner in which Vai builds the song. The song reaches a dramatic climax at which point Vai performs a superb solo and from there he returns to the mellowness of the beginning. A great roller coaster ride of a song!

"Tender Surrender" starts off with some jazzy sounding lines using octaves, as are commonly found in Jazz. Vai throws in some nice sounding riffs to connect these octave lines together with the end result being a very melodic, memorable melody in E Minor.

Above is the tab for the opening measure. Vai embellishes upon this melody throughout the song. I did not include tab for the 8 opening measures, as there are many tabbed versions of the entire song online. Here are some good examples:

http://www.elitetabs.com/redirect.asp?TabId=10244

http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/tabs/s/steve_vai/tender_surrender_tab.htm

Vai recently released CDs containing the backing tracks for many of his songs (including "Tender Surrender"). You can find these CDs on Rhapsody as well as pretty much everything recorded by Vai. Click here to get a free 14-day trial of Rhapsody.

In my recording, I play the first 8 measures. I highly recommend playing along to the backing track.

Enjoy learning this great song!

Brian