Steve Vai: an evening with the master

Instrumental master classes have changed a lot in the half-century or so since touring virtuosi such as Andres Segovia and Yehudi Menuhin would hold sessions with groups of local prodigies in venerable conservatories or concert halls.

A new-millennium variation took place last Tuesday night at the back of a shopping plaza in suburban Bolton, Ont., northwest of Toronto, behind a McDonald's, and across Highway 50 from a Wal-Mart and a Canadian Tire – headquarters for the RockStar Music School & Concert Hall, with a staff of six instructors and a fully equipped mini-theatre. Yes, Jack Black's School of Rock has been institutionalized.

The very special guest guitar instructor tonight is Steven Vai, 49, part of a generation of speed demons such as Joe Satriani, Eddie Van Halen and John Petrucci who came to prominence in 1970s and 1980s, and who are still revered by boomer and Gen-X-aged hobbyists.

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