Electric Guitar and New Musical Instruments Blog

If you're a rock star, the traditional standards applying to work ethic apparently don't apply. At least, not in the case of the Stone Temple Pilots, who showed up 2 hours late for their show in British Columbia last night and then decided to cancel tonight's show. Ah well, we waited so long for them to get back together, I guess we can't really fire them.

There has been no official explanation as of yet. Given past history, though, fans seem to think it likely that the tour problems stem from Scott Weiland's unbalanced personality and substance abuse issues. Hard to argue against that...

Anyhow, it would be a shame to see the group lose its momentum. Let's hope things get back on track.

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It has long been known that kids who study music perform better in school. Here's an article in the NY Times that goes over a few studies that have analyzed several of the benefits that have been found to early music education.

It's interesting to see that the benefits extend beyond simple academic performance, and also include helping with hearing later in life. I also like the quote that says "If you get a kid who is maybe 3 or 4 years old and you're teaching them to attend, they're not only working on their auditory skills but also working on their attention skills and their memory skills — which can translate into scholastic learning". That kind of sums it up.

They also bring up a good point at the end of the article -- make sure it's fun for the kids. Find a way that they like to pay music, don't force them too hard. Anyhow, it's all food for thought for musical parents out there (and non-musical ones, too!).

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Steve Vai has some pretty cool dreams -- apparently he dreamed of his whole career in advance when he was a boy. He's almost all the way there -- he even got to play on Hendrix's Woodstock guitar. But apparently there is more one guitar that he never got a chance to play that is still on his 'dream' list. Check out his dream here.

I also like his summary of the best advice he ever got from Frank Zappa -- 'keep your publishing'. I would have thought it would be 'don't eat the yellow snow'.

Source: http://www.classicrockmagazine.com/news/vai-reveals-last-guitar-dream/

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We just posted about Zep a couple of days ago, but now the weirdness has broken out. Starting on Saturday, they posted "five" on their facebook page. Then "four" yesterday. Now "III" today.

What can the countdown be for? Most speculation links to the release of a DVD of their 2007 live performance, but naturally fans are hoping for something bigger.

Interesting, how these dudes can get tens of thousands of "likes" just by posting a number!

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For those of you who just can't get enough Led Zeppelin, it looks like they are finally getting around to releasing a DVD of the highly-regarded Zep reunion that took place 5 years ago in London to raise money for the for the Ahmet Ertegun Education Fund. The band played a set of classic Zeppelin tunes with Jason Bonham sitting in on drums.

Sounds like it could be worth a view/listen, they covered almost all of their hits and the concert was well-received.

If only the great bands that had broken up in the past might be able to find charities that make it worth doing a reunion show, life would be much happier...

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