I just like to tell people that School of Rock is what kids have always needed.
We're a performance-based music education program, which means what the kids are learning
in their private lessons, we're immediately applying to a real-world scenario.
We give kids the opportunity to take it on stage, to play some of the best stages in
the country, not just any old stage, but to play at Lollapalooza or play at BB Kings or
play at Red Rocks.
It makes me feel like rock stars, they're playing in a band, nobody else does that.
Being in performance really helps to make you want to work even harder and want to be
even better because you feel like you need to perform for everybody and you have a deadline
rather than just doing it to do it.
You know, you don't want to let your buddy down and if the person to your right or to
your left is sort of moving a lot faster than you, that really makes you want to dig in
certainly more than just your music teacher saying, hey, work on this and I'll see you
next week.
You're going to encounter situations that you wouldn't elsewhere, what happens when
your cable goes bad, what happens when the battery in the pedal dies, what happens when
the lights go weird and nobody knows what to do.
Learning how to deal with these kinds of constantly changing immutable situations allows kids
to learn how to think on their feet.
Being able to learn how to perform with people in a band, it's like a really good learning
experience.
They're not only being equipped to play their instrument and to play in a group setting,
but they're being equipped to deal with life situations.
My first year, I was just terrified going from just playing talent shows to now playing
at Lollapalooza.
That was huge and my confidence level as a person and as a performer has skyrocketed.
Everybody give it up for Mr. Kofi Baker over here.
You've come to drum lessons from Kofi at our school.
When you're 10 years old and your guitar teacher is explaining to you minor pentatonic scales
with ACDC, that's a completely different thing and it's a lot more fun and it's a lot more
engaging.
Being taught at School of Rock is really fun because it's challenging but at the same
time it's really chill.
It's been amazing.
My kids learned more in the first six months at School of Rock from their instructors than
they had up until that point.
At School of Rock my abilities have grown exponentially compared to how I used to grow
before.
So around School of Rock we like to say the stage is the ultimate teacher.
There is nothing that can teach you a stronger lesson than the real world.
