By Dylan Deprey
Students from all around the United States and the world played their warm up gig at The Rave. (Photo by Dylan Deprey)
Squealing guitar riffs and bashing drum solos resonated through the dark corridor tucked behind The Rave’s main stage. The snaking hallway lead to what seemed to be a dimly lit adult sized pillow fort. Scattered were couches and loungers lit by lava lamps and neon lights. From classic rock to alternative, famous bands had their pre-show ritual in this room. Today kids half their age got to do the same thing, and it was just their warm up gig.
The School of Rock loaded the tour buses this summer and hit the road for their School of Rock OnTour @ Summerfest. Bands consisting of around 350 students from around the country and the world rocked out on the same stages that rock legends like Def Leppard, Sting and Paul McCartney have.
“We are so proud of our students that have put in countless hours preparing for the chance to step into the spotlight,” said School of Rock CEO, Dzana Homan.
The School of Rock has 180 locations scattered throughout nine countries. The program is centered on its unique performance-driven curriculum that provides more then just the skills of playing guitar or bass.
Carter Scofield plays guitar and has been with the School of Rock for six years. He also has taken other conventional music education classes like classical and jazz.
“I think this gives you an edge. Not only being technically competent with your instrument but the skills that are often overlooked like interacting with your band mates and having a conversation with a crowd,” Scofield said.
Marketing Director Elliot Baldini said that the typical one-on-one or school band class environment teaches people how to play an instrument but loose interest because they inspired by rockstars and jazz artists.
“There is disconnect because the students are like ‘I want to be like Eric Clapton but I’m playing a dorky song out of a sheet book,” Baldini said. “Our recitals are events like this where they prepare real rocks shows at real venues like this.”
Bands were formed from the best students of each School of Rock around the country. (Photo by Dylan Deprey)
The Rave was only the warm up for the weekend as bands got to play on six different stages on July 9th and July 10th at Summerfest.
Students from all around the world tried out for one of the coveted spots to represent their School’s house band during the tour. Students were also given some rockstar status mentoring from some who have played on the same stages.
Mark Schulman has played drums for everybody from Foreigner to Destiny’s Child and is currently playing for P!nk. After being a mentor last year, he immediately wanted to be involved with the program.
“I’m watching these high schoolers play like professionals and I’m like ‘what are you feeding these kids,” Schulman said.
He was named the School of Rock year’s professor of the year after setting up one-on-one mentorships with the professionals. The previous year bands worked with professionals but not on in one-on-one environment.
“They are teaching real life stuff,” Schulman said. “These kids can go and play in bands and get gigs because they have this experience.”
One of this year’s mentors was Dan McCafferty. He played guitar for Dee Synder for 16 years as well as filled in on occasion for Twisted Sister. McCafferty said that he took a pretty laidback approach after watching students perform and critiquing and then opened it up for questions.
“The most interesting question I got was ‘what would you tell your 15-year-old self?” McCafferty said
“After sitting back thinking about it I would have told myself to not sweat it so much and just go for it because I knew that this is what I wanted to do,” McCafferty said.