The Phenomenal Mama: School Of Rock

For a big part of my parenting life, I have always assumed that my kids all leaned towards competitive sports. I mean after all, they all swim for the school varsity. At some point, one child was even playing double varsity, soccer and swimming.

But as they grew into their teens, my 2 girls have started showing interests towards artistic pursuits. My oldest realized that she had an interest + talent towards visual arts and design. While my 2nd daughter have started to express interest about playing an instrument. While my li'l man is content with focusing his energies on his academics and swimming. It can be really hard to find time for swim training and pursuing artistic endeavors when they also have to deal with getting good grades, homework, and you know, have time for family + friends.

But as their mom, I always strive to help them be the best that they can be. I think that playing sports and participating in artistic endeavors help my kids cultivate skills and develop character that can be useful in their lives. It is certainly in their best interest to try to make time for both of them.

It was such good timing that School of Rock invited me to visit them at the Teatrino located at the Connecticut Arcade in Greenhills Shopping Center. It was about the same time when B started signifying her interest to play an instrument and we started looking for someone who could teach her piano or guitar.

I made sure to bring B with me so she can further assess if this is what she is really interested to do. During our visit, there was a rock concert going on. Three times a year, the young kids enrolled at School of Rock get to perform in front of a live audience of friends and family members where they get to be rock stars even just for a day.

My daughter was so trilled to watch the performance, and the fact that the kids were playing songs that she can relate to appealed to her even more.

When kids enroll in School of Rock, they are not immediately taught music theory.

They are asked what music they listen to, what their favorite song is,

or which song they would like to learn how to play to make them interested in learning.

School of Rock

School of Rock is America's leading music school for the youth with over 150 branches in the United States. The movie School of Rock is actually based on the school with Jack Black's character a loose tribute to its founder, Paul Green. School of Rock is a non-traditional music school that firmly believes in the concept of learning by doing. There are no lengthy lectures here on musical theory. Instead, students are given a feel of the instruments right away, giving them the confidence to play them. In the process, students not only learn to rock out, they also have tons of fun.

At School of Rock, the focus is on performance-based music. Kids don't just learn about music, they actually learn how to perform it. This makes all the difference in the world. A lot of kids want to learn how to play music, but most of them lose interest when they find themselves faced with notes and scales that take them quite some time to grasp and understand. Eventually, most kids just skip music lessons altogether.

In School of Rock music theory is injected along the way at the appropriate time.

They are in the belief that teaching kids music theory at the start intimidates the kids

that they do not want to go back for lessons anymore.

Every week, students get to meet up in an awesome jamming session where they are given the opportunity to experiment with their music, challenging and complementing one another.

In this "jamming room" the kids learn how their instrument contributes to how a song is performed. They jam with other students to complete and play a song. This method helps them learn and develop

teamwork, hard work, persistence, discipline, focus, responsibility, listening skills, and

advance their social skills.

School of Rock offers two courses for children:

Rock 101 is the student's gateway to School of Rock. He gets to learn the basics including technique, music theory, and the dynamics of playing in a group through a combination of lessons and rehearsal room learning. The student chooses particular songs to help him develop basic skills before he joins live shows.

The Performance Program is the core of School of Rock. Here is where the kids get to show off everything they've worked for on stage. Students not only learn about performance and harmonies, they also get to know what musicianship is all about.

School of Rock also offers an Adult Performance Program for adults 18 years old and above who still want to rock. One is never too old to learn something new, and School of Rock will get the young at heart strumming his guitar in no time in a highly supportive environment.

My B is already decided she wants to learn guitar, and so the Christmas break seems like a good time to start with her lessons. As it is, she is already very excited!