SCHOOL OF ROCK KEEPS ROCKING
“Hey hey, my my, rock and roll can never die.”
So sang Neil Young in 1979, and nowhere is that more evident than at School of Rock Vacaville. Nothing is going to stop owner Leslie Silver from teaching kids as young as 3 the basics of being a musician, not even a global pandemic.
The Vacaville location of the music education franchise had its grand opening Feb. 29, 2020, which Silver said saw a turnout of about 300 people. Two weeks later, California issued its stay-at-home orders to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, and School of Rock had to temporarily shutter its physical location.
“Never in our wildest dreams could we have imagined our first year in business, we would be operating under these circumstances,” Silver said.
However, in the spirit of great rock stars, School of Rock staff were not going to let the pandemic stop students’ desires to learn to perform. They just simply had to adapt by offering remote lessons.
Silver said the third week of operation was when students were scheduled to begin performing as bands, but the new guidelines precluded that from happening.
“There really isn’t a platform online where you can get a group of musicians together and play together because everybody has to deal with bandwidth and a different internet connection,” she said. “We had to go to remote lessons only.”
This meant the students did not know each other by Week 3 and neither did the staff, Silver said.
“Everybody was so new that there really was a fear that we were never gonna be open,” she said. “We weren’t sure if we were gonna survive because we weren’t able to build the community that makes School of Rock so much fun.”
However, with restrictions loosening up, School of Rock has since been able to open for rehearsals with protocols in place. These
have included requiring students and staff to wear masks, limiting the amount of people in a rehearsal space at a given time and putting plastic barriers and shower curtains around students to maintain distance.
Silver said she has looked to other School of Rocks to see what they have done.
“A year later, we have almost 150 students and I can say that we made it,” she said. “2020 was a wild ride for sure.”
With the continuing expansion of the School of Rock brand, it was only a matter of time before one opened in Solano County. The business was founded by Paul Green, who opened the first location in Philadelphia in 2002. Currently, the school has 260 locations in nine countries and has a list of alumna that includes recording artists, “American Idol” and “The Voice” contestants and a member of the Saturday Night Live Band.
Silver was general manager of the School of Rock in Geneva Illinois, where her two sons were enrolled in the program. After moving her family to the Bay Area, she told The Reporter in 2019 that she was amazed by Vacaville’s community spirit and love of music after attending a CreekWalk concert, making the decision to open a School of Rock in town an easy one.
Silver said the program spans students of all ages. The youngest, the Little Wing program for ages 3 to 4, have specialized instruments for them and learn the basics of rhythm and movement through classic rock songs.
“Without even realizing it, they learn some basics of music,” she said.
The next program, Rookies, is aimed at 5 and 6-year-olds and allows students to use regular instruments ranging from guitar to keyboards and learn in 45-minute sessions once a week.
“From our Rookies program, they usually know what instrument they might be interested in,” Silver said.
From there, kids ages 7 to 18 can enroll in Rock 101 where they receive a weekly lesson with a private instructor and also get to perform and rehearse in a band once a week. Kids ages 10 and up can enroll in the performance program, which gives students an opportunity to perform on a stage.
Performing is a big part of the School of Rock curriculum, and Silver said the goal is to have students perform at least three times a year. Because of the pandemic, the most recent performance was a livestream.
“We’re really hoping that our next performance will actually be live in person so that all the families and friends are able to appreciate what the kids have been doing,” she said.
There is also an adult program for ages 18 and up which also features a weekly private lesson and group rehearsal.
Additionally, the school will be offering a songwriting program as one of its summer camps this year, where students will be able to perform original compositions at the end.
For those who want one-on-one lessons or a private space to practice, there are individual rooms with drums, keyboards and even a space to play guitar.
While students are waiting for lessons, the center also has a lounge area resembling the kind of indoor venue one could find up-and-coming bands would play in. The space has foosball and air hockey tables as well as a pinball machine inspired by The Who’s “Pinball Wizard” and the walls are adorned with vinyl records and posters for concerts like Woodstock or a wide array of rock rebels such as Pink Floyd, Frank Zappa, the Ramones, David Bowie and Janis Joplin.
Silver said this room was set up to be like a community where students could hang out during breaks and even get to know fellow students.
Silver said her favorite part of the journey has been watching kids who are shy but drawn to music come out of their shells over time.
“I think the neatest thing to see is when a student comes in and they’re really shy and they have anxiety, and they’re able to work through that,” she said. “Then the performance comes, and there they are on stage and they’re performing with a band and it can be really transformational.”
For Silver, it has been very rewarding to see students’ confidence grow over time.
“They’re able to take on more challenges because they found the support in the groups here when they do the rehearsals and they realize that it’s a judgment-free zone,” she said. “They’re able to find their voice.”
The growth has also been good, Silver said, with plans to add more staff and begin holding classes on Mondays. She is also grateful for the support she has gotten along the way.
“Solano County and Vacaville, they’ve been really wonderful in supporting us,” she said.
School of Rock is located at 322 Parker St. For more information, go to Locations.schoolofrock. com/vacaville.