The Paul Green School of Rock Music
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The Paul Green School of Rock is a rock music program, first established in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1998, by Paul Green. Branches of the school have since been opened across the nation, in states including New York, Utah, California, and others. It teaches kids about rock music and how to be a musician, featuring seasonal shows and occasional workshops.
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[edit] Education
The program employs many tactics of teaching, varying at each school. There are many teachers per school, all specializing in one or more instruments. Instruments that are available to be learned by students are electric guitar, bass guitar, drums, keyboards, and vocals although the kids often play others such as trumpet, harmonica, etc. There are occasional workshops, where somebody may come in and talk to the kids about music, being a rock star, and playing music. Students generally must be between the ages of 8-18 to be admitted.
[edit] Shows
The main purpose of the school is to get the kids onto a real stage playing their instruments. The students of the program sign up for 3 shows every year out of about 2-5 choices given per show "season" (depending on the size of the branch). Although there are some shows that are harder to play, no matter what the age or skill level, people can sign up for any show (although approval by the show's director is occasionally required). These shows are themed either by band, genre, time period, etc. The shows usually consists of about 20-25 songs that are chosen by the show's director, one of the teachers at the school. 3 hour rehearsals are held every week in preparation for the show as the students learn the material for the show in their lessons or by themselves. The shows are played at local clubs twice, usually on Friday and Saturday nights. The tickets are usually $10 and the students are obligated to sell 10 of them to family, friends, and even strangers.
Every season, two of the best songs in each show from a closely located group of branches are played in a "best-of" show, which is often held at bigger venues, in which more musicians and audience members can fit.
Shows done in the past include Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Queen, The Beatles, Metallica, The Allman Brothers Band, Jimi Hendrix, Van Halen, Progressive Rock, Funk and Reggae, Radiohead, Rocky Horror VS. Hedwig, Best of the 80s/90s, Jesus Christ Superstar, The Who's Tommy, Frank Zappa, and many more.
[edit] The All-Stars
The School of Rock All-Stars is a group of the best students from the entiriety of the program, picked by Paul Green himself. They go on tour to play such venues as Lollapalooza and often play with famous musicians from rock's past and present, such as Adrian Belew, Jon Anderson, Napoleon Murphy Brock, John Wetton, Jeff "Skunk" Baxter and Ike Willis. Tryouts are occasionally held and are notoriously hard to pass. The audition requirements always change but usually one must play a Led Zeppelin song with a backing band and also play a song of their choice.
[edit] The Film: Rock School
Rock School is a documentary about the School of Rock. The documentary exhibits the school through the eyes of its founder, Paul Green. The film displays him showing off his wide variety of teaching tactics and also how the school effects the lives of the students that attend. Paul Green is seen several times jumping up and down, screaming at kids, and kicking students off stage, all in order to teach them, a controversial tactic that so far, seems to work.
