User:Mundokiir/West Coast Rock School
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West Coast Rock School is a music school located in Riverside, California. Founded, owned and operated by its two owners, Robert and Trina Gonzalez on June 31st, 2006. They teach students primarily ages 10-20, but welcome all ages to come and learn. They teach the five staple rock and roll instruments: Vocals, Keyboard, Guitar, Bass and Drums. Hence the name, West Coast Rock School.
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[edit] Programs
West Coast Rock School, or WCRS for short, has two primary programs for students. The first is a simple set of lessons that are held once a week and are a thirty minute, one on one session with their teacher. Students from beginner all they way up to advanced take these lessons and this is where most of the students learn their instrument of choice.
The second program is the Band Program, for which many students visit WCRS. This program groups sets of students with similar skills into bands. The bands get together once a week and play songs that they have chosen along with their band coaches. They also get to decide their own band name. Bands stay together for at least six months, and after which time, are evaluated by their teachers and are shifted into new bands as is deemed necessary. This has a few advantages. It keeps the students who may be getting bored of their current band looking forward to the next one. It also pushes many students to strive to become better players so they can get into more advanced bands and play new, more difficult songs. Some times students are mixed into a band with a slightly higher skill level which almost always results in the student rising to the occasion to learn all the songs and not to let their band mates down. All bands move at their own pace and there is no limit to how many songs a band may learn to perform, they run down from two or three songs for newer bands, and twenty or more for the more veteran bands. All of the bands participate in different exercises to help them under stand their instrument, the band dynamic and the music world in general. This includes the instrument swap, where the band members trade instruments and play or sing each others parts rather than their own. They also are given a chord progression and make it into a solo, even the vocalist.
[edit] Shows
The main purpose of WCRS is to get the students onto the stage in one of the many shows that the school runs. Shows are played at a number of different locales including The Riverside City Plaza, Lake Alice Trading Co., The Dos Lagos Amphitheater inclusing others. The bands pick a few of what they consider their best songs and perform them at one of the shows. Students who are not in a band but still wish to be in the show can still do so, with the assistance of the WCRS house band, 51-Fifty (see below). After the shows, the students go over their performance with their band coaches and one on one teachers in order to learn what they did good and what was not so great, in order to help the students see how things are going and learn from their mistakes. Shows are the main reason that students visit rock school and the reason for its existence. The owner knew that learning to play an instrument all by one's self can get very boring very quickly. Bands and shows are designed to be fun and stay fresh so that students never lose interest in the music world.
[edit] The House Band
Because of the nature of Rock music, there is a requirement for a band to form. There must usually be at least a Drummer, Guitar player, Bass player and a Singer, which can be combined with one the the previous three. While there are many bands, there are invariably students left over that either don't wish to be in a band or are on the waiting list for the next band to form. That's where the House Band, 51-Fifty comes in. The band consists of Bassist/Vocalist Zach Boggio, Drummer John Minn, Lead Guitarist Matt Shores, and Rhythm Guitarist/Lead Vocalist Michael Z. All have been hand picked out of the best musicians of WCRS to form the only permanent band. The other bandless students take the place of a House Band member as needed for their performance. 51-Fifty is also usually the first band to play a few songs for the sound check that precedes a show.
[edit] The Owner
West Coast Rock School is currently owned by its founder, Robert Gonzalez and his wife, Trina. Robert has an AA degree in music and started playing when he was only fifteen years old. He is an expert on all of the five instruments taught at WCRS as well as a few others. He teaches the Guitar and Bass and is the primary band coach. He has been a Battle of the Bands judge on numerous occasions and plays in his own bands with their own shows regularly. He hand picked all of the teachers to ensure that the students will get the best education and get the best possible experience while at WCRS.
