Dear School of Rock Families,
School of Rock has always strived to help prepare students for the musical world of today. Although we study the classics from all eras of Rock & Roll, we aim to help develop the skills most important for today’s musicians. The COVID-19 outbreak has really shaken things up in the music industry, making concerts and rehearsals difficult or impossible. Bands are having to rework how they write and record their songs and. They’ve been forced to stop all new collaborative creations and are just waiting for the world to reopen. We think it’s the perfect time to give our students the head start needed for whatever musical world lies in our future.
We know that the quick pivot in April to recording, instead of waiting and hoping we could eventually perform live shows, came with some fast turnaround times, technological hurdles, and stress. We aim to eliminate all of these frustrations in the Summer Season, while giving our students a much more in-depth understanding of the recording process and the skills they need for the future. While we’re still under social distancing requirements, we’ll be adjusting our program to suit our students’ safety needs while continuing to use collaborative teamwork to reach our goals as an entire band. Students will still be working together to make recordings of their work, but here’s where we’ll be making some important changes.
Smaller class sizes: Working remotely with new technology needs additional individualized attention, so we’ll be offering smaller class sizes and more show options to accommodate all of our students’ needs. This also means we’ll be better prepared to get students back in the school when the state and county health officials say it is safe to do so.
More manageable workload: We’re restructuring our casting process for this season to make sure no student is overwhelmed with too many assignments due all at once. Learning remotely is challenging and we’re adjusting to help our students learn more and reduce the stress that the parents may be feeling as well.
More hands-on instruction: This current season students dipped their toes in the pool of recording tracks, now it is time to become a real master of their instrument and a larger contributor of the sound of their band. Instructors will be leading small groups of students in real time through the process of recording, editing, mixing and mastering. As a team they will learn the process together, ask questions, share screens for troubleshooting, and gain the skills to do it on their own.