Led Zeppelin rehearsal!

Here is a clip from Led Zeppelin rehearsal!

HAPPY 30th BIRTHDAY TO NICK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NICK FROM EVERYONE AT THE SCHOOL OF ROCK!!!!

Bueller.......Bueller.....Bueller???

(From 80's rehearsal Feb 24)
Today in the world of School of Rock we continued our songs from last week.  We can all hope within a few weeks of hard work, practice, and dedication we will achieve NEAR perfection! Also today was Kyle Scharf's Birthday and in honor his mom Cheryl, was kind enough to bring pizza and drinks for all of us!! We also were given the pleasure of hearing Fredo sing Its the End of the World As We Know It and Epic! We also would like to give a birthday shout out to Nick whose birthday will be on Saturday!  Keep working hard, and we hope to see you all next week with improved songs (and charts).

Amanda Merritt and Matt Slodov

Thanks to Amanda for videoing some of rehearsal!
Remember this is just a preview of what the kids have been working on!  This is only their 4th rehearsal!

Sabbath Bloody Sabbath

Preview of the East Side Black Sabbath rehearsal!

School Boy Crush Horntastic!

Check out the new Bettejeane Wischmeier with her great new student Jeremy Stark :-)

80's Rehearsal

80's

By Alex Smallwood

aka justin bieber

Auditions for I'll Melt With You by Modern English were held.  Kyle and Alex (myself) auditioned and we both got to share the song. We ran over all the songs except for Burning Down The House by The Talking Heads.  Some of the songs we went over were Talk Dirty To Me by Poison, Home Sweet Home by Motley Crue, Your Love by The Outfield, Power By Love by Huey Lewis and End Of The World by REM. 

Most of the songs were ok.  But Fredo and Nick did not think they were "suitable" for all the time that we have had to practice for the songs.  So I guess we all have to practice alot more.  Cell phones seem to be a problem too.  Everyone keeps getting caught with one.  Maybe we need practice putting them in the basket!  

We didn't get any more songs to learn for this week because the songs aren't good enough.  That's pretty much it.  I hope we get better and do more songs and I "Belieb" we will. 

Peace out,

Alex 

Five Wintertime Tips for your Voice

Chill Out and Sing! 

Five Wintertime Tips to Keep Your Voice Healthy and Strong in the Cold.

The Cleveland winter keeps on coming, but don't let it silence all you vocalists out there. Here are a few tips that will lift your voice up while the snow falls.

 Warm Up! Cold air slows down your circulatory system, and limits the amount of oxygen that gets through your body. Be sure to properly and thoroughly warm up early and often - not just before you sing.

Thaw Out! Did you know that 90% of the heat that leaves your body in cold weather comes from your head? Make sure your winter hats and scarfs are on before you venture out, and that all the muscles in your face are warm and ready to go - they're an important part of your instrument!

 The Melted Stuff's Good! The winter months are notorious for making the air very dry, so don't forget to hydrate yourself. Plenty of water is a great idea, but also remember to keep your skin moisturized - singing with chapped lips is no fun. Look into a good humidifier for your home. It makes a huge difference.

 Too Hot! Many vocalists find that a cup of tea or hot water help before displaying their singing chops, but don't go overboard. Drinking liquids hotter than your body temperature (98.6 degrees) right before singing actually hurts your voice instead of helping it. Also - if you need a drink during a performance, make sure its water, and that its around room temperature.

 Sing Safe! Unfortunately, winter is also the season of the Flu, and no matter how hard you try to fight it, chances are you'll get sick at some point. When your sick, your body weakens all around, because energy is diverted to the immune system to fight those nasty viruses. It's important that if and when you get sick, you give your voice plenty of rest, and refrain from over-singing. This is for your safety, as well as the safety of everyone around you who doesn't want your germs!

Bass in your Face!

Sign up NOW to take lessons with the one and only Chris Hatton!  Check out a few seconds of a lesson with him on the bass with Mr. Matt Wesorick!

HEADLINERS TONIGHT!

Hey guys!!

Headliners are playing TONIGHT!!!!

We're playing some of our harder songs like Flight of Icarus, Love Gun, Bad Reputation, and Sabbra Cadabra!!

Please come and support myself and your other School of Rock Headliner chums.

This show's gonna make something catch on fire!

We haven't decided what will catch on fire yet!

Where: Peabody's
When: February 19th
Time: 6p- 6:40 (Headliners)

-Amanda

202's rehearsal

Our 202 group is starting to finally sound like a group!  Musically, the students have a good grasp with the structure and feel, however,  our rhythm section has some work to do on AC/DC's "Live Wire". 

- The drums and bass have to work together on this song. Now................The drums in this tune may sound like they are the easiest thing in the world to play, but........ don't be fooled kids!!!  They have to be played TIIIIIIIGGGGGGGHHHHHHT.  There is no room for dynamic with this.  Phil Rudd (The Drummer of ACDC) is a machine.  Probably one of the tightest rock n roll drummers.  We are aiming to have the drums sound close to this.  This way we don't get tomatoes  thrown at us during the performance.

-Vocally, we are working on the attitude.  Bon Scott is one of those vocalists that are hard to copy due to his mastery of attitude and sleezyness (I think sleezyness is a word.... If it is... it would mean playful).  No monotone sounding vocals here!  Lets hear some aggression and attitude kids!!

-There still is a good amount of work to do here but I think we are working with enough talent to pull this off.  Lezzzzzzzzz doooooooooooo it!!!!!!!  Thats all for now. Later for now peepz

----Von K---

(Assistant Director)

Rehearsal Reviews

Hello all!
I will be blogging for the Black Sabbath and 80's shows and Headliners!

Headliners- First of all, congratulations goes to Connnor Powelson for making Headliners!!! Take it from me, it's hard. We have a gig on Saturday the 19th at Peabody's at 6:00pm. So support your fellow School of Rockers and watch us bring the house down... ...or at least make the roof catch on fire.

Black Sabbath- Rehearsal is going very well. At least in my opinion it is. War Pigs is REALLY shaping up thanks to Nick's insane but genius mind. Singers are getting the Ozzy Osbourne singing technique. Awesome!

80's- Good job for the first few weeks. We got past the first 15 seconds in Power of Love so that's an improvement. Awesome high singing on Your Love Alex. Again, awesome job everyone!!!

Later,
Amanda

Stir Crazy!

This warm weather has the staff and students thinking about SUMMER CAMP!

CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT ABOUT OUR SUMMER CAMPS!

Shaun Von K's stuff: WJCU 2011 Radiothon Benefit at Peabody''s - Februa...

Shaun Von K's stuff: WJCU 2011 Radiothon Benefit at Peabody''s - Februa...: "WJCU will be hosting a benefit show this Saturday (2/19) at Peabody's. Come out and support School of Rock's premiere rock n roll group 'Th..."

CALLING ALL HORN PLAYERS......SCHOOL OF ROCK - CLEVELAND WELCOMES BETTYJEANE WISCHMEIER

Bettyjeane Wischmeier earned a Bachelor of Music and K-12 teaching license from Cleveland State University in 2005. For the past ten years, Bettyjeane has taught both saxophone and clarinet  privately and worked with several schools in Northeast Ohio.  In addition to teaching, she has performed, recorded and toured with many local Cleveland bands and some National musicians as well such as; Mifune (Afro-Electonique) , Carlos Jones and the PLUS Band, Twist, Shout, Swing City Big Band, The Guy Lombardo and the Royal Canadians, The Temptations, The Mojo Generations Big Band, Latin Jazz Artist Bobby Sanabria and other small combo projects. In addition, she co- designed a K-5 Afro-Beat Assembly and Workshop through Young Audiences with her former performing ensemble, Mifune.

Currently she is completing her Masters in Music Education from C.S.U, and is the Assistant Marching Band Director for Beachwood High School.  She is also an independent contractor assisting with 5-12 band in the Beachwood school district.  Bettyjeane’s newest musical project is a six piece horn band and rhythm section with MC Jason Sirrhan Walker called “J Hope and the Champion Sound” who recently performed at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for MLK Day.  She had the pleasure of sharing the stage with former guitarist of the Dazz Band, Michael Calhoun that day, which gave her the opportunity to arrange horn parts for his upcoming solo album. Her personal teaching goal is to inspire young musicians and give them an opportunity to express themselves while having fun and learning the fundamentals of their instrument at the same time.

She is now currently teaching Saxophone, Trumpet, Trombone and Clarinet at our Rocky River and Highland Heights locations!!!  Call for more info :-)

Publish Post

Headliners Live from the House of Blues Footage

Check out this clip of the Headliners from this weekends performance @ the House of Blues!

Thanks to the Pelc's for the clip!

Funk and Soul

We're on our third week of Funk and Soul rehearsal here at The School of Rock East! This show is awesome because School of Rock has never done one like this before. Those of us who dared to join the show are looking to improve our way of life by adding funk and soul.

Another exciting factor about this show is that there is a lot of opportunity for horn parts! We even have a new horn instructor at the school: Bettyjeane Wischmeier. What's even more important is that we have this kid named Jeremey and he ONLY plays sax. Alto sax. So he's probably gonna be on every song in the show. Which is awesome!!  But also tiring. I can't speak for him though.

This show is so out of our comfort zone...I think I can safely say that  none of us have any experience in the funk and soul world. We're all learning so much though, which is good. Because then we're gonna be better musicians. Which is after all... why we're here....

I have to go sing now

This is Hannah Scully signing off....

Led Zeppelin update from SoR student Sarah!

The rehearsal went pretty good today.  Everyone in our show basically knows all of their parts and we nailed a lot of our songs, but there’s still a lot of polishin’ to be done, but we’re working at it.  Today we played a bunch of the songs casted such as Kashmir, Stairway, No Quarter, and a lot of other awesome songs.  Kashmir kicked butt, nough said.  Everyone in this show seems really motivated, and who wouldn’t be? It’s Led Zeppelin. We’re all pumped for the show, even though we still have 12 weeks to go.  Hope we can keep up the good work!

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/NOW-ENROLLING-FOR-2011-SUMMER-CAMP-at-both-ROCKY-RIVER-AND-HIGHLAND-HEIGHTS-SCHOOLS.html?soid=1102200932963&aid=AqL51zKQbyw

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/NOW-ENROLLING-FOR-2011-SUMMER-CAMP-at-both-ROCKY-RIVER-AND-HIGHLAND-HEIGHTS-SCHOOLS.html?soid=1102200932963&aid=AqL51zKQbyw

Two SoR bands in the Rock Off Finals!!

We are very happy to announce that two bands featuring members of School of Rock Rocky River will be performing in the High School Rock Off Final Exam this Saturday February 12th at the House of Blues.

Shred Rot will play @ 5:20 & The Slight Chill @ 9:50.

Also, our Headliners will be performing a set while the judges scores are tallied. Around 10pm. 

Check out a video below of the Slight Chills performance in the 1st round.

Sor try outs

Tonight is a big night for some of our SoR students, Headliners tryouts! This is their chance to join our other Headliners in our local all star group. Speaking of all stars, some of our current Headliners are also starting their National All-Star audtion process. Check out some of our kids, as they wait and entertain themselves!

Welcome to the School of Rock Blog!

Welcome!  We are the School of Rock!  You are probably wondering, what is the School of Rock?!?!  Well I will tell you.  The School of Rock is the nation's premier performance-based rock music program.  We accept students of all ages, from beginners to advanced.  Students in our regular program receive a weekly 45 minute private lesson on the instrument of their choice.  They also participate in weekly 3 hour supervised rehearsals with some of the most talented professional musicians in the area.  These rehearsals and lessons prepare the students for the main event, which is the SHOWS!  The shows have a variety of themes.  Some of the shows that we have done recently are Women Who Rock, Green Day, Wacky Trax, The Who, Queen, Punk, and Led Zeppelin. 

Students in our introductory 101 and 202 programs also receive a weekly 45 minute lesson as well as a 90 minute supervised rehearsal.  The goal in these programs is to get them into the regular program, but also to PLAY MUSIC!!

We have two schools in the Cleveland area.  One is in Rocky River, the other in Highland Heights.  If you would like to contact either schools, the numbers are below:

Rocky River: 440-333-7625
Highland Heights: 440-684-7625

Anyways, enough of the business.  My name is Alfredo, and I am one of the instructors at the Highland Heights school.  Students, teachers and everyone in between will be using this blog to talk about all that is School of Rock and music in general.  Currently, I am running the 80's show on the east side.  We are currently in our 2nd week, and running songs by bands such as Motley Crue, Poison, Faith No More, R.E.M., Billy Idol, and Huey Lewis.  Nick is my assistant Director, and he is really bummed that Green Bay won the Super Bowl because he is a Bears fan.  Poor Nick! Anyways, more exciting people than myself will be updating this blog periodically.  Hope you enjoy!!