On any given Thursday night at Denver’s Grant Community Center, kids in rocker T-shirts with hair hanging over their ears shred on guitars, adjust amp volume, tap out chords on a keyboard or a rhythm on drums and wait for Chris Soucy to encourage them to have “the look of rock.”
The band room is decorated with album covers from the Ramones, AC/DC, Foreigner and Bruce Spring steen. It’s loud with chatter and screaming music. Most of the kids dream of being big rock stars.
Zach Bahn taps his foot and makes eye contact with band mates to make sure they are all moving to the same rhythm as they practice for their first rock show together.
The 7-year-old drummer says being in a rock band is “cool.”
“I like it because I get to play with the big kids, and I get to play notes that are really hard,” said Zach, a shaggy blond second-grader at Shelton Elementary School in Golden. “You get to do whatever you want, and you get to rock out.”
Zach is one of 29 students enrolled in the inaugural session at the Denver School of Rock. The session began in January and wraps up just in time for the kids’ May 18 Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” concert at the Toad Tavern in Littleton.
The Denver School of Rock is part of a family of 32 schools started by Paul Green in Philadelphia a decade ago. Twenty of the schools, including Denver’s, are company owned and the other dozen are franchises, said Soucy, general manager of the Denver school, former rocker and former elementary-school teacher.
The schools founded by Green were around long before the Jack Black movie “School of Rock,” but no one talks about the connection.
The privately held company raises capital to open new facilities, but once the schools reach peak enrollment they are self-sustaining. For Denver, which is still relying on national funding, that number will be around 35 or 40 students. However, Soucy said, the school will enroll as many students as apply and grow as the number of students increases.
Each school offers a 45-minute one-on-one lesson and a three-hour band rehearsal each week in preparation for a rock show at session’s end. Participation in the program costs $250 a month. The sessions typically run 12 to 14 weeks, three times a year, plus a weeklong summer camp.
“We have a traditional corporate structure; however, we have atypical corporate members,” Soucy said. “We have a bunch of guys who are old rock ‘n’ roll musicians who don’t want to be on the road anymore but who love rock ‘n’ roll music. And this is a great way to foster the next generation of musicians.”
Most kids are well into high school or older when they get serious about forming a rock band, and they usually do so without the mentorship of someone who has been on the road.
“It’s the piece of the puzzle that has been missing from rock ‘n’ roll for a long time — the education piece,” Soucy said.
Unlike jazz bands and orchestra students, those who wanted to rock out had to do so on their own before School of Rock came along.
“Until recently you studied rock music, and you took lessons from the hippie in the back of the music store, and then you went home,” Soucy said.
School of Rock students not only have that lesson, they also have band practice to prepare for upcoming concerts. The rockers learn all aspects of a concert, not just the glamorous performance part. They will schlep the gear into the club, promote the concert, hand out fliers and do sound checks.
The kids, with various levels of experience ranging from never having played an instrument to being in school jazz bands, will play in the May show.
Jaren Faleide’s fingers are getting a good workout at every rehearsal. So far he is the only keyboardist and will play most of the songs at the show.
The 11-year-old plays in the jazz band at Kent Denver School but wanted to try something different.
“You don’t get to improvise with jazz,” he said about his experience in his school group. “I like rock music. It has a lot of chords, and because it’s just chord sheets I can improvise a little.”
Soucy would like to expand the demographics of the programs. So far it has mainly attracted white teenage boys with the exception of one African-American teen and one girl, Soucy said. He wants to raise funds for scholarships and create sponsorship opportunities to open it up to more students.
“You learn a lot, and you learn a lot fast,” said Avalon Enright, 17, the only girl in the group. “I was worried because I saw a lot of kids here half my size just shredding, but I’m getting better too.”
Elizabeth Aguilera: 303-954-1372 or eaguilera@denverpost.com
