Gonna sort of multi-purpose this thread and use it as a “share your School of Rock performances” too. Our show last night again surprised me with how much fun (and exhausting) it was. Very happy that it keeps being more and more fun each time…
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I enjoyed watching this. I still don’t have video of ours yet; I will post when I can. Shout out to Ben for coming out to support us! We were lucky to double-bill with the younger folks, who I think did a great job. We made a lot of mistakes, but we did our best and had a great time. There is a particular thrill when a song starts to get away from you, and the band pulls it back. It’s great when everything goes right, but recovering from a flub is a different kind of success. Fall down seven times, get up eight.
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Halfway through Carry On Wayward Son, our drummer loses a stick. Right before an extra 2/4 measure that we’ve been iffy on during rehearsals. But, we got it more or less. And right at the beginning of Carry On, before we slide in, a guitarist hits his fretboard and that makes a little noise. And throughout the song, I mangle notes here and there…And it looks like I move my body after I strum a note - so I need to talk to a full body choreographer about that too. But yes - those things make it fun. And highlight how important it is for bandmates to be on the same page regarding balance of fun vs perfection. I feel lucky to have the folks in our SoR program. Looking forward to your video! I was playing the video while driving one day, when I realized I can pull the audio off YouTube and then cut it up, and then add the tracks to Apple Music and create my live performances playlist…
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Here are four videos from the School of Rock show in West Seattle from January 2022. I am in the first two. There were 16 songs total, I played on 10 of them, but this is all I could get.
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Looks like a blast. I liked how you couldn’t help but get moving during I love Rock n Roll. And I recognize those knowing looks at the guitarist before a solo or break in the Fleetwood Mac song. How is the next session shaping up? Mine is looking a little rough. But still fun.
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Looks like a blast.
Thanks for sharing
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We had our season show last night. Going in, we knew Do You Realize by the Flaming Lips wasn’t so strong, but others were fun. The Distance. A Punk (I hadn’t heard it before, but is super fun to play), High and Dry - Radiohead, Just Like Heaven, I Melt With You, 10 am automatic…we the songs I got to be a part of. Mr Brightside, the One I Love, Blue Orchid, song 2, and Monkey goes to heaven were the rest of the set list.
Sound wasn’t mixed through their system this time, so didn’t sound as good. And one of the teachers was trying to get the bass louder while I was playing and ended up blowing the amp, so I had a lot of fuzz for the rest of the night (happened on my first song…) everyone had trouble hearing each other, creating some sync issues…
Despite all that, super fun still. Want to do it again and again!
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That’s a great set list! Everything from Modern English to The Killers.
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I was going to take the summer session off. Have various out of town activities planned and didn’t think I’d be doing the group right, if I knew I would be missing 3-4 weeks. But while on vacation, someone still in the class shared the setlist and they had Let’s Go Crazy by Prince on it. I’m a huge Prince fan, so this sucked me back in…80’s rock is the theme…I also picked up Don’t You Forget About Me, Everybody Wants to Rule the World, and White Wedding. But it’s all dwarfed by how much fun it is practicing Let’s Go Crazy…by myself and during class. SO MUCH FUN!
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So this session is the Beatles. And a friend that was in it before with me loves them, so she came back for that, even though the keyboard parts are hit and miss. And my wife is doing drum lessons. We were all together on Hey Bulldog, but then things got strange and keyboardists got swapped. We are all together on A Hard Day’s Night, cause my wife was standing in for the singer that was out…and well, after a while it just stuck.
This session has really highlighted how much the teachers can make or break the class. I think a lot of them just need to guide and we’ll do alright. But we have one that’s a little too eager to say “hey - everything’s great, don’t need to play that anymore” while he’s blasting the track in the background. And then another teacher talks a bit much, and it’s so frustrating to get there and have to listen to stories of previous bands and choirs and other things, while the other room is playing their song over and over again (even if it’s with the original track playing too). It’s kind of been the worst session instructor wise. And I see previous instructors around - so there’s something at play with who makes the schedule and why we don’t have the previous instructors and have these two folks that are out of sync with us. But, everytime I get frustrated with the experience, I tell myself it’s just that much more authentic of an experience…
Still my favorite part of the week…
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Continuing the thread hijack of Share your SoR performances - School of Rocks - The Beetles - Hard Days Night - YouTube - this is from our Beatles show. I tried growing out a mop top - but needed more than 4 months it seemed. Another month would have been great. And even the wife had fun - singing in this song and drumming on 4 others. Lots of things went wrong in the show, but still super fun. Next up - Guitar Gods (Clapton, Hendrix, Santana, etc songs…)
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Really cool you get do this with your wife.
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It just took a year of doing it on my own to convince her. Actually, the mom of a son’s friend also joined, and that’s what got the wife onboard. But I don’t care what the reasoning was - it was just fun to carpool to practice and stuff. She’s not looking forward to this next session pushing back 30 minutes, so it doesn’t end until 10:30 now either (getting old!). But when she can’t stop smiling, tapping a foot, or humming a song during the day, it’s been all worth it I think.
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I signed up for lessons a couple months ago! I made sure they put me with a teacher who is passionate about bass. He has been helping me understand music theory and it’s starting to click and helping me to improvise. I’m glad to see that others here have had a good experience.
The adult performance group has been a ton of fun. We’re rehearsing to perform in May. The age range is pretty wide (early 20’s to 60’s. I’m 38). We settled on early MTV hits as a theme.
I’m playing bass on “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy” by Rod Stewart among other songs. That one is definitely a workout and has improved my playing stamina and pinky strength!
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@beaurapp How are you feeling about the show? Was it this past weekend, to avoid the holiday weekend conflicts? We had our performance yesterday - lots of ups and downs, but still super fun. Somehow the recording got the balance worked out better this time, which is good, cause the guy didn’t know how to save to a USB stick (just a computer - and maybe saving all individual tracks to a computer is the best option, but just don’t know how long I wanna mess with mixing either).
SoR Palo Alto Spring ‘23 - Highway Star - YouTube - Highway Star was our best energy song…
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Hey! You guys sounded great and you looked awesome back there! I had my show on Sunday as well with SoR Huntington Beach. I was pretty nervous and dealt with technical issues (cable was crap and I lost sound a couple times) and band members making a couple mistakes that threw me off a little. It was fun, though! My favorite song to play was Do Ya Think I’m Sexy. That one turned out pretty well! Do you think you’ll do it again?
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Yeah. This is my 5th or 6th time. I will try the summer. But am moving in the fall. Though there is a school of rock down in Oceanside too…
All the mishaps are part of the experience. Singers come in early. Or late. Or someone skips a repeat. I love the challenge of pulling it back together!
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And so ends my SoR career, as I’m moving. One drummer was kind enough to say “I’m gonna miss seeing that bass!” They were kind words, and I also hope one day I can make my bass sound as good as it looks!
We had a guy come in for singing lessons. And at one point, he let it slip he plays a little guitar. Folks were struggling to do the short solo of My Sharona, so he offered to pick up the main solo. He comes back the next week and is shredding. How do you learn that solo in just a week? Play the guitar for 16 years…he’s the best guitarist I’ve been able to play with and was super fun to catch his energy - https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=MoT36bAp2BM (Black Betty, linked to in the description had one of those moments where you know the lead guitarist is never gonna forget to wrap his cable through the strap again…)
The SoRs in the San Diego area don’t really have adult bands…they have a few students here and there, but not like the dozen+ we’ve had in Palo Alto. I’m looking to join a smaller local music school with a couple of friends and start our own “band class” at the school instead. These practices were always what I was looking forward to each week, so I need to keep that up one way or another.
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