Long live rock — thanks to a rock, rock, rock-and-roll high school where tykes can learn the ropes like the great rockers before them.
Musician Jason Domnarski is starting a real-life “School of Rock” in the neighborhood, and if the hippy, classic rock-loving parents are any indication, Domnarski said he may have found a target audience.
“I can see the Slope really embracing what we want to offer,” Domnarski said.
And after posting his School of Rock idea on a local message board — “I’m developing a weekend Rock Band school in a rehearsal space on St. Marks … Would anyone be interested?” — and said he got a “handful” of e-mails.
Parents who got in touch with Domnarski are enthusiastic, and many want to impart their own love for rock on their children.
“It’s important for kids to have some sort of musical background, and coming from someone who didn’t pursue it, I really want my son to,” said one Prospect Heights mother, Stacey Ruiz. Up first, Ruiz said, she thinks her 12-year-old son, Brandon, who is computer-savvy, can learn how to mix and produce music.
Domnarski, a jazz pianist, is currently drafting a curriculum and said he has reserved studio space in Park Slope. But classical pianist training nor band camp this isn’t: Domnarski will rock you.
But first must come the basics.
Domnarski will take kids through a crash course in rock music, including intense listening and discussions of the basic concepts of verse, chorus, and bridges, each instrument’s role in a band, and how to form a coherent song.
More advanced students will then work on rhythmically- and harmonically-challenging music, and some improvisation, he said.
“The idea is to work mainly with beginners as well as kids who have some knowledge on their instrument and want to diversify their abilities,” Domnarski explained. “The program is not geared for teenagers who can already play like [guitar legend] Jimmy Page.”
Two of Domnarski’s favorite teaching songs are the three-chord song “Free Falling,” by Tom Petty and Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water,” with its “classic rock-and-roll riff.”
Students will also spend a day in a recording studio and create their own CD.
And for a finale? Domnarski said he hopes to stage a full-throttle rock show.
“It will be a blast,” he said.
Domnarski first taught a rock band afterschool program in Manhattan, and was inspired at how enthusiastic the students were to work together as a band, with little input.
“From the get-go, I was amazed at the ability of these kids to pick up this music so quickly and be so excited about it,” Domnarski said. “By the end of the year we had kids writing their own lyrics.”
One parent who sent her 8-year-old son, Benjamin, to Domnarski’s Manhattan program sang his praises.
“From a parent point-of-view, the one time he [took the kids to] the studio, he did a great job,” said Katie Sperling. “Everything worked out well, and the kids had a great time.”
Sperling said that Benjamin, who has played piano for 5 years, was always enthusiastic about the classes, despite any potential frustrations.
“The kids were always excited about what they were doing,” Sperling said.
And because popular culture is so saturated with these kinds of music, Ruiz said she thinks the school will do quite well.
“I think [a school of rock] is something that Brandon would be more interested in than taking some kind of clarinet or flute or violin,” she said. “It’s a way to express himself instead of having to interpret other people’s expressions in music.”
Plus, Ruiz added, “I think this is something that would keep his interest.”
For more information about the weekend Park Slope Rock School or to donate instruments, contact Domnarski at psrockschool@gmail.com. Classes will tentatively cost about $350 per semester, plus studio time.
