Enrollment has started for our summer/fall performance season!
Performance Program - School of Rock’s Flagship Program - is a unique combination of private and group lessons which offers students the opportunity to apply every concept they learn in their private lesson into a real rock n roll setting; essentially connecting the dots from the practice room, to full band rehearsals, and finally up to the stage at some of Chicago's best rock clubs! Our students have performed at Lincoln Hall, Double Door, Schubas, & The Empty Bottle, among countless other amazing venues. Each season, we offer a variety of amazing performance group themes (i.e. the music of Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones, The Beatles, HeavyMetal, etc… ) from which students are able to select their group. Click HERE for some photos of our past performances! Tuition for this program is $354/month and includes a weekly 45 minute private lesson as well as a weekly group rehearsal that runs 2 hours and 15 minutes. You would be billed on a recurring monthly basis and you could cancel anytime during the current month for the following month. However, we ask that once you commit to a season, you stay until the final performance.
Need help deciding if performance program is the right fit for your student? Give us a call!
And now, for our themes!
Stop Making Sense
The Talking Heads
Mondays 4:30pm-6:45pm
Stop Making Sense accomplishes a simple task: to capture America’s best band — I said it, you didn’t — at their peak. Unlike the film of the same name, the album doesn’t follow the chronology of the concert, during which instruments were added one by one until the entire band was plugging away. Instead, what follows after a boom-box-and-acoustic-guitar rendition of “Psycho Killer” is an assortment of the more recent uptempo hits, delivered with the conviction and sheer joy that have enhanced the Heads’ remarkable body of work. Tracks that appear on the band’s last LP, Speaking in Tongues, turn up on Stop Making Sense with a new vitality, thanks to the palpable delight of the bands creative reimaginings and the addition of legendary auxiliary players, from Parliament-Funkadelic keyboard ace Bernie Worrell to Brothers Johnson guitarist Alex Weir. Stop Making Sense is an iconic artistic statement from a band that’s having as much fun as they’ve given their listeners.
First Rehearsal: Monday, October 10th
Dress Rehearsal: Friday, January 27th
Performance: Saturday, January 28th
Paranoid
Black Sabbath
Tuesdays 6:45pm-9pm
English rock band, Black Sabbath formed in Birmingham in 1968, by guitarist and main songwriter Tony Iommi, bassist and main lyricist Geezer Butler, drummer Bill Ward, and singer Ozzy Osbourne. Black Sabbath are often cited as pioneers of heavy metal music. Paranoid is the second studio album by English metal band Black Sabbath. Originally released in September 1970, it was the band's only LP to top the UK Albums Chart until the release of 13 in 2013. Paranoid contains several of the band's signature songs, including "Iron Man", "War Pigs" and the title track, which was the band's only Top 20 hit, reaching number 4 in the UK charts. It is often regarded as one of the most quintessential and influential albums in heavy metal history.
First Rehearsal: Tuesday, October 11th
Dress Rehearsal: Friday, January 27th
Performance: Saturday, January 28th
Ziggy Stardust
David Bowie
Wednesdays 4:30pm-6:45pm
David Bowie reaches back to the heavy rock for The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. Constructed as a loose concept album about an androgynous alien rock star named Ziggy Stardust, the story falls apart quickly, yet Bowie's fractured, paranoid lyrics are evocative of a decadent, decaying future, and the music echoes an apocalyptic, nuclear dread. Fleshing out the off-kilter metallic mix with fatter guitars, genuine pop songs, string sections, keyboards, and a cinematic flourish, Ziggy Stardust is a glitzy array of riffs, hooks, melodrama, and style and the logical culmination of glam. Guitarist Mick Ronso plays with a maverick flair that invigorates rockers like "Suffragette City," "Moonage Daydream," and "Hang Onto Yourself," while "Lady Stardust," "Five Years," and "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide" have a grand sense of staged drama previously unheard of in rock & roll. Ziggy Stardust is the first time his vision and execution met in such a grand, sweeping fashion.
First Rehearsal: Wednesday, October 12th
Dress Rehearsal: Friday, January 27th
Performance: Saturday, January 28th
Boston
Boston
Wednesdays 6:45pm-9pm
Boston is one of the best-selling albums of all time, and deservedly so. Nearly every song on Boston's debut album could still be heard on classic rock radio decades later due to the strong vocals of Brad Delp and unique guitar sound of Tom Scholz. Tom Scholz, who wrote most of the songs, was a studio wizard and used self-designed equipment such as 12-track recording devices to come up with an anthemic "arena rock" sound before the term was even coined. The sound was hard rock, but the layered melodies and harmonics reveal the work of a master craftsman. While much has been written about the sound of the album, the lyrics are often overlooked. There are songs about their rise from a bar band ("Rock and Roll Band") as well as fond remembrances of summers gone by ("More Than a Feeling"). Boston is essential for any fan of classic rock, and the album marks the re-emergence of the genre in the 1970s.
First Rehearsal: Wednesday, October 12th
Dress Rehearsal: Friday, January 27th
Performance: Saturday, January 28th
Tragic Kingdom
No Doubt
Thursdays 6:45pm-9pm
No Doubt offered an upbeat breath of fresh air to the mid nineties with their dynamic masterpiece, Tragic Kingdom. This third overall studio album by the California-based rock band found tremendous commercial and chart success and sustained seven singles over the period between late 1995 and early 1998. Including “Just a Girl”, which charted on the Billboard Hot 100 and “Don’t Speak”, which topped the Billboard Hot 100 and reached the top five of many international charts. Led by the dynamic vocals of Gwen Stefani, the group composed songs blending a diverse array of musical genres including blues, rock, ska, reggae, grunge, new wave and punk.
First Rehearsal: Thursday, October 13th
Dress Rehearsal: Friday, January 27th
Performance: Saturday, January 28th
Contact us at the school to sign up for one of our themes!