School of Rock, which provides musical instruments and band performances for all ages of students, recently had its grand opening at its store at 2037 W. Grand River Ave. in Okemos.
Jon Jackinchuk, the owner and general manager of School of Rock has been playing music for more than 20 years. He earned the performance music degree from the University of Michigan. He just opened the School of Rocks on Oct. 27 and said he is really pleased with the music program that he is trying to pursue.
“As far as teaching them a life skill, teaching them something that they can work together as a group for the band performances, giving them confidence, problem solving skills,” Jackinchuk said. “There are a lot of things.”
Javier Lomes, brought his two daughters, to check out the School of Rock.
“We saw the advertisement on the mall,” Lomes said. “My daughter is interested and wants to play. She is dancing now so she wants to play an instrument.”
His daughter, Arianna Lomes, is really interested in School of Rock, she has been playing around with keyboard under the instruction from Jackinchuk.
“I want to try the keyboard and the drums,” Arianna said.
The instructors from the School of Rock have a lot of passion to teach kids music.
“It’s my passion to teach the next generation, how to play instruments,” Jordan Lopez said, music director from the School of Rock, “Everyone is so involved with phones, computers and screens, what I call the future is good to go back to our roots and instruments.”
Lopez has been playing music and tour with his band as a musician in the 90s. He played all kinds of music. He just finished teaching music in Hawaii and moved back to Okemos to continue his teaching career in School of Rock.
“I have a lot of experience from all age groups, that’s really important,” Lopez said. “There are a few tricks to get kids attention. There are some kids on the [autism] spectrum, so I have to incorporate everything I learn to teach the kids.”
School of Rock also offers children the opportunity to perform. Students can go to performances every six weeks.