VACAVILLE — The School of Rock opened its doors Saturday with a lot of music, a community celebration and a ceremonial guitar smashing – its version of a ribbon-cutting.
School of Rock focuses on performance-based music education with an emphasis on team building and learning to play musical instruments.
Leslie Silver is the owner and operator of this franchise at 322-B Parker St.
“This is a performance-based music program,” she said. “Students start as young as 3 years old and up.”
Before opening her own School of Rock location, Silver lived in Geneva, Illinois, where she managed the School of Rock Geneva for three years.
Silver’s two sons attended and she joined an adult band. The family moved in 2018 to Vacaville, where she discovered that the community is full of musicians and music lovers, and she found it to be the perfect place to open a School of Rock.
“It is something for families to enjoy as well as kids,” she said. “Or even adults.”
Silver was in band in high school and she said it wasn’t that much fun.
“I think this was more enjoyable,” she said.
There are eight lesson rooms in a newly renovated space, formally Secondhand Rose, a NorthBay Healthcare consignment store. Students will learn guitar, bass, drums, keyboard and vocals. They will start individually, then be placed in a band where they learn to pull all the lessons together for some music.
Saturday saw a packed house, with 35 students already signed up. Part of the enrollment fee for those who signed up Saturday will go to Opportunity House.
School of Rock Vacaville has plenty of room to grow, something Silver said she is looking forward to.
Silver had three bands playing Saturday. They were made up of students from other School of Rocks in Elk Grove, Santa Rosa and Geneva, Illinois.
“I worked for them for a short time and realized it is a worthy cause,” she said.
Classes are Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.
Emily Mally, 13, of Vacaville, has a keyboard and has been playing around with it for a couple of years. She was in band last year playing clarinet but this will be something different for her.
“I’m really getting to like playing the keyboard and want to learn more,” she said. “I have been thinking about learning guitar.”
Mally will get her chance to learn guitar along with all the instruments in the new School of Rock.
For more information, go to https://locations.schoolofrock.com/vacaville.
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Susan Hiland graduated from Southern Oregon University in Ashland, Oregon, with a bachelor’s degree in communications. She had eight years of experience working for newspapers in Nebraska prior to her arrival at the Daily Republic, where she serves as editorial assistant and covers general assignment. Reach her at 427-6981 or shiland@dailyrepublic.net.