For the last two years, the San Francisco Rock Project — SFRP — has been providing budding musicians of the Bay Area an outlet to hone their craft.
This nonprofit music school focuses on teaching children ages from 8–18 the art of rocking with a mixture of individual and group lessons, eventually turning their protégés into full-fledged rock bands who play actual gigs around the city.
“What sets us apart is that we’re a performance-based program,” said SFRP Secretary Margo Graham. “Not only do the students get a weekly 45-minute private lesson, but they’re also placed in a band and have a 3-hour rehearsal with the band each week.”
The SFRP is divided into three skill levels. Students who are new to playing their instruments comprise The New Rockers, a group for beginners that eventually becomes the opening act for the other bands. For more advanced or experienced musicians, the SFRP’s regular program provides its members with longer rehearsal times, more variety and difficulty of materials, as well as more live performances.
The most elite students in the SFRP can audition to be in the House Band, a group who plays in street fairs all over the city during the summer and even books private shows and parties. In each program, everything is done with the students in mind, starting with the selection of the music.
“We put in a suggestion box to ask the kids what shows and songs they are interested in doing,” said Graham. “We’ll get everything from death metal to The Pixies to The Go-Go’s to Led Zeppelin to The Who. You get all these kids’ musical preferences, and they are narrowed down to just a few.”
The idea to create the SFRP was first conceived when its predecessor, The School of Rock, closed down abruptly in June 2010. Faced with the loss of their children’s favorite pastime, a group of six parents sprang into action, gathering the contact information for all School of Rock families and setting about creating a new, nonprofit music program — the SFRP.
Miraculously, SFRP managed to open its doors in time for the summer of 2010. “We opened the school in just 30 days,” said SFRP President Ellen Hathaway. “We found a location, secured the teachers that were going to lose their jobs, and were able to keep every student that was a member of the School of Rock as a member of SFRP.”
“It was a huge feat,” said Graham. “We didn’t have equipment, soundproofing, desks, chairs, computers, or anything. It was a really grassroots community-based startup, with all the parents bringing in our guitars, and our drums and our amps and everything we could to piece this place together.”
Since that first summer program, the SFRP has grown by leaps and bounds. Last December the SFRP held their first annual fundraiser—a Rock Prom and silent auction MC’d by MythBusters co-host and SFRP parent, Adam Savage.
The event was a major success, allowing SFRP to fill the program’s remaining need for drums, guitars, amps, microphones, and PA system equipment.
Now, their fully stocked headquarters, located on the corner of Harrison and 1st Streets, has two rehearsal rooms and enough equipment to run two bands playing at the same time. In addition, they have a drum room with two sets of drums — one for an instructor and one for a student — a guitar room with two amps, and a bass room with two amps.
“It’s a hangout,” said Graham. “If a kid’s lesson is on a Friday and their rehearsal is on a Saturday, they still come in on Wednesday and Thursday because this is just their clubhouse. It’s keeping kids off the street and out of trouble. They have a safe place to come and hang out and be around like minds.”
This upcoming season, SFRP students will perform a Weezer and Flaming Lips show at Café Du Nord on June 10, and a British Invasion show featuring songs from the Rolling Stones, The Beatles, The Who, The Kinks, and The Animals at Bottom of the Hill on June 17.
In addition, they are offering six summer camps starting mid-June that include daily one-on-one private lessons on guitar, bass, drums, keyboards and vocals, as well as group rehearsals. Each camp will culminate in a final show at a music venue in SF.
“Watching kids take risks and try new things is probably my favorite part,” said Hathaway. “To see someone who is terrified to sing get up in front of 150 people and sing a song for the first time is so amazing, and my hat is off to them because a lot of grownups are way too scared to do that kind of thing.”
More information on the San Francisco Rock Project can be found at www.sfrockproject.org/.
