John's blog

14-year-old Chris came to us about 9 months ago as a self-taught guitar player and an aspiring singer-songwriter. Under the tutelage of Jacob, he’s come to be one of Music & Rock School’s most engaging and enthusiastic performers.

“I started writing a long time ago, when I first started playing guitar,” Chris says. “I did the same thing everybody does when they pick up a guitar and they’re like ‘Yeah I’m gonna write songs!’ and then you start and you’re like ‘Oh… I’m not writing songs yet.’”

With MARS celebrating its third birthday this week, we decided to shine our Student of the Month spotlight on somebody who’s been around nearly as long as we have! 13-year-old CJ has been a guitar student here for more than two and a half years, and in that time has more than taken advantage of our many performance opportunities. He has participated in all four of our seasonal concerts, one studio session and every Masters Program since enrolling.

14-year old drummer Jonah P. took to MaRS like a fish to water upon starting lessons here less than a year ago. Though it often takes some students quite a while before they feel comfortable enough on their instruments to join in on some of our extracurricular programs, Jonah dove headfirst into them and in that short time has participated in one masters class and performed at three concerts.

At only 11 years old, Casey D. is Music & Rock School’s longest-running voice lesson veteran. Her two years of lessons under instructor Johanna has helped foster a strong love of performing, leading to Casey singing at eight different MaRS events and even searching out other performance opportunities outside the school – on a slightly larger scale. Last year, Casey was chosen to sing the National Anthem at the Durham Bulls Ballpark before the game!

One of our New Year's goals is to fill our drum lesson schedule, so we're offering a month of FREE drum lessons for new students.  We have a limited nuber of openings for drum lessons, so this offer will expire once those openings are filled.

Regester for 3 months of weekly 30 minute drum lessons for just $200.  That is a savings of $100!  Call us today at 919-924-0425 to register, or send us an e-mail here. 

At only twelve years old, James L. is one of Music & Rock School’s most seasoned performance veterans. Since he started taking guitar lessons here almost two and a half years ago, he has participated in every winter and summer concert, and performed at Relay for Life, Common Grounds, PeakFest and the Apex Jazz Festival. He also just completed his third Studio Session with his band, Zombie Truckers Stole My Wheelchair!

If you pick up the November issue of Active Alex Magazine (it’s a free magazine available at most Apex and Cary area grocery stores), be sure to read the article “Does Your Child Want to Rock?”  Reporter Ellen Dalbo wrote a great piece about Raleigh-area rock band programs and featured Music & Rock School in the article.  We discussed at length our Masters Program, All-Access, Studio Sessions, and performances as a means to motivate and enhance music lessons for kids.  Active Alex also sent a photographer over to snap some shots of some of the students during our last Mas

Sixteen-year-old Sydney M. has been taking guitar lessons at Music & Rock School since July of 2009, making her one of our longest-running students at the school. For the first two years, she was mainly focused on guitar, eagerly getting involved in all the MaRS student concerts, including both Peakfest and the Apex Jazz Festival recently, and even participating in one of our studio sessions. However, she recently decided to take it one step further and signed up for voice lessons as well!