Hi, I’m Jessica, an intern at the Boise Rock School this summer, and this is my blog chronicling my experience at the Rock School with Jared, Ryan, Kacey, the kids, and the other great pros who make the Boise Rock School awesome.

Friday, June 25

I don’t know what it is, but this week has just been so happy. It seems like tons of little things have just been awesome.

First the gig last Friday night was such a blast! There was the best vibe in the Linen Building.  So many kids played so much music! It is cool to work with kids helping them learn the music at Rock School, but seeing them perform and being able to say, “Hey, I helped them learn that!” is so fulfilling. Also my mom won a sweet raffle prize that we are “sharing” until I go off to college and take it with me. Thanks, Mom =)

The Apprentice Program started this week! Three hours of music might seem a little long for most kids, but not these guys. They have a blast rocking out the whole time. Every one of them is so incredibly talented, and some of them after playing for only a little over a year. That really affirms what I’ve been hearing everywhere – the best and most fun way to get good fast is to play with other people! They’re so energetic and get into the music, and really motivated to learn different musical styles and challenging parts. I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again; this is pretty much the best internship ever. Ever.

This weekend! Boise Rec Fest! I am playing with not one, not two, but THREE bands!! Check out Dada Sol on Saturday Morning, a great local band who will be performing some of their most popular songs from their CD, as well as some awesome covers. Look for me on keys / violin…. I guarantee it will be a fantastic show. 5:40 Saturday evening the Apprentice band will be performing a few songs we’ve been working on. If you will be around give them a listen, and see their talent firsthand. Lastly, Preemptive Breakdown, the band that I got to play bass with at the Knitting Factory, will be performing Sunday at noon. Other Rock School Bands, including our summer camp band this week, will be playing at 5:40 and noon on Sunday as well.

Speaking of summer camps, they have been going really well. The performance last friday went well and we have another this Friday.  My group of 5 Five-year olds will be playing a great set including “The Itsy Bitsy Spider” and an original about penguins and dolphins.

There are so many other reasons why this week has / will be so awesome. I’ll just make a short list to save some space: getting tons of new music, riding scooters, delicious food / Fancy Freeze, some awesome guitar lessons and an awesome drum lesson, my first jazz piano lesson, playing some music on 8th street, fixing some broken instruments, tone testing at Old Boise Guitar Co, and an awesome inspirational record! Phew! In case you don’t have the time to read that whole article, the Langley Schools Music Project was essentially the first Rock School. Just listen to those kids sing…. If you are EVER having a bad day, the kids chorus’ “Sweet Caroline” (ba ba dum!) is guaranteed to put a smile on your face.

Just For Fun: This is going to be a long one. Since the Apprentice Program just started, and the Apprentices had to fill our a cool questionnaire, I figured that I would answer some of the questions, so all you readers can get to know me a little better.

? – Favorite band and what makes them so good.  Answer – Red Hot Chili Peppers. Each of them is insanely talented. They have great vocal harmonies (I am a sucker for good vocal harmony). Their songs are catchy, the drum beats are excellent and drive the songs forward. Their riffs are melodic and utilize intervals that really resonate with me (I am thinking of the major / minor 10ths in the intro to Scar Tissue). Their lyrics are weird, but I like them. If anyone out there understands their lyrics, please let me know!

? – Top 3 Most Played songs on my iPod.  Answer – 1) The Luckiest – Ben Folds (I’m not crazy about the video but the song is awesome, Ben Folds = awesome piano parts). 2) Fix You – Low Strung (pretty cool video, and check out more Low Strung if you like this. I absolutely love the concept. And the Cello….) 3) Alexi Murdoch – All of My Days (just listen to his voice. It’s effortless. And he has an awesome accent).  Listen to all 3 they are all incredible songs. Alexi Murdoch is by far my top played artist, followed by Low Strung and Glen Hansard / Marketa Irglova, of the Swell Season / The Frames and Once, the movie I mentioned in a previous post.

? – If you won the lottery, what would you do with the money? Answer – Buy a Steinway Grand piano, an awesome electric guitar, and an awesome drum set. I don’t know which kind of guitar / drums, I would have to try a bunch out and then decide.  Otherwise, save it for college and post-grad degrees, save for a house, car, retirement, etc. GET MELBA THEIR MUSIC PROGRAM BACK. Help Rock School out. Buy a ton of music, recording equipment, and go to a Red Hot Chili Peppers Concert, preferably at Slane Castle.  As for charities, I hate cancer and seemingly unpreventable and random diseases like that, so I would try to help out with that. Getting sick like that is my worst fear. People who battle disease like that go through a lot and I can’t imagine that… It would also be cool to own a music store. There are probably more things that I will think of, or better things that have slipped my mind. I’ll keep you posted.

Have a great weekend and hopefully you all get a chance to check out the Rec Fest!

Tuesday June 15

It has been a mighty long time since I have found time to write down what’s been keeping me so busy the past week and a half or so. Now that I should probably be getting to bed, seeing as it is technically Tuesday morning already, here is a short recap of the past 11 days.

Summer camps started at Rock School last Monday! Summer camps are a blast. I got to teach a band of 3 kids this week, with the help of Jared after he got back from touring with his band. I think Jared has life figured out…teach kids music in bands, teach kids music in lessons, and go on the road and play music with some awesome friends… It might get a little stressful at times, actually I am certain that it does, but what a great way to use music in life.

Anyways, the first summer camp of the summer was a huge success! Mine and Jared’s band, U3, learned 3 songs and even wrote an original. They were pretty psyched about playing together. The only thing missing from our first week was snacks…which we have remedied with a trip to Costco. Just check out the huge boxes of granola bars, fruit snacks, and juice that’re sitting under the printer now. I’m afraid I’ll probably eat all of the food inbetween bands, camps, and lessons…or I might resort to just eating the delicious yogurt parfaits that Ryan gets for himself every now and then…that being about every day.

Besides summer camp, why have I been so busy and neglected the Rock School site for so long? I said before that I thought I may have one student for private lessons, but instead, I have SEVEN! So it’s been sweet planning for those lessons and teaching kids some beginning guitar and piano skills. My own lessons have finally settled into a pattern, so I now have classical piano, jazz piano, and drum lessons about every week. Perhaps the most time-consuming (and probably annoying, no offense Mr. English teacher) thing that has started up this past week is BSU summer classes. In order to further my education and prepare me for a potential career teaching English in addition to music after my college life, I am taking a class about British Literature this summer. It wouldn’t be bad except for the hundreds of pages that I am expected to read… And I really wouldn’t mind reading Frankenstein or Wuthering Heights if I didn’t have only 2 days to read them in; and I really wouldn’t mind going to class if it wasn’t 5-10 pm at night… But, I guess that’s the life of a student in a 5-week summer class.

This weekend I would have relaxed, and read Wuthering Heights in between practicing instruments and planning lessons, if I wasn’t waking up at 4:30 am to run 10 miles on Saturday. Yes, this weekend was the famed Sawtooth Relay, a 60 mile race (more or less) from Stanley to Ketchum. My friends and I are crazy enough to participate every year, and it really was a ton of fun, especially the stars at night, the campfire, and the post-race meal. I can’t speak so well for the running, seeing as I neglected to train for the race… I won’t make that mistake again, though. There is probably no way that I could have made it through those two 5-mile legs if it weren’t for Baby O’Riley, Journey, and Red Hot Chili Peppers blaring in my ears. Running in the Sawtooth Mountains was actually quite beautiful, and made the running barely bearable.  Idaho is more beautiful that I remembered, and I remembered it pretty beautifully before I went off to college. Who would blame Nerina Pallot for wanting to go to Idaho?

That sign cracks me up every year. I think that the first place team should win the sign and be able to hang it in their house… I just don’t know how they would decide who gets the sign is the only problem.

Well, I believe it is getting later by the minute, as it often does…

Just For Fun: One other fun thing I happened upon this week – my mom and I re-set up (yes, I just made that a word) our record player and have listening to some vinyl. I heard of an interesting study that I think holds some truth, and the study is this: nowadays music is chopped up and squished together in order to fit into a compressed digital space, into an mp3. The sound waves that make up the real recorded music are only partially used in an mp3, but in vinyl, the entire wave is there; it is all acoustic, after all. The study claims that people have a higher emotional response to music when it is played back in higher quality – the highest being vinyl where the entire sound wave is reproduced. It makes sense to me, and is really interesting, to boot.

Since I haven’t written for a while, you all are going to have to bear with me as I write 2 ‘just for fun’s.

Just for Fun II: Concerts! The BRS has a gig coming up this Friday, June 18th, at the Linen Building. It is a kickoff event for Music From Stanley. The poster for the event is the coolest ever (picture to come later) AND I managed to secure a music from Stanley shirt, not unlike the one that you might see Jared wearing around on any given day of the week. I even got to meet the artist who designed the shirts yesterday. But speaking of other concerts, and reminiscing… It is strange how much I am obsessed with music, and then to consider how many concerts I have been to. You would be surprised to learn that I didn’t really even start exploring music and what kind of music I really liked until high school. I have only been to two concerts, but both were incredible. First concert ever: Heart opening for Journey. What an incredible show! Tye-dying t-shirts before the concert was an awesome idea, as well. Second concert: The Swell Season / The Frames. If you have not seen the movie Once, I would highly highly highly recommend it. Beautiful music. Side note: Ryan has had dinner with Glen Hansard. That lucky duck!!! So, task of the week for all you that love music and have an hour of free time out there: check out Once.

Friday June 4

Through the course of many hot chocolates and amazing oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, another week has passed at the Rock School. As far as weeks go, I would argue that this was one of the most jam packed weeks that has passed since I started helping out (no pun intended haha!).

Last Friday was a great day, like I said, but Saturday was even better.  Playing at the Knitting Factory with “Preemptive Breakdown” was such a blast.  I confess I had no idea what Preemptive meant before playing with their band. It is a really cool word to say though…one of those words that just seem to roll off the tongue. On that same train of thought, tongue is a really strange word to try to spell… Back to the Knitting Factory, though, it was so much fun being up there on stage. When we would hit a big cymbal crash into the chorus or the mood of the song would change, so would the color of the lights. It was really excellent. Everyone sounded great, and their originals rocked.  Unfortunately now I have developed an affinity for the bass. I need to stop this habit that I have of learning an instrument and then feeling the need to get really good at it. Someday, after many years of practice and time spent on music, I will be proficient at 20 instruments or so, but now, perhaps I should focus on piano and drums.

Speaking of which, this was a great week in my classical piano world.  I finally read to the end of the Tchaikovsky piano concerto that is my summer classical piano project (that video is part 1 of 2, and also one of the most beautiful concert venues that I’ve seen). It took almost 3 weeks but now I can start the memorization process…alright! What a gorgeous piece of music (around 2:32 is probably my favorite moment in this piece).

Jared is on tour with his band this weekend, so I have the responsibility of taking over a couple of classes for him while he is gone. I taught my first ever Rock School class yesterday and it was a blast! We played through Coldplay’s “Lost!” and Muse’s “Uprising”, as well as started work on U2’s “One”. I’m not going to lie, managing a group of younger kids is pretty challenging, but between playing the ride cymbal to keep a beat while holding the microphone for our bass player / vocalist and shouting over the music “3! 1! 5!” to keep our guitar player on track, I feel like I did a pretty good job. Plus, it was a lot of fun teaching kids new music, giving them pointers about their instruments, and seeing them understand what was going on with the new song.

Yesterday I went on an adventure to get a new whiteboard for our second room at the Rock School, which luckily did not involve me trying to carry a 4′ x 6′ rectangle up 3 flights of stairs in the parking garage, but did involve me and the Office Depot guy trying to fit the thing in the back of my car while I was parked in a no parking zone with parking officials walking by. Eventually we just unpackaged the whole thing and squeezed it into the back, after i adjusted the seats about 50 times, to the amusement of the guy parked next to me. Now, though, thanks to my careful calculations, we will have guitar tablature drawn onto the boards, lines exactly 1.5″ apart.

We also had our first ever adult class at the Rock School last night! It went super well; the ladies had a fantastic time and it was awesome to hear them play “Don’t Stop Believing” and “I Will Follow”.  Did you know that U2 wrote that song when they were all about 18 – 19 years old? And it is famous today still, being played on the radio, at concerts, etc. Ridiculous, huh. Just goes to show that even a fairly simple song can hit it big with the right circumstances and talent behind the music.

In other news, I may very well have my first piano student at the Rock School! I am so so excited to get her started with some basic theory so she will be able to jam with a band in no time. And, to work on some rock / popular music that she will actually enjoy. Looking back I’m not really sure how I made it through classical piano lessons until I hit the point where I could choose songs that I wanted to learn…hopefully we can change that for her.

Just for Fun: Today is a bit of a landmark day for one of my friends from college. Today is the day that he starts his job playing piano in bands on cruise ships. He was more than a bit of an inspiration for me during my 1st year at college, so in his honor, I would like everyone to enjoy the following song.  Every time I hear it, I get excited about music. If you have time or are interested, listen to the song multiple times, each time listening to a different aspect of the song: the way that the lead singer spits his consonants, the bass line (of course is awesome), and the way that the backing vocals add to the breakdown / buildup mid-song. Random fact: the friend that I speak of did his senior thesis on the lead singer of the song you are about to hear, and why we should consider popular music like his as credible music to be studied alongside the classical greats. Without further ado, I present to you -

I Want You Back

Friday May 28

I had a feeling that today was going to be a great day for a lot of people, for a number of reasons:

1. It’s Friday. That means the weekend is basically here. This is good for everyone. Kids in school, adults with full time jobs, even people outside of those categories appreciate a good anticipatory FRIDAY!

2. It is the last day of school for my good friends at Bishop Kelly High School! And the last day of high school for all of those seniors out there…

3. Today we post the application to be a part of our summer APPRENTICE PROGRAM! Check out more information and the application here. The Application is a pdf file so that it is compatible with all operating systems, so feel free to either print the application and drop it by the Rock School or just answer the questions in a separate word document and email it to us at boiserockschool@gmail.com.

4. The sun is shining and I’m listening to music. Enough said.

After this great Friday, the upcoming weekend will also be awesome. The Boise Rock School’s high school band is opening for Dust ‘N’ Bones at the Knitting Factory. And since their bass player is out of town, I get the opportunity to jump in and help them out. I can’t believe I’ll be playing at the Knitting Factory tomorrow night! By far the biggest venue of the places where I have performed. I’ve been perfecting the bass parts for our five songs, and my fingers are turning into leather with the calluses. Man, playing bass is hard work! I was working on octaves yesterday at Rock School and I thought my hand was going to cramp up and fall off. But back to the Knitting Factory show – we’ll be covering three songs as well as performing two incredible originals by our very own Sam and Atlee. If you need a fun Saturday night plan definitely come downtown and check it out – 8 pm.

As I was working on putting together the summer calender and Apprentice application this week, I came across an interesting press release on the internet. The date was November 28, 2008. This Boise Weekly article was about the Boise Rock School, back when they had 20 students enrolled. The article talked about the beginning days of Rock School – I had no idea that the first summer rock camp only had 5 students. Their band’s name was Zap 5, and you can watch a video of their concert on the Rock School website right under that “Programs” tab up there. It’s hard for me to imagine, because I have only been with the Rock School for this summer, the kind of progress that has been made over the past 2 years. Some of you have been with the Rock School from the beginning, and have seen the growth as word about a place where kids can learn to rock got out to Boise. But, whether you’ve known about the Rock School for 2 days or 2 years, it’s easy to be inspired by Jared and Ryan’s dedication and passion for music – and passing that passion on to kids.

Besides passing my passion for music along to kids with Jared, Ryan, and the other pros, Rock School has made sure that every night I go to bed with a new song stuck in my head. Two nights ago it wasn’t even a song – just the crisp sound of the electronic snare drum repeating over and over…my brain started creating its own rhythms completely independent from my train of thought as I drifted off to sleep. I guess working on 4-way coordination with the drum set has been more effective than I thought. Have you even had a song stuck in your head where it sounds so clear that you would swear that it was being played by a band in your room? This has been happening for the past few nights with “Back In Black” and “Snow”. If only there were a way to get some of my homework and studying memorized as well as the songs in my head…

Well everyone, have a great weekend. Check out our gig on Saturday and I’ll see you around the Rock School.

Just For Fun: At the beginning of this post I mentioned 4 reasons why today would be a good day. But do you ever feel like a day could not possibly be a good day  no matter what – if it’s one of those days where nothing is going right and life sorta seems like it’s stuck in bog where the sun doesn’t shine and you’re in a muddy sinkhole and can’t move…check out what is probably My Favorite Website.  It’s a fun read and is guaranteed to bring back some AWESOME memories. Today’s post (#495) is completely applicable to music, too! I love coincidences like that.

Sunday May 23

I don’t know about you, but I definitely think we need to write some sort of rock arrangement of the popular “Rain, Rain, Go Away” tune. “We Can Explain”, a Boise Rock School band, does a great cover of Lady Gaga’s “Paparazzi” – I’m pretty sure we could make the rain tune work. Add some strong power chords and soulful vocals, maybe some vocal harmony and a nice half time breakdown about 2/3 of the way through the song, building into a final chorus… Although I doubt it would really make the rain go away.

Rain really has been a pain this weekend. We saw rain and shine on Friday at the Boise Bike Project gig, and it definitely rained all day Saturday – not too bad for the American Heart Association Heart Walk gig under the JD Band Shell, but a real bummer for the Human Rights gig scheduled to be outside at the Anne Frank Memorial. Loading and unloading and loading and unloading gear in the rain takes a toll on your jeans as they get soaked up to your calves, and your shoes start to get waterlogged too.

But hey, despite the rain, the Boise Bike Project gig was awesome! It was the first time I saw the kids do a show, and I have to admit I was jealous. They have a blast rocking out up on the stage. The people down on 8th street were getting into the music, and how many musicians can say that they’ve rocked out in the rain? I’m sure they’re out there, but there’s no one that comes to my mind. The skies may have been grey on Saturday morning for the Heart Walk gig, but there’s only so much the weather can do against the power of music. Quite frankly, I don’t think it had much of an impact on the kids’ enthusiasm and great sound.

Besides the great gigs, I’ve seen and learned a lot after hanging around the Rock School for a week and getting a feel for how things run. As I was alphabetizing music I learned that at one point Ryan and Jared must have needed about 100 copies of The Raconteurs’ “Steady as She Goes”. I observed that no matter how excited kids appear to be, they can always get more energy with sugary snacks. I had the privilege of meeting Grant and Casey, two more awesome pros that work at the Rock School. Grant is a ton of fun, and joked around about our horrible guesses when the kids decided we should try to guess his age. I picked up some great drum tips from Casey and learned that he is into audio engineering, as well as the Steelers. I would venture a guess that he avoids gigs on Monday nights during football season.

Every day I have thought to myself, Who wouldn’t want this internship? I show up at the Rock School, greeted by Ryan and Jared’s friendly smiles, and we talk and play music as the kids show up. As they get going, I always have a chance to help out in some way. I love practicing my drumming skills by laying down a solid beat or learning a bass line if someone’s absent from the band. I help the kids out with new songs or just listen and provide encouragement. One of the highlights of my week was when one of the kids told me that they had a lot of fun working on a drum beat with me, and that they thought I was a great teacher/drummer. It’s those sort of things that make me want to become a great drummer and inspire me to continue teaching music, and those sort of things that make Rock School so awesome.

Week One started with alphabetizing music, built up momentum with with lots of “Smoke on the Water” and “Iron Man” (“Iron Man 2″ is a big hit around Rock School), the “Pink Panther” bass riff, and an incredible “Baba O’Riley” jam (perhaps my favorite song of all time?), and ended with running through the rain. By the way, I learned that my intuition about a washboard and “Music from Stanley” (which, I figured out, is a radio show and concert series that Ryan organizes) was (somewhat) spot on. Who would have guessed that at one point Jared played washboard in his band? I’ve learned so much from jamming with the kids, Ryan, Jared, Casey, and Grant. Bass riffs and drum technique this week, washboard next week? We will have to wait and see.

Just for Fun: Video of what is Perhaps my favorite song of All Time.  The video is fairly entertaining and the music is awesome. Note the great form for windmills and high kicks.

Wednesday May 19

I have a history of awkward introductions.

And everyone knows how important first impressions are. So when you’re meeting someone important for the first time, such as the owners of the Boise Rock School, or the readers of this blog, I guess it’s natural to be a little nervous, choose your words carefully, try to act cool, and hope that the sweat stains under your arms aren’t too obvious.

You see, whenever I have the chance to think of what I’m going to say before it comes out of my mouth, I run it through my head about a million times. Yet, it always seems to come out in a stutter, or the words somehow fight to get out of my mouth too fast, and end up tripping over themselves.

That’s why it was great when I walked into Old Boise Guitar Company last summer, thinking it was time I invested in a nice guitar. I walked in to take a look at the Martin’s hanging on their wall, running over some questions that I had in my mind. But instead of beautiful guitars, a t-shirt on a hanger caught my attention. It was a neutral color, with the outline of a bass drum, hi hat, and guitar neck in a contrasting bright color. On the head of the bass drum were the words “Boise Rock School” in an asymmetrical font, the letters looking like they had been slightly skewed by the booming pulse of the bass drum. The shirt caught me by surprise, and I found myself asking the Old Boise guys about the Boise Rock School, instead of the guitars on the wall. I was excited and the questions flowed freely. They told me it was a great local program that was fairly new in town. They did exactly what I was hoping to hear – teach kids how to rock.

At this point the only thing I could picture in my mind was Jack Black’s infamous “School of Rock”. I remember watching the movie for the first time, grabbing my 3/4 size guitar after the credits had finished, and then spending 2 hours online printing off tabs to all of my favorite songs. In the final shot of the movie, the kids are shown in Jack Black’s newly formed after school rock program, and I remember thinking, “Oh my gosh, I wonder if those actually exist? Because that would be so awesome.” Here in Old Boise Guitar Co, 5 years after wishing for a School of Rock, was the Rock School that I had been searching for.

The Old Boise guys gave me a card and told me to contact Ryan to find out how I could help at the Rock School. Seeing as the summer was coming to a close, and I had little experience playing in rock bands, I neglected to call Ryan that summer. I didn’t want to show up to help and have the kids be the ones schooling me. And the only instrument I was completely proficient with was classical piano…a real necessity for any rock band. Needless to say I was intimidated and put off what I would find out later to be….

The best decision ever. Long story short, I went to college. I gained a lot of experience playing with other musicians. I practiced more. I got better. And I desperately wanted a summer job working with kids and music. I went back to Old Boise over Spring Break and got the info that I had misplaced before, and payed the Rock School a visit. I found it deserted, but fascinating. There were 3 drumsets, at least 4 guitars, 2 basses, a keyboard, all the necessary electronics, DVDs of old concerts, books on rock and roll, a huge poster of The Clash and of Jimi Hendrix…and comfortable couches. It was excellent. It was better than I could have imagined it. I carefully took the next half hour to write a perfectly worded letter addressed to “Boise Rock School” and left the 4 sentence masterpiece on the computer keyboard. I proceeded to email the Rock School, call them multiple times, and finally leave a message, all reiterating how badly I wanted to help out this summer.

School ended and I got back to Boise, got in touch with them again, and it was time for another introduction, this time with the owners of the Rock School in person. I was nervous. I had on a nice dress and heels, looking professional. I had answers to all the basic interview questions, “Why are you qualified to help us out here?” Because I have experience working with kids and in music.  ”Why do you want to work here, at the Boise Rock School?” I want to be a music teacher and this will help me gain experience in teaching methods as well as help me become a better musician. But, Kacey, an administrative assistant, didn’t ask me any of those standard questions. Instead, she just told me about the School, showed me around, and talked to me about how awesome the kids were. I met Jared next. He was a nice looking guy who was wearing glasses and a green “Music from Stanley” t-shirt. I wondered what “Music from Stanley” was, and I pictured a band with a banjo and a washboard. This was about when Ryan came in and said “Man, you look fancy. Way too fancy for here. Oh, I’m Ryan by the way.” And that was my first experience with Ryan. I laughed with the guy who was wearing a tan hat and plaid button up 3/4 length shirt, and assured him that I didn’t plan to show up to the Rock School dressed in heels every day.

After the “interview” I was ecstatic to be offered the spot of an intern for the summer. Since then, Ryan, Kacey, Jared, and the other pros at the Rock School have been lucky enough to see me at the School nearly every day. It’s safe to say that I am hooked on their program. The kids love it – they are learning music that they love and improving their musicality at the same time, even if they don’t realize it at first. I’ve gotten to meet most of the bands so far, and I am impressed every time I hear the kids play. It’s crazy how good a group of 8 year olds can sound when they are excited about what they’re playing.

Summer is just around the corner, and during my first few days at the Rock School it’s been awesome to listen in to what Ryan and Jared are planning. There is a great apprentice program that I will be in charge of, in addition to continuing to teach kids new songs and jam with Ryan, Jared, and the kids. There are some great gigs coming up for the kids to play, and more great ideas to come. I’m not sure what they will be yet, but every day at Rock School a few new ideas about song arrangements, teaching activities, or the incredulity of salt and pepper pretzels will pop into my mind. As Ryan put it, all you need is a great idea, then “we’re gonna change the universe.”

I didn’t end up getting a guitar last summer, or this past spring break, but I did end up with something better: new friends and a great opportunity to pass along my passion for music at the Boise Rock School.

Hopefully I made a good first impression on all of you Boise Rock School fans out there. Keep posted for more (shorter) updates about the goings-on at the Rock School.