School of rock and pop opens

School of rock and pop

Rock Choir leader Phil Reynolds has opened a School of Rock and Pop in Rochdale on Saturday (25 January).

The school, which is located in the former tramways building on Mellor Street, Rochdale is a place for people of all ages to learn a variety of music skills from singing to guitar and piano.

Phil said: "We wanted to focus on rock and pop because a lot of places focus mainly on brass and wind and we wanted to try and bring back Rochdale's rock history."

The school is equipped with a guitar room, a keyboard room, rooms for signing lessons, drum lessons and band practices. Lessons can be taken individually or as a group. “We are getting a waiting list up and running for group sessions so once we have enough people interested we can get that going,” said Phil.

The school is fully self-funded with Phil buying the music equipment himself or receiving donations of equipment from outside sources. The school is also a social enterprise so uses local teachers to teach the different lessons.

Phil also hopes to enlist a number of well-known musicians to help with the school as patrons and has already had interest from Rochdale singer Lisa Stansfield. "She has said it is a great idea so we are hoping to get her on board in some way'" said Phil.

This weekend the school held a number of taster sessions for people who wanted to get involved. "We have about 20 vocal students already and I have a number of my piano and keyboard students involved but that is what this weekend was about, letting people know that we are here and showing them what we offer," said Phil.

For the future of the school, Phil hopes to secure lottery funding to allow them to expand into workshops. Phil also hopes to start running battle of the bands competitions between some of the musicians who use the school and hopes to use an open space upstairs for performances and concerts.

"This is a place were people can have affordable lessons either individually or as a group but it is also a place were people can meet each other," added Phil.