Where Music Becomes A Universal Language For Confidence, Culture, And Connection

What if a music program could flip the switch from shy to fearless in a single season? We sit down with Jake Smalls, music director at School of Rock Virginia Beach and Chesapeake, to unpack how performance-based training builds skill, confidence, and community faster than traditional lessons. With three themed seasons a year—think Best of the Nineties, Emo, Funk, or creative matchups like Muse vs. Radiohead—students rehearse with purpose, play real venues, and see their progress on stage.

Jake brings a rare blend of physics, audio engineering, and gig-tested instinct to the classroom. Instead of locking kids into static bands, he and his team assign roles calibrated to each player’s level, so a beginner drummer can groove while a senior tackles the solo that raises the ceiling. That structure rewards consistent practice over the myth of raw talent and turns repetition into momentum. Along the way, students learn stagecraft: how to load in, listen across the ensemble, and handle the adrenaline surge when lights go up.

We explore how diverse genres shape better musicians and broader citizens. From grunge to jazz fusion, from Miles Davis to Debussy samples inside Radiohead, influence moves like cuisine across cultures. The house band—an audition-only group—gig twice a month and tour the South, hitting places like Beale Street and Sun Studio, transforming “youth program” into “working act.” Alumni go on to Berklee or launch projects at JMU; instructors keep the pipeline fresh as active performers around Hampton Roads.

If you’re searching for music lessons that actually get you on stage, this is your roadmap: free trials, phased casting, midseason previews, and final shows that fill rooms. Hit play to hear how thoughtful show design, smart casting, and a welcoming community can change a player’s trajectory. If the conversation resonates, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs a nudge, and leave a review to help more families find their stage.

Chapters

• 0:07 Meet Jake Smalls And School Of Rock
• 2:26 STEM Roots, Physics, And Music
• 3:58 Joining A Growing Music School
• 6:21 Teaching Philosophy And The Spark
• 9:06 Styles, Challenges, And Versatility
• 11:58 Diversity, Influence, And Sampling
• 14:15 Confidence Built On Stage
• 15:34 Seasons, Themes, And Casting
• 18:02 Designing Shows For Skill Growth
• 20:12 Favorite Shows And Artist Discovery
• 22:17 Midseason Previews And Finales
• 24:05 Venues, House Band, And Touring
• 27:06 Alumni Success And Instructor Roster
• 29:15 Instruments, Cross-Training, And Rhythm

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:07

Hello everyone. I'm Al Neely with Listen Up Podcast, and we're in season four, and we are highlighting the performing arts in and around the Hampton Roads area. And I'm excited to have Jake Smalls with us. He's the music director of the School of Rock. Happy to be here, Al. Thanks for having me. It's fantastic. I've gone to two shows because of my adopted niece. And um when Morgan suggested bringing you on, I just like, yeah, I think that's just a natural fit for what we're doing. How long have you been with um the School of Rock?

SPEAKER_00: 0:48

Uh I've been with it since we've opened our Virginia Beach location. It would be uh 10 years this past August. So solid decade. Yeah, yeah. You you're from here, right? Yes, yes. I'm from here. Um I grew up in the Councilville area, um, but I did the Math and Science Academy, so I traverse the city every day to go out to Ocean Lakes.

SPEAKER_01: 1:06

So and and you went to school at UVA, is that correct? That is correct. All right, now you were your majors were physics and music. That is also correct. So you know, that's like everyone's like the size of your brain, you know.

SPEAKER_00: 1:26

Yeah, well, music is math in a way, and physics. I I did physics because I was like, if I'm gonna do something, if I'm gonna play music, if I'm gonna get into like the audio engineering side of things, like I need to know the science behind it. Right. So obviously the playing's funeral, but it's good to know. I can sometimes the kids are just like, no, check out this. I'm gonna show you a wave equation. This is this is the math of like, yo, just show me where to put my hands.

SPEAKER_01: 1:50

Right, right. So tell me, um, how did you get involved with this school of music?

SPEAKER_00: 1:58

Um, so school of rock, uh Eric Lonning's the owner. It's a national, actually multinational franchise at this point. Okay, yeah. So we have two locations. We have uh Virginia Beach School is over off North Great Neck, and then our Chesapeake location is off Volvo Parkway, and obviously in Chesapeake. So he started about 10 years ago. I just I think it was um in Indeed, and like looking for guitar instructors, and he's like, I'm opening this music school. So I remember I interviewed with him as they were still like building out the building, like right drywall wasn't up, the scaffolding was kind of there. Right. And yeah, it's just kind of grew from there. I started just a few days a week as a guitar instructor, and as we grew, I kind of also grew into the role of music director as we got bigger and we needed, you know, more management oversight, and you know how it goes. Yes, it's like more people, more problems, more people to solve them.

SPEAKER_01: 2:53

Yes, absolutely. So with your background, um, you went to a STEM school, which did you uh were you musically you part of the music program there?

SPEAKER_00: 3:07

Yeah, yeah. So um as I double majored, um my mu I played in jazz combos a lot there. So my music degree is like I said, a kind of focused. UVA does like a general music degree, but you can kind of like self-specialize after certain prereqs. Um, so I did a lot of like computer music and audio engineering stuff as I was playing in jazz combos, playing uh guitar. So then I played in local bands, and then I've been out of bands since I was like 15.

SPEAKER_01: 3:36

Yeah. So what is your passion when it comes to working with children younger?

SPEAKER_00: 3:41

Well, really, like, and I tell all the parents this, but it's true, is like I was just trying to be the person I needed when I was their age. I was lucky enough to have the classic garage band set up, but I didn't really have guidance. My uh my parents are cool and like they encouraged me to play, but like I think my first show was at a friend's like house party when I was like 17, where some of these kids, you've you've seen our shows, they get to play like legit venues and they have the guidance on like here's how we do this, or I just had to figure it out. Right, right.

SPEAKER_01: 4:13

How do you have you how do you determine? Well, I guess even if you don't have a natural ability, you can work to become a really good musician. But can you identify that special person immediately?

SPEAKER_00: 4:34

Usually you you'll see, and there's somewhat of a trajectory where like you hit kind of get over this the first big hill of whatever instrument you're working on, and you see that's where you see that spark, and you get from progress where it kind of a straight line to that exponential curve, and that's where they're like, Oh, I can really do this. And obviously, practice and dedication will trump natural talent every time, but a lot of kids will come to enhance, they like it, they feel like they're good at it, so they go home and play for two, three hours every day, and they get get good fast.

SPEAKER_01: 5:06

And then you just see something come on, you know. I play sports, and then all of a sudden you see something click and it just comes together.

SPEAKER_00: 5:13

Yes. Uh well, there there are challenges. Um you you see the passion though, you see that they want to work, and it's so many different personalities, so it's and everyone learns differently. So there's not like uh one shoe fits all. Um and so, like certain techniques, some kids might get faster than others. There's different styles, as if we're talking about guitar or drums, anything. You know, you might have someone who comes in and a lot like metal heads playing blast beats and stuff, but then you you ask them to swing and they're like, I don't know how to do that, or vice versa. You get someone who's coming in and likes groovier stuff or jazz more background, and they can like swing and hold it down, big band style. Like, all right, I need you to play this Metallica song. And they're like, What?

SPEAKER_01: 5:58

Okay, so all right, put you on the spot here. Give me your five favorite band.

SPEAKER_00: 6:10

So my favorite band is probably Radiohead. Okay. And again, that's tough as far as genres, as far as rock stuff. Okay, let's stay. Like Led Zeppelin. I grew up with a lot of genres.

SPEAKER_01: 6:23

Yeah, yeah. Okay. So what are your top five genres?

SPEAKER_00: 6:27

It's like rock, alternative rock. I like jazz fusion a lot. Okay. A lot of funky stuff, a lot of classic stuff, you know, Miles Davis and Bird, and those guys are always it's part of the musical legacy. So I felt you know they were ahead of their time. Yeah, so it's pushed me to learn some of that stuff. And then, but yeah, I grew up listening to my first favorite band was probably Nirvana. Like really? Yeah. And then a lot of punk rock. So you like grunge? Yeah, I like grunge. I listen to all kinds of stuff. I really like uh Wolfpeck is a newer band. Okay. Those guys like mixing funk, RB. Yeah. So it's hard, it's hard to narrow it down. And like, and I don't like to pigeonhole myself either. So why just be like, I only listen to this genre? It's like, nah, man, there's good stuff everywhere.

SPEAKER_01: 7:13

Yeah, I when people ask me questions like that, I think of you know, people that I like listening to. Um, and usually it's at that moment, and then I just start thinking, and you know, and just keeps going on and on and on.

SPEAKER_00: 7:26

And you know, you like I just I just saw System of the Down with corn and that was and polyphia. I don't know if you can know who polyfia is those guys are instrumental, super technical, like very impressive. And then, but then I never really didn't listen to corn that much. They put on a great show. System of the Down was awesome. So it's but I've not always listened into heavy stuff. So it's sometimes it's fun to go to a metal show, and then I'll like outside of school of rock, I run sound at some venues. So, like, who knows? I've done a ton of like reggae stuff, punk rock, alternative, and it's just it's just cool to see good music and people out there being creative and putting themselves on stage.

SPEAKER_01: 8:03

One of the things I think is great about the arts is it opens um people up to different everything and in a diverse way, it opens up um just avenues for people to be diverse, and with that in mind, um there's really no limitations as far as the arts are concerned, right? So, how would you say um music helps with creating diversity in our culture?

SPEAKER_00: 8:40

Well, because kind of the two languages really universal are music and math, and then culturally, everyone is like you can kind of compare it to food, right? Every culture's got their cuisine, and every culture's got their sonic cuisine, their music. And so, like we were saying, going through different genres, or you listen to a band, like, oh, that's cool, where's that? And then you find out their favorite band, and then that's oh, that was influenced from like these guys in Japan, and then they've they were listening to reggae, and then these brother British guys were doing this thing, and all of a sudden you have a whole trajectory that connects everybody.

SPEAKER_01: 9:18

Right, right. And then there's a lot of sampling going on, and people I just I guess you have to listen to all types of music if you're sampling it and you're you're doing it for production, and um even listening to Miles, Miles would pull stuff from uh you know, more modern artists, and then he would add his things in there. But usually what happens is that I've noticed is that the artist now will pull things from um past uh uh artists and add into their music.

SPEAKER_00: 9:53

And you won't even like notice a lot of that. Like, so there's um song by Radiohead um where they actually sample um a Claude Debussy I'm probably saying that wrong, but uh uh old um 1800s really uh orchestral piece. Really? Yeah, and you would never know it's just because they it's been sampled and processed, but it's coming, artists are drawing from hundreds of years of music, which is really cool.

SPEAKER_01: 10:25

Yeah. So your passion, what would you say working with the kids and what aspect would you say?

SPEAKER_00: 10:35

It's it's seeing them go from in a shell, not as confident, to being on stage and performing, and just after, you know, generally a show season is three or four months, and there are moments where like I don't know if I can do this, and then like, no, you can do this, and you're gonna do this, and then they'll get on stage and pull it off and be like, This is was like the greatest feeling, and just seeing them have that feeling of like oh my god, that just connected with all these people like on and off stage. That that's the best.

SPEAKER_01: 11:10

So you say this is a three, four-month season, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 11:14

So we'll do three seasons a year. We just started our fall season, so we're doing uh best of the nineties, um, emo, and then um what's the other one? And then funk. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01: 11:28

The funk shows so let me see. The um first show I went to was I I think it was either Black Sabbath or Ozzy. Okay, yeah, we did a Black Sabbath show a little while ago. Okay, and then the last one was the Gorillas. Yeah. So you focus on that particular artist for three or four months. Yeah, and so we give we give the kids an option.

SPEAKER_00: 11:51

Like usually I have three or four different shows that they can pick from.

SPEAKER_01: 11:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 11:56

And so the way it works is they sign up on a form, they give us their first, you know, first, second, third, fourth choice. I do my best to get them into their first choice, but sometimes, you know, I can't have a show of 10 drummers and one guitar player. So we gotta make it work. And it's also talking about James Brown, you still have a couple, right? Yeah, right. Army of horn players, yeah. Um yeah, so I try to pick a diverse stuff, so we don't always just focus on one artist. Um, sometimes it's like I said, genre specific, era specific. Uh, we'll do a lot of like versus shows. So um, some of those we've let's be like Radio versus Muse. Um, we were gonna do uh Joan Jett versus um Pat Benatar. So we've done a lot of shows, and I'm thinking back. So we try to do diverse stuff, but as a school, we have to make sure it serves certain educational niches as well. So like I've only ever done two instructor permission shows. What is that? So that's just where the material is so difficult that a beginner can't do that. So since we're not putting a band together per se, so the way School of Rock works is we'll have anywhere from like 12 to 20 kids in a group, and they're assigned parts based on their skill level. Okay. So if you're like say on a one to ten scale, you're a four, I'm probably gonna give you a part that's a five or a six, and that way it's gonna push you, but you have that three to four months to get there. Um, and it works out really well as opposed to just putting four kids in a band, because that way everyone can progress at their own level and not kind of get stuck. So certain songs might have a pretty easy drum part. So you might have a kid who's like 12, 13 playing that, but like an insane guitar solo. You might have a senior in high school versus in that way, everyone's pushed and no one's getting stuck because the people around them aren't progressing at their same level.

SPEAKER_01: 13:59

Okay, so when you're putting together the shows, do you try to group people based on their skill level or their age?

SPEAKER_00: 14:06

Or it's it's just based on what the show needs as far as I'll make sure I have a couple drummers, a couple guitar players, bass players, singers, and then I'll I pick you have to plan all this ahead of time because you are the music director.

SPEAKER_01: 14:21

Yes, yes. Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 14:22

And obviously, I have a great team. So if I have a show director, we'll sit down and we have generally we have the theme, and then once we know the kids in there, I we pick songs that are gonna be perfect for those kids.

SPEAKER_01: 14:34

Gotcha.

SPEAKER_00: 14:34

So I don't pick songs ahead of time because sometimes I might get a show where the skill level is a little lower, not as spread out.

SPEAKER_01: 14:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 14:42

Or I have a show where I have a couple kids who really need to be challenged in a certain way, and other kids who need to be challenged in a different way. So and then the great thing about music, there's so much of it, is that generally you can find that.

SPEAKER_01: 14:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 14:57

And then that that works out really. That's why it's a three or four month season, so everyone's pushed and gets better.

SPEAKER_01: 15:03

All right, I'm gonna challenge you here because you've been there for 10 years. So I'm gonna have to take you through the the 10 years. Your favorite show, your favorite band, and why? Tell us about that.

SPEAKER_00: 15:23

So the my favorite show we've ever done was probably Muse versus Radiohead. Hey, that's A, like I said, I'm a big Radiohead fan, so that was a personal one. Similar to like how we just did the Gorillas. I'm a big Gorillas fan. So every once in a while, I'll do one for me. Yeah, but it was great because a lot of the kids just didn't weren't as familiar with the material. Yeah, and both bands are challenging. And not only was the show fantastic, the kids all came back, like, I'm so glad. Like some of the kids, it wasn't their first choice, but they're like, I'm so glad you put me in the show. Like, I feel like I've gotten so much better. And then just the quality of it, like it was the audience was like, How how did they do that?

SPEAKER_01: 16:04

Yeah, that's not easy. How often do you how often does it happen that you're introducing new artists to them? I mean, because they're some of those kids are pretty young.

SPEAKER_00: 16:15

Yeah, so constantly. Um obviously huge names, most of them know. Yeah, like everyone knows your Beatles and your Metallica, but not chili peppers and stuff. But it's cool, like when we've done like indie shows are always fun. Because you can go back to like college rock from the 80s up through like random stuff. Like every time I get to introduce a kid to Neutral Milk Hotel, they're like, What is this? And then they're like, This is one of the greatest albums I've ever heard.

SPEAKER_01: 16:43

Yeah, you know, in a fun, weird way. Yeah, I don't think I've ever heard that. So I think last show was the gorillas versus chili peppers. Was that what was it?

SPEAKER_00: 16:52

Oh, it's just the gorillas, so it was just a one-off there. Okay. Um, we have done a chili pepper show in the past. I think we did a chili peppers versus something else, but it's been we've with three three seasons, and we're doing three or four shows each season, you know, that's 12 plus shows a year of different themes. So it's hard to keep track of over a decade.

SPEAKER_01: 17:14

But so the next one's in December?

SPEAKER_00: 17:16

Uh yeah. So we'll do a mid-season show in the middle of November, which instead of the the full-length shows, the end of season shows are usually around an hour and a half to two hours. So the mid-season show is just kind of like a look at the progress, and that's usually about half an hour per group. Yeah, um, that'll be at the annex um in November. I can check the date real fast. I should probably have had this stuff in front of me.

SPEAKER_01: 17:42

No, no, no, no, no. You don't, you don't, you don't need the yeah, but yeah, you can always get it. You can always give it to me. We can we can put it on screen. So yeah, yeah, cool.

SPEAKER_00: 17:49

Yeah, I'll get you all our upcoming dates. Um, and then yeah, the final show will be in December. So, like I said, that'll be emo, um, best of the nineties. We're actually doing two best of the nineties groups because it was so popular. How do you pick the venues? We worked with a lot of people. Uh it's we do a lot of stuff for the young veterans guys. So we the bunker down at the ocean front, and then the annex out in Norfolk. Just size. Like we bring a lot of people out. So I do a lot of work with a place called uh Scandals Live on Holland, and we do shows there. Um but they're not like if I'm bringing 300 people out, it's just it's it's we gotta pick bigger venues for our big shows. Yeah. Then we also have a group called the House Band, and so out of the we have about 230 kids at the VB school right now, once a year hold auditions. This is our only audition group. Um, I'll take about the best 12. Yeah, and they play out twice a month, and then they'll play all kinds of venues. So we just did Farmhouse Brewery this past Friday, um, with both our VB and Chesapeake house bands, and then we have an adult program as well. So we have classes and groups for ages starting as young as five, and I think the oldest student I ever told was like 75.

SPEAKER_01: 19:12

Wow. Yeah. So the the Chesapeake office, they have their own dates for shows, or are they combined? Or and then the Virginia Beach.

SPEAKER_00: 19:21

It depends on how we're scheduling. So usually because of the mid-season shows, the set lengths are shorter, we'll do both schools back to back. So say like VB will play from like 12 to 3, and then VB or Chesapeake will do like three to six or something like that. Um, but our final shows, we generally do them on the same weekend, and um, they're usually at the same time at separate venues. So, like I said, this past final shows, if you were there, the gorillas, we did that at the bonker. Yeah. And the same time we had our Chesapeake shows going on at a place called Creek Bar um out in Chesapeake, and sometimes we'll do like Eagle's Nest or try to make sure both schools have their own identity as far as the places they play. And obviously, we don't want to be dragging like one group to like cross two cities. Yeah. Happens sometimes, it just depends on. Like I said, finding a venue that is gonna be cool with the capacity. Yeah. And then obviously, like I said, the house band, they'll play a lot of different venues and just depending. And we take them on tour in the summer too. Oh, really? So yeah, we did uh that's actually where um shirt came from. So we went uh did a Southern tour this past summer. Where'd you go? We met up with the Wilmington, North Carolina school. So we did Wilmington, North Carolina, Charlotte, North Carolina. Really great city. Yeah, yeah, Charlotte was fun. Knoxville, Tennessee, went out to Memphis, Tennessee, which was cool. They got to play on Beale Street. Yeah, and uh another like little Pedro's Hideaway or something. Yeah. It was really cool. Um, and we also took them to Sun Studios and we went to Graceland, did did all the fun tours, D-Memphis stuff while we're there. Then we started headed back. We hit Nashville, then Greensboro, North Carolina, then the last show was in uh Norfolk. Yeah. So that was it was a good time. And that's the the final tour shows. I said these are like the best kids as far as because it's the audition group. Um it's it's they're playing at a professional level, and like a lot of times professional musicians will just be like, Oh wow, like they're better than some of the stuff we do. Yeah, yeah. But that's you know, um the program works, it's great, and it's great. I see a lot of kids. I've had several kids get in and go to Berkeley School of Music in Boston and do great. A lot of kids. I have um former student Ben Scott just graduated from JMU. He's got a jazz trio, he's doing good stuff, so it's always awesome to see them sticking with it and being the the the next generation of music.

SPEAKER_01: 21:59

Yeah, that's awesome. How many uh how many instructors do you guys have?

SPEAKER_00: 22:04

Between both schools, because instructors will sometimes work one day at one school, one day at another school. Okay, that's what I was going where I was going to um about 20, okay, 22 maybe. Okay. It varies. It's just we try to make sure instructors like can still gig like everyone's gigging musicians. Um and like we generally try to fill out a day for them, you know, so they're not just coming in and for an hour or two. It's like, all right, come in, we're gonna fill up a shift, and then just let us know if you can do other days or if you're interested in picking up more time. So yeah, you you you also play, is it multiple bands or um right now last band I was in was a band called uh Shady Dip, which is kind of a short-lived cover band. I played in a band called Pretty Ugly for a few years up until about 2019. And we did we did some East Coast tours, we went out and did South by Southwest once uh one year. So that stuff's still on Spotify. We did some music videos, but okay. That's singer ended up moving out to LA and we were flying him around and weren't making any money, so it's it's tough. But um, I'm working on some new projects, but nothing, nothing ready yet. So you can you can I love teaching, but you can only stay away from the stage yourself for so long. You can only stay with you can only stay away from the stage yourself for so long. Why is that? Well, as a musician, like I love teaching, but I you you want to be up there too.

SPEAKER_01: 23:29

Yeah. Yeah. And you've um are any of your instructors that you work with that you guys are do y'all work together and bands out there?

SPEAKER_00: 23:43

Yeah, some we were uh two of our instructors were in a band called Soft Plan. We've done some staff shows before. Here in this area. Okay. Soft plan, the DeLoreans, their drummer. Oh, Deloreans are pre- Yeah, they're everyone in the area knows what the DeLoreans are. So Carrie Greco is one of our drum instructors, he's fantastic. Oh, really? Yep. Okay. Um we have Kyle Folsom was working with us for a little while. He was the Chesapeake music director. He's in the last fair deal and woodwork. And so we've had a huge hoo of local musicians come through.

SPEAKER_01: 24:15

And it's I see. Most of the time, where are the uh instruments that are you guys?

SPEAKER_00: 24:22

So our primary is the we're the school of rock. Obviously, we do all kinds of genres and everything. So our primary instruments are guitar, bass, drums, keys, and vocals. Yeah. Um I can I've taught so I can pretty much play anything with strings. So I've taught some ukulele lessons, and we've had a couple instructors who also have done violin or saxophone. Um, so it just we always make sure we can teach guitar, bass, drums, keys, and vocals. That's because that's the main thing. But if we have an instructor who's capable of teaching other stuff, we try and offer some of that as well. But we also encourage a lot of the kids. If I know, like, say they had um one kid in the actually the punk show, but she played a violin part. We had a violin on Brohim. It's like if I learn it on violin, I'm like, absolutely, we'll throw it up there. That's sick. So encourage them to like, we'll make this work. Just yeah, let me know. Like, if you play trumpet in your school band, like I'll give you some trumpet parts. Like, let's do it.

SPEAKER_01: 25:21

Did you find some of the things you're talking about with the strings? There, the notes are are the same. So I guess the way you play those instruments, you know, are different.

SPEAKER_00: 25:30

Is it the once you figure out the tuning, so the physicality of it is kind of the same. Yeah. Um, but once the tuning, so the yes, like some of the same notes, but they're gonna be in a different place. Okay. So but once you figure that out, yeah, like there's a there's a system to it.

SPEAKER_01: 25:47

Okay. Yeah, I was thinking about the uh string instruments, like the bass, and is it the bass and the viola? That's the same. Bass is a little um lower, but like viola and like strings. Yeah, okay. Okay. Yeah. So do you find it easier for them to go once they've learned ones to go to the other one?

SPEAKER_00: 26:06

Yeah, we see that a lot is the kids will just they'll obviously have their main instrument, yeah, but they'll they'll want to just absorb it. They're just all about it. So um definitely a lot of guitar players when they're playing bass parts and vice versa, or a lot of drummers. Like it's tough to put a lot of you know more than one full drum set on stage a lot of times. So drummers will a lot of times gravitate towards bass and will obviously do some extra percussion and stuff too. Really? Drummers at bass. It's the rhythm section, man. It's the drums and bass, it's the the the tight the tight end of the holding everything together.

SPEAKER_01: 26:48

Yeah, I can't I can't imagine you know, using polygrams.

SPEAKER_00: 26:52

I I can play drums, but I'm not a drummer. Yeah, some of these guys, it's just doing polyrhythms, so doing something completely different with each of their limbs, and it's like yeah, trust me, it'll line up in like 36 measures. It's like, what? So that's really impressive when you get guys that can do that.

SPEAKER_01: 27:07

Yeah, yeah. Okay. So tell us uh what would you like for us to know?

SPEAKER_00: 27:13

Um, is that we just started our fall season. Yeah. Um, we do phased casting, so I don't put all the songs out at once. So we also offer free trials as well. So hit us up, look us up uh School of Rock Virginia Beach or School of Rock Chesapeake. Um, come in for a free trial, and we can pretty easily get you into a group um and have you play in a show in a month or two. Oh, that's awesome. And then I said mid-season, we'll get those dates to you so you can put them up. Yeah. And in the venues too. Exactly. And then our house band will be at C Tech on Saturday. They're dumb for a big community event.

SPEAKER_01: 27:52

Where are they playing?

SPEAKER_00: 27:53

Uh C Tech Elementary. Oh, really? Yeah. Okay. Like I think they just finished building like a brand new like playground or park, and there's like they're opening that. So a lot of different acts and stuff. So they're playing at uh 2 p.m. So that'll be cool. And then I said we have our uh Halloween party, it's gonna be at the annex October 25th, Saturday. So that and then these are all open to the public. Um, we don't do tickets anymore, we just do a one-time show fee and just tell everybody like bring everybody you want. So that way we open these things up to the community, and this makes everyone's life easier. We're not worried about collecting tickets and stuff. So we try try to make it obviously we charge tuition, but that kind of gets built into all that to make sure we can do all these events and yes, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 28:43

Well, thank you. Um I I enjoy watching the the uh the young people get up on stage. Thank you for coming in. Yes, and um thank you for coming in and uh talking with us. All right, that concludes today's episode of Listen Up, thank you, and we'll catch you next time on Listen Up. If you enjoyed today's episode, I'm gonna ask you to click on the links below, follow, subscribe, become part of the conversation. And remember, listen up.