The Paul Green School of Rock Music is the original performance-based, interactive music school, founded in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania . We proceed from the belief that the best way to learn to do almost anything is by doing it, and we feel that this is particularly true about music. Therefore, from the moment a student joins one of our schools, he or she is playing music; loud, with other musicians, and on genuine equipment. And before long we have our students playing shows. Not your old- fashioned-wait-through-fifty- other-kids- mangling-their- songs-until-your-child's-turn-arrives recitals, but real rock concerts at real rock venues, before real rock audiences, complete with light shows, stagecraft and (when appropriate) smoke machines.
To date our students have played over 350 such concerts, to more than 100,000 people, at such legendary venues as CBGB's, The Trocadero, The Knitting Factory, Caf DuNord, WOW Hall, The Big Easy, Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom, and BB King's in Time Square. We have also had the great fortune to be able to perform in music festivals from Richardson , Texas (Wildflower) to Bad Doberon, Germany (Zappanale).
Our goal at the school is twofold: to help our students realize their amazing potential as artists, and then to put them on stage in front of as many people possible. To attain the first goal, we have established a highly competitive, yet thoroughly supportive environment, where our students are challenged at every turn. Shows are picked for their educational merit and content (ex. Queen to learn about harmony, Punk to develop performance skills and stage presence, Zappa for a crash course in musicianship), and it is never even suggested that these kids shouldn't be able to play their parts. Thus, if they fail, they fail aiming at the best. And when they succeed, which is more often than not, they have accomplished something extraordinary. I learned along time ago that if you do not tell kids what they cannot do, they may never learn for themselves.
North County News segment