The documentary started filming 6 months before the Jack Black movie. James Lha of the Smashing Pumpkins did a profile of the Paul Green School of Rock music around the same time for Spin magazine. Viacom sent a camera crew to shoot a couple of days at the school, then disappeared. The Hollywood film was announced featuring Jack Black as a very sanitized version of Paul Green. The writer, Mike White, claims to have never heard of Paul Green (he is rather obviously lying).
In the end, Green won. He built the School to more than 30 locations before being bought out. Now there are more than 130 School of Rock locations around the world, and the program he invented is producing talented musicians. The gist of it is this
Get kids in a band from the very start.
Have them play songs they've heard on their first day.
Expect great things.
The kids grow to depend on each other, and one peer has more influence than a hundred parents. The documentary didn't show some of the things I've seen at the School of Rock - the older kids mentoring the younger ones, the sheer joy of playing music well and performing.
It is an amazing program. I've seen more than 200 School of Rock concerts, and if you're interested, you should check to see when your local School of Rock is going to be putting on a show. The best kids in each location form a band and gig around town. The very best of those kids go out on tour as an "All-Star". By the time they reach that level, they can play pretty much anything at a pro level.
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