School of Rock Strabane

MOVE over Jack Black… there’s a new generation of stars currently in the making in Strabane.

The School of Rock, run by the Arts Academy, made a welcome return to the Alley Theatre this week, allowing children to ‘rock on’ and bring out their inner rock god or goddess.

Running all week, the initiative allows children to begin on their own musical journey with an introduction to a plethora of instruments including drums, guitar, ukulele, keyboard and many more. Some of the children are already accomplished in certain instruments, with a number of the participants adept at piano, guitar and ‘old school’ favourite, the recorder.

Nine-year-old Dani Perez, who hails from Galicia, explained how he’s having a great time while on his Irish holidays. He said, “Yeah I like the summer school a lot and I love music.
My favourite
instrument
to play is
the piano.
I already play the piano. I’m having so much fun here.”

More
accomplished musicians appeared in the form of 14-year-old Niamh King and Aoife McGinley.

Niamh spoke of how she enjoys the freedom afforded in the classes. She said, “It’s great here. At school we do more classical instrument and it’s confined, but the freedom of being able to try out things like the drums or the guitar is fantastic. My favourite instrument are the drums, although I must admit to not being very good at them”.

Friend Aoife added, “I love that there’s a variety of things you can play. My favourite thing to play is the bass guitar. I already play guitar alongside the ukulele and the piano.”

The final word went to young Noah Hendry, who said, “I’m loving the school. My favourite instruments are the keyboard and the drums, which I’m enjoying playing.”

Facilitator of the course, Gerry Strawbridge explained that the week had been a great success.

He said. “I feel it went well. These workshops are giving the kids the chance to get familiar with all the instruments we have, have a go, and learn about new music to which they would normally not have come across. We covered a wide range of styles from Samba drumming to rock and pop music so they’ll get a good musical education. The course is designed to be fun while nurturing confidence to bring out the best in young people both on and off stage.”

Gerry added that the week is instrumental in not only giving the youngsters involved a musical education but is vital in establishing social skills,

“It is amazing to see the difference in young people from the start to the end of the week, they come out of themselves with increased creativity, communication, planning and teamwork skills and most important of all they develop new friendships while having fun.”