Fall Music Classes

Wow, it is already August and time to get ready for the back-to-school craze! With that in mind we wanted to give everyone a head start in preparing your Fall schedule by releasing our 2011 Fall Class Schedule. Complete with brand new classes such as Lessons PLUS  and Glee! Choir in addition to our signature Intro to Music and Music for Little Mozarts classes that are always student favorites. One thing remains the same, RMC is YOUR community music school with something for everyone, at every age, and every level of experience.

Summer has been such a blast. We loved having so many students attend our popular Summer Music Camps . From first time attendees to veterans of the RMC camp experience, we loved them all and everyone had an amazing time (including our teachers). Our summer group classes have also been incredibly fun and a healthy break from the regular lesson format.

It is hard to believe that summer is almost over, but with all that we have to look forward to this Fall the fun is not coming to an end, but will only continue.

Here is the breakdown of our Fall classes along with days, times and costs for each:

Ages 0-6

Ages 7-12

Teens (Ages 13-17)

Adults (Ages 18 and Up)

OUR MISSION

RMC is committed to serving the entire community, not just those who can afford music instruction and we need your continued help to accomplish this goal.

The mission of Recreational Music Center (RMC), located in San Diego, is to cultivate the joy of making music through relevant and creative teaching methods. Utilizing an engaging educational approach combined with innovative technology creates a personalized experience in both group and individual settings. RMC is passionate about providing music instruction to people of all ages, regardless of musical ability or financial resources. RMC is a non-profit 501(c)3 corporation.

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Music Is For Everyone – Help Make It Happen!

Piano Lessons

Recreational Music Center is a music school that provides instruction to hundreds of children and adults each year through private and group lessons for individual families. What you may not know is that we also provide music programs for at-risk youth in the Juvenile Court System as well as special needs services for children with autism and abused children. In addition, RMC has always been commited to providing music lessons for families experiencing financial hardship and families with low or limited income through our scholarship program. So far, in 2010, RMC has provided over $7,000 in scholarships for our students in order for them to continue their music education. 

Now in order for RMC to continue to provide all of our many services we are asking individuals and businesses alike to consider supporting RMC with a one-time or on-going financial contributions or through an in kind donation of materials and/or services. All gifts are greatly appreciated and are tax deductible.  

 

Here’s how you can help:

1. Make financial contribution to RMC – All donations large or small make a big difference
2. Donate materials or services to RMC – For a list of current material needs please click on the link below titled “RMC Appeals Letter” 
3. Invite your friends, family members, and co-workers or associates to consider donating to RMC – Donations are tax deductible and are for a very worthy cause
4. Volunteer your time to help RMC with various operational tasks and/or fundraising events – As you all know RMC remains active in the
   

   Drum Lessons

   community providing booths at various events as well as drum circles for schools, scout troups, churches, etc. To do these events it requires the help of staff and volunteers. If you would like to have us add your name to our list of people to contact when such needs arise please let us know: info@recreationalmusiccenter.com

5. Continue to come and enjoy all of the lessons and musical events that RMC offers on a regular basis – RMC would be nothing if it weren’t for you and your support. We look forward to seeing you again soon!

For more information on how you and others can support RMC please read the RMC Appeals Letter below.

 

RMC Appeals Letter

 

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Top 3 Most Influential Bands

In preparation for Recreational Music Center’s Beatles Invasion night tomorrow I thought I would take the time to list my top 3 most influential bands. These are the bands that inspired me, first to become a musician, and have since  kept me going throughout my musical journey. Of course this type of list is always incomplete and even now as I start to form my list I know I am going to leave out some very inspiring bands. However, my real goal is to give you a small taste of a few bands who have inspired me and hopefully this will cause you to create your own list of “musical influences” that you could share with the rest of us. What do you think? Ok, here we go:

David Gereghty’s Top 3 Musical Influences

3) Pink Floyd – I honestly cannot remember how I first heard of Pink Floyd or how I discovered their music. I couldn’t tell you what song it was that caused me to want to know more about them and even learn to play their music. It’s not because they didn’t leave an impression because obviously they made it to my top 3 list of musical influences. I actually think it is very fitting that unlike other bands Pink Floyd just kind of snuck up on me and subtly changed my view of what was possible in the world of music making. I don’t know of any other band that has ever been able to take me on a musical journey the way that Pink Floyd manages to do every time I listen to any of their albums. From the almost haunting sounds in Dark Side of The Moon to the glorious mood swings of Wish You Were Here, I find myself on a journey and what an amazing ride it always is. As a guitarist how could I not be influenced by Pink Floyd? Every time I hear a David Gilmore guitar solo I want to pick my guitar and start practicing. I have never heard any other guitarist who could make every single note meaningful the way he does, and when you put it over the musical canvas that the rest of the band creates it really takes on a life of its own.

2) U2 – From the moment I heard the song “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” on the radio I became an instant U2 fan for life. It didn’t take long before I owned all of their albums. At this point in my music education I was on my second stint of taking guitar lessons and was beginning to learn music theory for the first time. I remember bring my guitar teacher a tape that had the song “Bad” from the Unforgettable Fire album to the lesson so he could teach me how to play it. We listened to it at the end of the lesson and he seemed confident that I would be able to play it, so he told me that he would have it ready for me at my next lesson. Sure enough at the next lesson he had the entire song written out for me and began to teach me the song. It was after this lesson that I remember thinking to myself that there was no way I could ever sound as good as U2 playing alone, I needed to join a band. For me this was one of the biggest revelations in my music education. The fact that few things in music have more significance than when a group of individual musicians decide to come together to form one musical expression as a BAND. This realization took me from being an aspiring guitarist to become an aspiring musician. No longer did I just want to play the guitar, but I wanted the complete music making experience.

1) The Beatles – Like so many others, The Beatles were the reason I started to take music lessons. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was the first album I can remember listening to from beginning to end over and over (on my parent eight track player, of course); Hard Days Night was the first album I ever bought; The Beatles Complete for Easy Guitar was the first music book I ever owned. My first memory of listening to music was when I was about five or six and my mom had The Beatles 1967 – 1970 (the Blue album) playing in our living room. I remember being mesmerized by the sound and found myself laying down in front of the stereo in awe of what I was hearing. It wasn’t long before my mom came up next to me and began pointing out the different instruments I was hearing. She said “you hear that low sound that continues throughout the song? That is the bass guitar and nobody plays it better than Paul McCartney” (no truer words were ever spoken). From that moment on I was hooked. I knew I wanted to play an instrument so that I could sound just like The Beatles some day.

Why Play When You Can Listen?

There was a man who came up to me at our Recreational Music Center table during last month’s Movie Mania event in Liberty Station. He asked me “why would I want to play an instrument when I get so much enjoyment from listening to it?”. At first I was taken back by this man and his question as he was quite aggressive in his delivery and seemed more eager to cause offense rather than actually receive an answer. Nevertheless I responded to him by saying “because there is something so special about playing music on an instrument that cannot be experienced in any other way. What is even more amazing is creating your own music that is your own personal expression and sharing that with others”.

In the days that followed I continued to ponder this man’s question and found it rather profound in some ways. His question, regardless of its intent, actually brought up several other interesting questions:

1) Why would someone want to learn how to play a musical instrument?

2) In this current day and age where everything is so easily “downloaded” to us what does music making have to offer that will capture and hold the attention of today’s potential musicians?

3) Is there really any value in learning a musical instrument?

Now I will admit up front that there are plenty of people who could answer these simple questions with much more eloquence than I and do it in a much more convincing way, no doubt, than what I am about to offer. That said, the answers that I came up with are based simply on my own music making experiences and for that reason alone I believe they are worth sharing with you.

1) The reason I decided to learn to play an instrument was initially because I was curious. I would listen to music and see musicians playing and it looked like so much fun and thought maybe I could do that. It wasn’t until I started taking music lessons that I began to figure out the real reason I wanted to play an instrument. I discovered that the real value of music making for my life was that I could create the music to the songs that were in my head. Simply put, I wanted to write songs but needed the music in order fully capture my ideas. Once I discovered this desire my whole focus for playing music changed as did the instrument I was learning. I then decided to stop taking drum lessons so that I could begin to learn how to play the guitar.

2) No matter what people say and in spite of the “digital age” in which we find ourselves in today, human nature has always and will always resist anything that requires long term investment and commitment. This is not something new and cannot be blamed on the internet or the speed at which information and knowledge can now be transferred from one part of the world to another. The only thing that changes from generation to generation is the excuses for why one decides not to invest or commit. With this in mind the challenges that face today’s potential musicians are similar to that of prior generations, DISTRACTIONS.

For me the distraction from learning the guitar was sports. I have always loved to play, watch, and listen to all types of sports. So in order for me to make time for music I had to find something in it that would help me to overcome the distraction (in this case a baseball game on the radio or a pick up game of basketball down the street).  What I found was something very basic and practical (sorry to disappoint those who were hoping for something divine or miraculous). I discovered that the satisfaction that came from making music was equal to and sometimes greater than what I gained from watching a football game on TV or playing soccer with my friends. Therefore I found value in spending time learning to play my instrument. Interestingly enough, the moment I had found value in what I was doing every time a learned something new or achieved a particular goal my love for the process grew as did the amount of time I invested in it. Something that had initially begun as a good idea had now become a PASSION.

3) What is the value of learning to play a musical instrument? For me it was the uncovering of a desire that I only truly discovered when I began to take music lessons. The value of music in my life continues to change with every passing year. It is not one particular attribute but many accumulative gifts that I have received in my life through music. The most important being the original soundtrack of my life journaled in every song I write and every original composition I create. For this no value can be assigned as it lives within the core of who I am. The amazing thing about music making is that it is available to every single person on Earth, and the same values that I have drawn from it throughout my life is there for you as well.

So the question is not why should I play when I can listen, but rather why would you only settle for listening when you can PLAY?!

Find out more about the Recreational Music Center and our music lessons by clicking here.