Those of you who know me, know one thing for sure - no one is more passionate about music. With a deep family history in music, I decided to pick up the guitar when I was fourteen years of age and I haven't put it down since. Thirty years later I find myself even more excited about new musical ideas and I continue to be a student of music to this day, but my greatest joy is passing on my knowledge of music to the students of my school. I truly believe music is a gift and getting involved with music lessons can be the best choice you will ever make. Hockey, soccer, lacrosse, swimming, dance, gymnastics, horseback riding, etc., are all great activities to get involved in but music is something very unique and special and as many people already know, music can change your life. It's not so much that the other activities cannot affect your life as well, but music has it's very own connection to our soul that separates it from everything else. Where you end up taking music lessons is completely up to you, but to help you make your decision, or better yet to help you make an informed and educated decision, here's a little bit of history about this school.

Living in the great community of Bolton, my wife Tina and I decided to put our daughter in music school at five years of age, taking up piano lessons with a local conservatory music school. We actually were lucky and honoured to have the owner of the school, who also was an accomplished drummer, teach my daughter piano for her first couple of years of lessons. Unfortunately, something very disappointing took place during her second year at this music school, and it was something that would remain with me for the rest of my life. Her instructor was conducting one of her weekly lessons in one of his tiny rooms, and the distractions were starting to increase. Although he clearly was a very talented and well-educated musician, his shortcomings as a teacher became very apparent. He would take phone calls during our lesson time, make a coffee during our paid half hour and often chit chat with others during our daughter's lesson. Although this was something I was clearly not enthused about, I made every attempt not to complain and hoped that the positives might outweigh the negatives - but they didn't, and one day it all came to a very abrupt end.

Our daughter was learning some new piano scales and seemed to be having some difficulty understanding the teacher's instructions. He made a few attempts to help her understand, but eventually called me in. With his hands up in the air he basically said to me "she's not getting it and I don't know what to do!" I was outside the room during the lesson and I could hear his frustration growing by the second and I was already getting the sense that he was not having a good day. But there is one thing I will never forget about that moment, something that will stick in my head like a still photo from my life. My daughter looked up to me with tears in her eyes. She was doing her best to keep her composure and she did, but I could clearly see that she was not happy. When a parent looks at their seven year old child, who was a good student, who practiced at home every day, who was always respectful to her instructor, and sees this helpless feeling of shame and failure in her eyes, it completely rips your gut out from the inside.

I quietly pulled her out of that lesson, and told the instructor we'll try again next week, not revealing to him or his wife, who ran the school with him, that we had no intentions of ever coming back. I did visit him the following day before his lesson day began and told him that we were not coming back and that he might need to take a closer look at how he conducts himself during lessons, because what he did to my daughter was completely unacceptable. He apologized endlessly and his wife even called me later that day to apologize for his actions - we were not the only ones that had been having issues as of late, there were some other complaints as well. We decided however, that someone with such talent and musical abilities and education, should maybe have spent a little more time on learning how to be a good teacher and this was something we were not going to tolerate from him or anyone again.

The next music school we attended was in a nearby town, just outside of Bolton, and our daughter was happy to get a fresh new start on music. She had a great teacher there for the first year but we can't say the same for the following year. Her previous teacher had gone out west to start a new career, so she began her second year there with a new teacher. He in turn left after a couple months and then we proceeded to have no less than four more piano instructors throughout the remainder of the year. That's five different instructors in less than ten months! Some could barely speak english, some used pointer sticks with gentle taps to help correct (that lasted only one lesson, so who knows where that might of went - ouch!) and the last teacher she had, was actually the secretary from the front desk who barely knew how to play piano, much less pass as a piano instructor.

You can obviously understand that my wife and I were very disappointed with the quality of music education in our community and we finally decided enough was enough. I had taught guitar when I was younger and I decided that maybe we can build a music school that has a lot more to offer than what we had already experienced. So we leased out a unit, gutted it from top to bottom, and put together a plan to build not just any old music school, but a complete music complex with lesson rooms, rehearsal and jam space, studio recording, instrument sales and most importantly, an amazing state-of-the-art concert space for performances. Not only did we promise ourselves that we would only hire teachers who were qualified, but more importantly, real musicians who had the patience to teach music. We also promised to focus on the music we knew best - ROCK!

The Royal Conservatory was NOT going to tell us what to study, or what books to use, or what examinations to write. Music is music. Period. The notes, the rhythms, the chords, the scales, the theory are all universal. Students and parents will be treated the way they should be treated - with respect. No teacher under our roof will ever lose patience or grow frustrated with their students, because they are being paid to do whatever they can to help someone learn the gift of music. Some will learn more than others, some will last longer than others, some might just learn one song because that's all they have in them, but our job is to make sure they have a great time doing it. The teachers at this school will teach because they WANT to, not because they HAVE to.

Trust me when I say that teaching is not an easy thing to do and it's not for everyone. But as I sit here and compose this not so brief history of how our school was born, I realize something very important - I love to teach. My wife and I look so forward to the summer months because we get some much needed rest and get to spend quality time with our three children. But the one thing I do miss in those summer months are the students of our school. The look on their faces when they can finally play a song they've been working on, or the rush they get when they first set foot on our concert stage and play in front of families and friends, or the sound of progress when they are understanding a new musical idea.

We believe it's an amazing thing to have a school like this one exist in our community, and we will do our very best to always be there and make sure the kids of today get to experience something we never got to as children - the chance to attend a music school that really cares and is truly like no other anywhere in the world.

The one and only, RockStar Music School.

Sincerely,
John Menoudakis
Musical Director
RockStar Music School