If learning an instrument is one of your New Year's resolutions, look no further than Downtown Gainesville. The Let There Be Rock music school serves as both an instructional space for students, and a hub for the area’s up-and-coming musicians.
Owner and touring musician Kyle Sanders opened the music school in 2019 after he was inspired by a friend who opened a similar music store just outside of Baltimore.
“I'm in touring bands, and always playing,” Sanders said. “Every time we would go through his area, he would bring some of the student bands out to come open up the show. I always thought that was the coolest thing, and it was just so awesome to be bringing it up, you know, the youth – younger kids younger and older – but just to bring up and give them those opportunities to play. And I always wanted to do something like that.”
Let There Be Rock is located at 840 Main Street, and the building formerly served as a DUI school.
“It was a drab, kind of dreary DUI school kind of thing,” Sanders said. “And now it’s repainted and just decked it out like a cool kind of a rock and roll community center basically is what we're at now.”
The music school gives vocal lessons and teaches students how to play the guitar, piano keyboard, bass or drums. If you have always wanted to learn how to play but never had the chance, there is ample opportunity at Let There Be Rock to make that dream a reality.
“We have a lot of adults in here,” Sanders said. “So some people kind of assume it's for younger kids. But right now, the youngest is five and the oldest is 68. And it's pretty evenly spread throughout. It’s a lot of younger ones, there’s a lot of middle school [and] high school kids. And then like I said there's a lot of 30, 40, 50 and 60-year-olds, so it's pretty awesome how it's reached out to all different ages and generations.”
The younger students surprisingly, according to Sanders, have embraced classic rock along with modern music.
“There's a lot that are just really interested in old-school kind of stuff, which is super super awesome and fun too,” Sanders said. “It's fun to teach them and then make them like try and find out who your favorite artists are – like who inspired them so they look back who their influences were and then you keep going back and keep going back. So kind of make them kind of dig deep.”
When it comes to the curriculum at Let There Be Rock, Sanders likes to give students the flexibility to learn the styles and songs they want.
“If you're a beginner-beginner, then obviously you start from the basics and learn chords and notes and stuff like that,” Sanders said. “But then we kind of ask, ‘What do you want to do? What are your goals? Or what do you want to get better at? Or what direction do you want to go and like what styles and music?’ And we kind of teach it to where it keeps the student interested. I don't want anyone to be here that doesn't want to be here. We keep everyone interested and motivated and doing learning at the same time, but doing what you want to do and having fun with it. So it's kind of a balance of work and play.”
Let There Be Rock also serves as an additional hub for the area’s thespians. Sanders said middle school and high school theater students can come by the music school for assistance ahead of auditions, even if those students are not involved with Let There Be Rock.
“There's like freshmen that are just starting and they’re hearing about where the seniors got their vocal coaches for auditions and stuff,” Sanders said. “And yeah, just kind of word got out. And then they just come to us for some help. It's thankfully paid off for a lot of them. They’ve been nailing the part they're looking for and a lot of them got the rolls they're shooting for.”
Additionally, those who want to form a band but are unsure of where to start can receive assistance from the music school. Sanders said students are not forced to form a band if they do not want to, but the majority of the time students do learn best when playing with others. This approach helps students with their musical and interpersonal skills.
“You have to learn to listen to each other and learn to bend a little bit,” Sanders said. “Everything's not all about your way or the highway. You have to just kind of negotiate and learn how to learn how to work together. But as far as putting the bands together, I really do it by skill level and kind of the ones that are on the same page [who] I think will work – like the chemistry will work well together.”
When students feel ready to do so, Let There Be Rock also helps students find a place to play. If the City or a local business are looking for event performances, Sanders will help connect them to an interested student.
The music school also holds several performances of its own. The last themed show Let There Be Rock held was Ozzfest VS Warped Tour bands.
“As far as what school does, I try and do it about every 12-ish weeks or something, you know, like every three or four months… We'll do a show where all the student bands perform,” Sanders said. “We kind of do it sort of like a theme -- like the next show is UK bands. So the only rule is the band has to be from the UK, and that's it. Any genre, you know, punk, metal rock or folk it can be anything.”
Sanders sets the vision and the students are tasked with picking the songs they want to perform. He said that the mere act of performing in front of an audience, whether it is one person or a group of 50, helps musicians become more confident.
“A lot of these bands are playing in front of way more people than I played in front of when I started out,” Sanders said. “You start out playing to nobody or empty rooms, and now they're playing out packed restaurants or bars or venues. And yes, they're super stoked.”
Let There Be Rock is preparing for another great year of student shows, so it is only natural that Sanders is planning to expand the building this spring. The school uses a building next door to their store as a band rehearsal space, but Sanders wants to amp up its capabilities.
“Rehearsal spaces are already up and running, and they're in the back,” Sanders. “In the front, we're gonna start to set that room up to be like a venue. So that's going to benefit a lot of things. Like school bands can play there, we can do some of our camp shows there, and then there'll be just shows – all kinds of all kinds of shows that we'll put on over there.”
