2Cool After School Music Program

Welcome to the 2 Cool Music School  – (brought to you by Chico School of Rock)

I want to share my excitement about expanding the school to include more kinds of music, not just Rock and Roll.  Although I feel privileged to have watched so many children gain joy and confidence through learning their favorite rock songs, more and more I feel that we should not limit their experience to one genre of music.  More and more, I have children showing interests in more styles of music and I think this is vital to their growth as musical members of society.

In fact, I was raised on folk music & bluegrass and began learning the banjo when I was 15.  Through the sweet sound of Appalachain hoedowns and blazing tempos of Dueling Banjos, I gained my first skills.  Later in my teens I developed a curiosity for classical music and spent countless hours transcribing the intricate “musical jewelry’ of Johann Sebastian Bach from piano to the guitar. 

Then I discovered jazz and began learning about the rich American history of giants like Benny Goodman, Miles Davis and the amazing language of this musical style they had created.  Jazz tought me the science of chord harmony, as well as the freedom to improvise and find one’s own voice.

Each of these styles of music, from Classical to Bluegrass to Jazz taught me something unique and wonderful.  Although I love the raw energy and theatrical quality of Rock and Roll, I know that to become a true misician of the world one must learn from all styles of music.

Classical music teaches the art of focus and being technically brilliant, as well as becoming fluent at sight reading and even composing.

Jazz and Blues music encourage the art of improvisation along with self expression.  Jazz also teaches students the important science of music theory.

Folk music and Bluegrass are rich in folklore and the fast tempos create technique and challenge students toward virtuosity. 

Hip Hop and DJ music create amazing poetry and rhyming skills, as well as teaching the latest technology in music with the use of samples and record “scratching.”

Then there is World Music, ranging from Calypso to Raggae, Cajun to Celtic.  Each of these different musical cultures have something amazing to offer and are indeed the combined voice of our musical planet!

And so…..here at our music school, we are about to embark upon being a new era of musical diversity.  We want to offer all forms of music to our students and open their eyes to how cool all music is, not just Rock music.

Wouldn’t it be cool of our children can expand beyond what’s playing on their iPod and discover that Miles Davis is also “cool?”  Or that it’s “cool” to be into banjos and Bluegrass?  Or that mastering Bach Etude on the violin isn’t “nerdy”, it’s “COOL” ?!

As all parents know, it’s pretty much impossible to get a kid to be inspired to learn something challenging, unless they see it as “cool.”

So, I would like to announce our new mission, our new improvement and expansion as your music school:  the school that teaches that all good music is cool.  Mozart, music reading, jazz and music theory, banjos and bluegrass, hip hop and DJ’s…they are ALL COOL!

To have a school like that would be, in my humble opinion, beyond cool.  It would simply be TOO COOL…

It would be the 2 Cool Music School!

I warmly welcome you all the the music school that teaches all styles of music and makes them all cool…the 2 Cool Music School.

Making Music COOL Again,

Sid Lewis
Owner, Founder