Larry Boodman said he believes playing in a band is what keeps learning music fun.
He doesn’t mean a school marching band; he means a school rock band.
“There are kids that are going to play classical music because their parents want them to play it, and there are kids who just want to rock,” Boodman said. “We’re here for those kids,”
Boodman, of Orange, and friend Joey Ancona, of Irvine, founded School of Rock Huntington Beach, which throws its grand opening Saturday at 18584 Main Street.
They plan to teach children and adults how to play in a band capable of performing at the House of Blues or Surf City Nights.
School of Rock Huntington Beach looks like a children’s clubhouse secluded behind the Beach Eye Medical Group, which is apparently the look its founders were going for. The first sign is the lobby decorated with a neon skull and crossbones sign and a signed bust of Gene Simmons from Kiss.
Ancona said that his elaborate hand gestures get more animated when he talks about the school’s grand opening.
“You can’t open a business unless you love it and what you’re selling,” he said during a tour of the school’s rehearsal rooms.
Ancona learned this from helping with his family’s Italian restaurants, including Grazziano’s Restaurant in Yorba Linda.
Boodman met Ancona at the Orange County High School of the Arts. Boodman was a student; Ancona was the school’s director of production and design.
Ralph Opacic, founder and executive director of the Orange County School of the Arts, wrote in an email about Ancona’s role in training a generation of artists and scholars for careers in the arts.
“He was a passionate leader on our campus and recognized by students and staff alike for his musical talent, unique creativity, and enthusiastic personality,” Opacic wrote. “I have no doubt he will nurture and inspire students of the School of Rock to excel, thrive and succeed while fostering a greater appreciation for the art of music.”
Boodman and his former bandmate Jeff Nunes – who now works as an attorney in Morgan Hill – visited Chicago in May to be interviewed by School of Rock’s corporate officers to get their franchise in Huntington Beach.
“A lot of the franchise owners are not musicians – they just love music and kids,” Boodman said.
School of Rock students can expect to learn to play full songs as part of a band.
If they’re beginning guitarists, they might learn to play an abridged version of “My Generation” by The Who, using a couple of cords.
Once a week students will have a three-hour band rehearsal. The ultimate goal is to have students play real gigs at recognizable venues.
Ancona got into his high school band because it needed a bass player and he had a truck to transport equipment.
“It’s all about performance, and the weird thing is that’s how I started in high school,” Ancona said.
Many students who are enrolled in traditional lessons may learn a couple of songs and about music theory.
Because it is all about the music.
“When the music started I said, ‘This is why we’re doing it,’” he said. “I love it.”
Contact the writer: 714-796-7831 or dlanghorne@ocregister.com
