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Arts & Entertainment

Detroit School of Rock and Pop on Cutting Edge in Royal Oak

Business gives students lots of performing opportunities to keep good vibe going.

The Detroit School of Rock and Pop came into existence from the musical mind of Jason Gittinger. Gittenger comes from a family of professional musicians and was introduced to playing music at 2. The Detroit School of Rock and Pop opened in March of 2008 and has been creating a productive musical environment for people of all ages who want to hone their craft. Gittinger explains his musical background and gives us a look into the inner workings of the business.

Patch: What is your career background? How did you get to where you are now?

Gittenger: I started playing music at 2 years old. My parents were professional musicians in Ohio. They had a band, plus my dad arranged music for Cedar Point Amusement Park and owned a music store. As a kid I played violin, trumpet, drums and piano. I started being serious about playing drums in my early teens. I played tons of musicals in my hometown, probably around 65 of them in the high school years alone. I went on to college, first to a place called Catholic University in Columbus, Ohio. I was there for about a year and a half and then I transferred up here to Wayne State University after working a couple summers at Cedar Point. When my parents dropped me off at college, they dropped me off with a drum set that I put in a practice room in the percussion department. Within a week, I had gone to a few music stores in Columbus and got a gig playing with a blues act that traveled the Midwest. So I went from just out of high school to being a working drummer seven nights a week, in addition to taking 23 credit hours at college. I moved here and been playing ever since. I have a degree in jazz studies.

Patch: What inspired you to open the Detroit School of Rock and Pop?

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Gittinger: Eight years ago I started playing in the Mega 80s and I saw that people with a great attitude can do far greater things than a bunch of skilled angry musicians that are hoping the world loves them. I saw that being nice to people and giving an audience what they want can be far more powerful. With the school here, we teach music, but more than that we put people in groups and we put them in front of audiences in a way that keeps them on a positive path vs. a negative one.

Patch: Where have your students performed?

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Gittinger: During the wintertime we've done a lot of performances at the Hard Rock Café downtown. We’ve done stuff with the Henry Ford Museum, Detroit Zoo, Detroit Children’s Museum, the Science Center, the Kids Cruise, DIY Street Fair and Arts, Beats and Eats. We do all the music for the Clay, Glass and Metal festival here. We played a homeless shelter in Cleveland and we played the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last summer. We've been featured in all of these different outlets. Last Sunday we were on the Fox 2 morning show with an adult band of ours.

Patch: What are the different instruments that the school teaches lessons for?

Gittinger: Guitar, bass, drums, piano and voice as well as all the winds and brass instruments. Basically we are goal oriented. What does somebody wish to accomplish? If it’s learn how to play the guitar, there are various stages of learning how to play the guitar. We have a few different teachers; they are skilled at getting people to those things. Our one guitar teacher plays with Alexander Zonjic and Zap Toro and there's Kris Kurzawa he’s sort of crazy down the jazz path. 

Patch: What is your main goal with the Detroit School of Rock and Pop?

Gittinger: Our goal is to get a bunch of people that care about getting better and give them all the tools and experience that they need. We'd also like to make this place bigger and better. The goal is someday for it to be an institution. It may be my little thing now, but I would hope it would become like a Berklee College of Music. A place of like-minded people honing their craft. 

For more information on the Detroit School of Rock and Pop visit www.detroitschoolofrockandpop.com or call 888-988-ROCK.

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