Co-Curricular · K – Grade 12

Modern Band

A full music-program partnership built on the modern-band methodology: we help kids make music, the way they learn a language. Grade-banded streams run from pre-instrumental Junior Jammers through ukulele, guitar and a full Modern Band to digital music production in high school.

Our method

Music as a second language.

Our Modern Band methodology comes from the Little Kids Rock pedagogy — an internationally recognized approach that teaches music the way we teach language: by speaking it first, and reading it later.

01
Music, taught like a language.
We treat music as a second language — learned the way infants learn to speak. Listen, imitate, approximate, become fluent. Notation comes later, after fluency, just like reading comes after speech.
02
Modern instruments. Modern repertoire.
Guitar, ukulele, bass, drums, piano and voice — playing music written within the past fifty years. Students see themselves reflected in the curriculum.
03
Improvise and compose from day one.
Performance, improvisation and composition aren't held back for advanced students. Every student plays, every student creates, every term.
04
Low pressure. High joy.
Errors aren't corrected on the spot. We keep the affective filter low so students stay confident, curious, and engaged — and they progress faster as a result.

Many people say, ‘music is a language,’ but it is seldom taught as one.

— Victor Wooten · cited in the Little Kids Rock pedagogy

Read the full methodology

The Modern Band pathway

We teach music the way you learned your first language.

Our brains process music much like language. You spoke your first language for years before you read or wrote it, and nobody handed you a grammar book first. We teach music in the same order: play first, read later, so kids make real music from the very first class.

Traditional lessons

Memorise a script

Like an actor learning lines in a language they don't speak: every note is right, but nothing is understood. Students read and repeat, and many stop before they ever play a song they love.

Reading notation from week one
Memorisation without understanding
No way to hold a conversation

The Rockstar way

Hold a conversation

Learned like a first language, music becomes something students can speak. They listen, copy, play and improvise long before they read, and the reading makes sense when it comes.

Play in a band
Play songs from the radio by ear
Write and produce their own music

Repertoire, technique, reading and ear training still matter. We add what traditional lessons leave out: composition, improvisation, applied theory and music technology.

01 · Birth – 18 months
Listening
LanguageInfants learn to speak by simply listening to the people around them.
MusicSongs, rhymes and musical games with a caregiver. Children soak up the sounds of music before they make any.
- Baby Bop3 mo – 1.5 yrs
02 · 18 months – Kindergarten
Approximation
LanguageBabies babble, and adults babble back. Mistakes are part of how speech begins.
MusicChildren copy a beat, sing along and take turns on percussion. We welcome the messy first tries, because that's how music begins too.
03 · Grades 1 – 6
Intermediate fluency
LanguageWords become sentences, and children use language to get things done.
MusicStudents play whole songs from the first week, on ukulele and then guitar: chord "shapes", strumming and riffs, learned by playing, not by reading.
- Ukulele ProgramGrades 1 – 3
- Guitar ProgramGrades 4 – 6
04 · Grades 7 – 8
Fluency
LanguageNative-like proficiency: children express themselves freely.
MusicA full Modern Band on guitar, bass, drums, keys and voice. Students improvise, arrange and write their own songs together.
- Modern BandGrades 7 – 8
05 · Grades 9 – 12
Reading and writing
LanguageFluent speakers learn to read, and to put their own thoughts into writing.
MusicStudents become authors. They write, record, produce and release their own music in a digital audio workstation, and read and notate it with real context.
- Digital Music ProductionGrades 9 – 12

Ideally a child has the opportunity to ‘speak’ or ‘play’ music for a few years before they are introduced to the written system.

Music as a Second Language · Little Kids Rock pedagogy

A different kind of school band

The music kids already have in their headphones.

Marching band and jazz ensemble are proud traditions, and Modern Band sits right beside them. The difference is what students play and what they play it on: the instruments and the songs of the past fifty years.

Marching band

Instruments: Brass, woodwinds and marching percussion
Repertoire: Marches, fanfares and show arrangements
The first weeks: Reading parts and learning drill

Snare
Bass drum
Trumpet
Trombone
Tuba
Flute

Jazz ensemble

Instruments: Saxophones, trumpets, trombones and a rhythm section
Repertoire: Swing and jazz standards, most from the 1920s to the 1960s
The first weeks: Reading charts, then learning to improvise

Sax
Trumpet
Trombone
Upright bass
Piano
Drum kit

Modern Band

Instruments: Guitar, bass, keys, drums, vocals and music technology
Repertoire: Rock, pop, hip hop, R&B, Latin and country from the past fifty years
The first weeks: Playing songs they already know, by ear and from chord charts

Guitar
Bass
Keys
Drums
Vocals
Tech

From the Rockstar songbook

Two chords. A whole song.

Every Rockstar teacher carries a library of more than 360 Modern Band chord charts in the Rockstar app, part of a songbook of over 700 songs. Charts are graded by how many chords they need, and about 90 of them need only two or three, so a beginner starts on a real hit and plays it with the band the same week.

Flip through a few of the real charts our teachers use: pick a song, then the part for each instrument in the band.

Guitar, keys and bass read the same chord chart, drums lock into the groove, and vocals take the melody. Nobody waits until they can read notation to play together.