Rock Band School

continued

Upstairs, Dave Sharp, of the jazz-funk band Dave Sharp's Secret Seven, teaches a blues class for adults. Down the hall, parent Kris Groh waits for her young son to finish his guitar lesson before she steps in for her own mandolin session. Downstairs, local tenor saxophone great Paul Vornhagen works with a student. In the common areas, students tune up before their lessons or linger after workshops. Jazz piano student Oren Levin, twelve, peers through a window into the large first-floor practice room, where his brother, Erez, is playing drums in an improvisation class.

The improv class is taught by Alex Johnson, founder and director of the Ann Arbor Music Center and its Rock Band School. He moves from instrument to instrument, talking to each student about establishing a rhythm and a framework from which to improvise, one chord at a time.

"Being in this building is like coming home," says Johnson later. "I used to walk over here after school when I was fourteen, and now I have a key to the door!"

Back then, in the 1970s and early 80s, this was the Nalli Music Store Annex. The Nalli family's Main Street store sold pianos, but the Annex was the go-to hub for guitars, keyboards, and anything anyone in rock 'n' roll might need.