The Band Workshop
Just show up and play in your own rock band - with your gig
only 8 weeks away!
The mainstay of the BandWorks programs, the Band Workshop is an 8-week session which offers musicians a chance to play in a rock band and perform live on-stage. Each musician gets placed with a band carefully selected to match his or her experience and instrument, with separate groups for kids and adults. Then, for two hours each week, our staff of professional musician-instructors works with each ensemble in a fully equipped professional music studio. After honing their sets, the bands take to the stage and perform live at a popular local venue in front of an audience of hundreds of supporters.
>> Click here to Register
The BandWorks Experience
Over the course of an 8-week session, each band builds a set of songs to perform together—in popular music styles like rock, blues, pop, reggae, and funk. We select the songs for each band based on students' song choices when they sign up, and make sure that when they arrive on the first day the songs are ready to go! Here are just a few of the things you get from each BandWorks session:
- Just show up and play - your band is already assembled, the songs chosen, your studio reserved, and the gig only 8 weeks away!
- Work closely with a professional musician-instructor in an intimate setting with your band
- Build self-confidence and develop your musicianship
- Meet like-mided musicians interested in starting a band and playing music
- Learn to read charts, play with dynamics, improve your soloing, and rehearse more effectively
- Write an original song with your band (not required)
- Receive a professionally recorded CD of your concert performance
- Get the real experience of playing in a rock band!
While you can learn all the basics in just one 8-week session, a lot of our students continue to build their skills by enrolling over and over. Again, we place students in ensembles based on ability, so as students improve as musicians, they can always find new challenges and new and interesting people to play with. In fact, as our students over the past 14 years will attest, one of the best things about BandWorks is the tightly knit community of musicians that has grown around the program.
Performance
After eight weeks of rehearsal, it’s high time to hit the stage! Each BandWorks session concludes with a full-length concert at a popular local venue featuring all the current BandWorks ensembles. Always a fun and rocking event, this session-ending concert gives students an opportunity to put together everything they’ve learned—and to show off a little for friends and family. Each participant receives a professionally recorded CD of their performance just minutes after they get off-stage!
BandWorks Pro
BandWorks Pro is for bands looking to take their music to the next level by putting together a demo package, booking gigs, and playing out on the local scene. Click here for the BW Pro Page.
BandWorks for Beginners
In addition to our classes for experienced musicians, BandWorks now offers classes for people with no previous musical experience. Beginning classes rehearse and perform fewer songs in a session but offer more individual attention and help learning basic parts on the instruments.
Locations
BandWorks studios are located in Oakland, San Rafael, San Carlos, San Jose and in Portland, OR. For details about our studio locations, click here. BandWorks summer camps and school programs are also offered at over 12 additional locations around the Bay Area and in Portland. For a complete list of these locations, visit our summer camps and school programs pages.