Pop goes the traditional music lesson

Nick Bell, 9, and brother Jake (with cap), 10, are two-thirds of the student band Heroes II. (Globe Staff / Dominic Chavez)

WEYMOUTH - In a second-floor recording studio on a steamy afternoon, drums crash, guitar chords blare, and rock lyrics spew forth at a higher-than-usual pitch. Nine-year-old Nick Bell, his 10-year-old brother Jake, and their 11-year-old friend Andrew McElman are playing "Highway to Hell."

"Hey, mama, look at me," Nick sings with one of his sneakers untied, as he bangs out the bassline of the AC/DC song. "I'm on my way to the promised land."

They call themselves the Heroes II. (It was Barroom Heroes at first, McElman said, but "we're kids, and I don't think that's the greatest name for us.") They had their first gig at a bar here on a recent Wednesday night. And they are the product of a growing trend in music education.

Music lessons were once confined to the living room, where parents hounded and their children begrudgingly practiced a classical repertoire. Today, younger and younger kids are picking up electric instruments, assembling into rock 'n' roll bands, and performing for audiences soon after they start playing. Influenced by the music their parents love, not to mention video games and the preteen artists they see on television, kids are asking to rock and getting the chance.

Until recently, learning an instrument amounted to "classical education, without much exception," said Chris Vuk, a classically trained violinist who founded the Vuk School of Groove, a Cambridge venue for music lessons. "Suddenly, rock music has broken the model," Vuk said. "It doesn't have to be dull."

The School of Groove, with 16 teachers and 110 students, holds concerts several times a year, letting even neophyte musicians take the stage.

At South Shore Music, an instrument and lesson shop in Weymouth that teaches 350 students, young players like McElman and the Bell brothers are encouraged to form bands and perform. (Jake Bell recruited McElman from his hockey team.) An ensemble class with instructor Bill Egan costs $199 for six weeks of rehearsals, a CD, and a performance at a bar, often with Egan onstage to play the complex riffs.

It stands to reason that kids would want to rock out; they see electric guitars in the hands of their pop-culture heroes, from Nickelodeon's Naked Brothers Band to Disney's Hannah Montana to the young band in the 2003 film "School of Rock."

At Merry Melody Music Academy in Norwell, guitar teacher Chris Poon said one of his students recently requested a red guitar, so he could be like a character in the Nickelodeon series "Drake & Josh."

Poon said his business volume has also shot up since the release of the video games "Guitar Hero" and "Rock Band."

Ed Lucie, who teaches guitar at the School of Groove, said his young students ask to learn the classic rock songs they first hear on PlayStation and Xbox.

Lucie, 52, grew up in a musically divided household; his parents listened to Andy Williams, he said, and "I can't relate to that at all."

But today's kids are much more likely to hear rock music at home. Jake and Nick Bell say they got into classic rock because their father listens to those songs.

"Did I inspire you?" Jake, the first to play an instrument, asked Nick during their recording session.

"No," Nick replied. "AC/DC did."

An increased interest in learning to play rock music extends nationwide, according to the Music Teachers National Association, based in Cincinnati, which has 24,000 members.

In a survey of members conducted in 2006, 67 percent said their students were interested in playing pop, said Brian Shepard, the group's deputy executive director. Teachers have accommodated them, Shepard said. While all members still teach classical music, 59 percent now teach jazz as well, and 58 percent teach pop.

Teachers say kids can learn things from playing in a band that they would never get in hours of practicing alone: the need to cooperate, coordinate, and listen; the feeling of playing for an audience; the motivation to practice.

As more students of all levels flock to an electric sound, retailers and other businesses have begun to capitalize. After developing a fantasy rock-band camp for adults and older teens, the National Guitar Workshop, a music education program based in Connecticut, got so many requests from younger musicians that it started a summer camp called DayJams, aimed at ages 8 to 15. It operates 21 camps around the country, including in Newton and Medford. During weeklong cycles, which cost just over $500 per week in the Boston area, students assemble bands, write and rehearse songs, and create T-shirts, posters, CD covers, and backstage passes.

"We like to think that we inspire them to go home and play more," said the company's executive director, Katrin Hall.

Instruments are becoming more accessible, too. Nearly a year ago, after noticing YouTube videos of young children in bands, Toys R Us expanded the music sections in its stores, said Bob Giampietro, the company's senior vice president of trends and innovation. The large displays feature a range of rock-star instruments made by First Act, a Boston firm, including miniature drum kits that light up when banged and tiny electric guitars in pink and blue.

The prices are low, $69.99 for an electric guitar, to ease parents' pain if instruments break or kids lose interest in playing, said Jeff Walker, First Act's vice president of marketing. The target customer, he said, is the mother who knows nothing about music.

The idea is to mimic a real music store: Toys R Us sells First Act amps, strings, guitar straps, and effects pedals, along with brightly-colored acoustic guitars and more traditional children's instruments.

When kids get their hands on real guitars, Poon said, they tend to lose interest in the simulation video games. "After they've played guitar for four lessons," he said, "they feel like 'Guitar Hero' is not really that challenging."

That's a relief, he said; he often has to retrain students on technique after they've mastered the push buttons on faux guitars.

Still, there's a time to forget about the technicalities. Vuk keeps an Xbox 360 equipped with "Rock Band" in the lobby of his shop. One evening last month, after 11-year-old Richard Diehl and 12-year-old Ethan Brazo rehearsed a blues song for their first-ever gig, Diehl settled down to play some make-believe riffs.

It's lessons on the real guitar, though, that have changed his life, said his mother, Esmeralda Diehl. "He's like a different person," she said. "He feels cool now."

Joanna Weiss can be reached at weiss@globe.com.