CLARKS SUMMIT — Borough resident Lance Miley can trace his passion for music back to around when he was 3 years old. He remembers sitting in the living room with The Glen Campbell Show on TV, watching Campbell take a guitar pick out of his pocket and start playing.
“At that moment, I wanted a pick,” he said. “I thought it was magic.”
Miley got his first guitar around age 4 and started seriously learning to play around 7 or 8 years of age.
Now 54, Miley has performed in several bands, including an AC-DC tribute that toured nationally in 1995 and an Ozzy Osbourne tribute, of which he is a current member. He is the owner and director of the Rock School of Music, a business located at 336 S. State St., and president of the nonprofit organization Making Music Matter For Kids, based out of the same location.
The Rock School, formerly located at Lake Wallenpaupack, offers voice, guitar, bass, drum and piano lessons, along with a summer rock camp. Making Music Matter For Kids’ mission is to make music available to all children, based on passion, not income. It does this by providing free music lessons, instruments and events to students in grades K-12 throughout Northeastern Pennsylvania.
But to continue doing so, the organization needs the community’s help.
In addition to offering various sponsorship and volunteer opportunities, Making Music Matter For Kids is holding a Halloween Rock Party fundraiser for children and adults Sunday, Oct. 29 at the Clarks Summit Fire Company hall, 321 Bedford St. The evening will start off with kids’ activities from 1 to 4 p.m. and continue with fun for adults until 10 p.m. Admission is $5.
The party will feature live music, including Ozzy and Randy Tribute, Behind the Grey, Destination West, Sucker, a Rock School band and Dance Hall Devils. It will also include a best costume competition, snacks and treats, games, prizes and more for the children. The adult portion of the event will also include a costume contest with a cash prize, food and beer, raffles and more.
According to 12-year-old Rock School student Liam Fenton, the fundraiser is going to be a party not to miss.
“You get to dress up and party your brains out,” he said.
Fenton is the drummer and occasional backup vocalist for Problem Child, a local band which came out of Rock School and made its debut in August at the Abington Business and Professional Association’s Community Block Party. The band, also featuring 12-year-old Rock School student Wyatt Carper, guitar; Making Music Matter For Kids Secretary Candi Vee, bass (also a member of the Journey, Tom Petty and John Mellencamp tribute band The Idol Kings); and Miley, vocals, will perform at the Halloween party.
Like Miley, Fenton’s passion for music began at a young age.
“My father plays the drums,” he said. “Ever since I was really little, I was into it and he gave me lessons.”
Although he first started hitting drums around age 2, Fenton began getting serious about learning to play at 7 or 8 years of age.
Of Miley, he said, “He’s a very good teacher. He’s very encouraging.”
Carper, Fenton’s good friend and fellow Abington Heights Middle School sixth-grader, agreed.
“It’s really just plain fun,” said the guitarist. “You don’t have to set up a bunch of stereos in your basement – you can just come to Rock School and rock out with all your friends. …It’s cool to be our age and be in a band.”
Carper added it also helps him in school, especially with the subject of math. Miley explained this is likely because learning to play an instrument helps a person focus better in other areas.
Nine-year-old guitar player Joey Tickner, a Western Wayne fourth-grade student, enjoys Rock School so much that his mother drives him all the way to Clarks Summit from their Lake Ariel home.
When asked what he likes most about Rock School, he summed it up simply, “Just playing.”
According to Miley, music is “a never-ending learning process” and “something you have to be able to give away in order to keep it.”
“Music is not an event,” he said.
“It’s a passion,” Carper said, finishing the sentence.
