On a normal day, junior Sierra Higgins can be found working at Chick-fil-A or playing the snare drum on the drumline. But once a week, she can be spotted playing the drum set with School of Rock: a group that organizes and holds concerts featuring a wide age-range of instrumentalists. The group works to build each player’s musical abilities while creating an entertaining lineup for upcoming concerts.

School of Rock meets once a week for roughly three hours, before they return to their homes to practice individually. School of Rock is an ensemble made without wind instrumentation which includes electric guitar, keyboard, drum set and bass guitar. Higgins found that many challenges present themselves in the form of musical difficulty and time management.

“The most difficult part is probably learning all the music in a certain amount of time,” Higgins said. “We’re having to make them sound good at the same time as learning them.”

Though Higgins is used to live performances with the school band, School of Rock events are a different scene. From various instrumentation to the dissimilar audience, School of Rock provides new experience and opportunity for Higgins to grow as a musician, and as a person.

“School of Rock has taught me to overcome my fear of judgement, and has taught me to become a much better musician,” Higgins said. “When I go out on stage, I don’t care what other people may think of me, because I do what I do for fun.”

Junior Darian Ramella has attended multiple School of Rock performances in support of Higgins. She quickly noticed the uniqueness between School of Rock and other performing groups.

“I think something that sets them apart from other groups is the age difference between everyone,” Ramella said. “It’s cool to see people our age play and sing so well.”

Ramella and Higgins both enjoy the different environment of the School of Rock concerts. Presented with new opportunities to enjoy and create music, they both feel as if they can take something from the experiences they have had.

“It’s different from a traditional concert because they play in restaurants with stages where you still have to buy a ticket but there’s less people,” Ramella said. “It’s just a really cool experience.”