The Red Hot Chili Pepper’s legendary bassist Flea, walks through the front door of the sun-filled lobby. He’s in the process of putting a shirt on over his tattooed torso and he looks like he’s still recovering from headlining Saturday's show at Coachella. Flea is back at the music school that he established in 2001 to talk about the upcoming fundraiser May 5 at the Henry Fonda Theater.
Called the , the evening will feature performances from the Chili Peppers, Eddie Vedder, Ditty Bops, Charlie Haden and some special surprise guests that Flea promises are “big names.” The evening will raise money towards the Conservatory’s music education efforts, which includes free music classes to qualified students.
“It will be a really fun, special night.
It’s something beyond playing music for commerce. It’s someone playing for art, for a specifically direct cause. As simple as knowing it’s going towards kids’ music classes is a beautiful thing,” he says.
Located at Sunset Junction, the Silverlake Music Conservatory (SMC) teaches 600 students of all ages with 100 youths receiving free music classes through scholarship. There are no requirements or prerequisites and instruction is open to any musical instrument. Private and group classes are offered, with ensemble courses that include “Funk All-Stars Workshop,” “Children’s Intro To Music Through Theater” and the upcoming summer camp.
Inside the Conservatory, you hear piano keys tinkling from the back. Walk through the hallway and you can peep into the windows of the practice rooms. A fifth-year student is learning the sax, another kid is pounding away on the drums.
Kids are in the lobby looking over sheet music and eating candy. The Beatles are playing on the stereo and framed portraits of Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell and Jimi Hendrix gaze upon the young musicians.
“I just wanted to fill the void that public education has cut from their curriculums.
They’ve dropped the ball by cutting out music programs, ” Flea laments. “I grew up in LA public schools and was in the music department. It was really an important thing for my life, it gave me something to hold onto, and it was an important access for me.
Without music I would’ve gotten into a lot of trouble and there are a lot of kids like me out there. I just wanted to try to provide something like what I got.”
Students qualify for aid if they are enrolled in their school’s free lunch program.
Donations, sales from the general store, and a percentage from the paid classes provide funding. What they learn to play isn’t always their first choice, but perhaps the second or third. It’s a process of exposing students to simply learning how to play and understand music, regardless of what’s popular.
“Everyone wants to learn guitar,” says Managing Director Jennifer Rey. “I think 60% of music lessons around the country are for guitar. There are a lot of instruments that don’t get much attention, so we try to keep them alive by letting the students learn from, let’s say, a bassoon instead of guitar.
”
A blonde girl named Abby who is missing her front teeth shows me her violin. She’s playing a song called “Strawberry.” Her dad, Alex, is also a student at the Conservatory, he’s learning guitar and the two are practicing their respective instruments.
“It’s something I like to do with her and it helps her practice if I’m doing it too. She wants to play things perfectly, but I tell her you have to practice. It’s also a way to show her I’m also learning and I need to practice too to get it perfect,” he says.
Flea tells me about the significance of music education. His words are deliberate and he’s very engaging despite his lack of sleep. It’s a passion that is clearly close to him when he speaks to you directly, and not so obvious from his rock star persona.
“Music education is really important, I think every kid should be able to learn, it should be mandatory like math. Even if you don’t want to be a musician, learning the academic building blocks of music gives you a much deeper and richer understanding of music. You’ll be able to enjoy music more, get more in your heart, more emotion.
You’ll be able to enjoy more different kinds of music because some music you almost have to ask for a more academic kind of understanding. It’s a very sophisticated, poetic and different language to learn that enriches the community.”
The school has certainly grown over the years, but the overall feel to the place continues to be like a big, close-knit family.
“There’s been some hard, bureaucratic things with opening a school, but basically it’s everything that you could want,” Flea points out. “We’ve got 600 students – it’s a lot! We’ve got six studios that are packed everyday full of kids learning music and teachers imparting teaching.
I wanted the school to exist as much for the teachers as for the students. I love the tradition of passing down knowledge, that’s important.”
With cuts in music education at LA public schools, the students aren’t the only ones who suffer.
SMC is also serving a vital purpose in creating a venue for music teachers. It’s a role that Flea has filled from time-to-time when he’s not on tour or recording. “The last time I had six months off between our last tour and this tour, I taught classes.
I’ve been on the road for a year-and-a-half now. We’re going to be done in August and I’m looking forward to teaching here again.”
I meet a man named Josh, who I mistakenly assume is an instructor.
He tells me he’s there to learn right along with the kids and I notice his banjo case against the wall. He says, “I quit smoking some years ago and I thought I’d put energy into something else. I’m struggling with the banjo, but I’m keeping at it.
”
The Conservatory offers private lessons for $25 per half hour after a one-time $20 registration fee. Instructors aren’t on salary, they are independent contractors who operate from the school in exchange for a 25% commission.
“For the price of a few drinks at a bar, I can learn something instead,” Josh points out.
Hmmmm. The bar tab analogy puts it all into perspective for me. It’s a reasonable price and my childhood fantasy of learning the kyoto now seems like a real possibility.
Jennifer explains that SMC’s goal is to be able to accommodate 1200 students in the future, with half on scholarship. They want to expand the practice rooms to 12, while remaining in Silver Lake despite rising rent costs.
“Ideally, in the future we will get our own building.
And then…This school can live on much longer after I’m gone from this earth, you know? I’m just a cog on the wheel,” Flea says with a smile.
The larger-than-life musician has a heart to match and his love for what he does goes beyond being the crazy bass player wearing nothing but a perfectly-placed sock.
He explains, “Music means to me a common thing, pure and beautiful, that can bring people together in a positive way, bringing love into the world.”
Turns out the piano keys I heard playing earlier came from nine-year-old Brandon, who has been studying piano for the past year. He’s finished for the day with his instructor Teracita, and his mother has arrived to pick him up.
I ask him what his favorite band is.
“It’s a rock band,” he says.
“Who are they?
I might know them,” I ask.
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