In 2019, Seán Heely staged his first Celtic Christmas show for a few hundred people in his home base of Washington, D.C.
The next time he did it, the audience grew to 1,000, and it doubled the following year. It was clear that an appetite for Heely’s lively blend of fiddle, harp, pipes and other traditional instruments in the service of seasonal songs from the seven Celtic nations resonated, so he decided to take his show on the road.
Just in time for the tour, which stops in Nashua on Friday, Dec. 6, is a new holiday album that Heely and his all-star band will perform. So Merry as We Have Been is named for one of its songs, drawn from the 18th-century Scottish collection TheCaledonian Pocket Companion.
The record, Heely said in a recent phone interview, offers classic Christmas carols, “reimagined in the Celtic way … a little bit more jiggified than they might be in the choral setting.” Along with Olde English carols like “I Saw Three Ships” and “Gloucestershire Wassail” are traditional numbers such as “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” and “Deck the Halls.”
Heely will sing “Silent Night” in three different languages, the original German, English and Gaelic — he was recently named U.S. Champion in the latter. “I’ve been doing a lot of Gaelic songs in the last couple of years, and studying the language pretty hard,” he said. “It’s great to see that recognized.”
On stage with Heely in Nashua are Kevin Elam on guitar and vocals — he’s earned multiple awards for singing, including a competition in Drogheda, Ireland, that only one other American has won in its 65-year history. Lucas Ashby is a Brazilian American percussionist who also plays cello, and Abbie Palmer is a well-regarded multi-genre harp player.
Beth Patterson hails from Louisiana. “She brings in a bit of Cajun French into the show,” Heely said. “We have a French song that she brought into the group; it’s like a Cajun epiphany song. She plays the bouzouki and the bass, electric bass, that’s our one electric instrument.”
The band’s youngest member is fiddler Colin McGlynn. Heely said he’s been playing with the 18-year-old McGlynn for nearly a decade. Jesse Ofgang is a Connecticut-born piper who plays the Highland Pipes, the Scottish Border Pipes, and the Irish Eland Pipes. Rounding out the group are dancers Agi Covacs and Rebecca Law.
Born into a musical family, Heely got into playing early. “My older sister played violin, and I wanted to do everything like her when I was young,” he said. So he picked it up too, “and as soon as I had about five notes that I could play pretty well, my dad had me playing with him. He played the banjo, so I joined the family band…. We played anything from maritime music to bluegrass to Irish and Scottish.”
He once told an interviewer that a fiddle is just a violin that’s had Guinness spilled on it, a glib statement that he somewhat regrets. “The headline ‘violinist with beer spilled on him’ made me sound like a little bit of an alcoholic,” he said, adding, “there are all kinds of funny jokes, like ‘a violin has strings, a fiddle has strangs,’ but there is no actual difference. It is just the way that you play it.”
That said, his interest in fiddle playing began with exploring his paternal grandmother’s record collection.
“We had songs from Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales floating around the house, and she played the piano, so I grew up listening to a lot of that kind of music and folk,” he said. “I’ve branched out a bit, and we even have stuff from Brittany in France and Galicia in Spain, the seven recognized Celtic nations. So that was what spurred me on.”
Also influencing Heely was the time he spent at Alistair Fraser’s fiddle camp on Scotland’s Isle of Skye. “It spurred me on to compete with Scottish fiddling and to keep pursuing that music, because there’s a lot more Irish fiddling in the U.S. than Scottish,” he said. “And of course, it’s so beautiful, all these mountains, the ocean and everything. When you’re playing the music in the place where it was made, it feels pretty special.”
Seán Heely’s Celtic Christmas When: Friday, Dec. 6, 7:30 p.m. Where: Nashua Center for the Arts, 201 Main St., Nashua Tickets: $49 and up at etix.com
Moana takes another trip, but this time without the songs of Lin-Manuel Miranda, in Moana 2, a serviceable animated movie.
Moana (voice of Auli’i Cravalho) becomes her island’s official wayfinder and gets an ominous message from the ancestors — a vision of her island empty and her people gone. The tribe’s continued existence depends on finding other people spread across the ocean. She sets out — this time with a crew — to find an island she saw a vision of, one that will help her people connect with others. The crew consists of her rooster Heihei (voice of Alan Tudyk) and pig Pua plus three completely unnecessary human characters — builder Loto (voice of Rose Matafeo), farmer Kele (voice of David Fane) and storyteller/beefy dude Moni (voice of Hualālai Chun).
Once on the seas, Moana again meets up with her buddy, the demi-god Maui (voice of Dwayne Johnson), who is having his own issues with Matangi (voice of Awhimai Fraser), a bat goddess lady who is presented as sinister only to become a mushy whatever that the movie sort of sets aside until a mid-credits scene I didn’t see. Eventually, Maui and Moana’s crew team up to face a thunderstorm god-type guy who has sunk the island they need to find. The group works to bring the island back to the surface, thus connecting all the people of the ocean. They are joined in this task by the only fun new character, a member of the Kakamora, the seafaring tribe of adorable warrior coconuts, that Wikipedia tells me is named Kotu.
The movie also gives Moana a new baby sister, Simea (voice of Khaleesi Lambert-Tsuda), who feels like her whole deal is related to ideas for new merch and for a character that can be spun off into her own adventure. When I read about the mid-credits scene, most articles mentioned that this movie was originally meant to be a streaming series, which makes all of this feel like a setup for another sequel or other content, Marvel Cinematic Universe-style, sucking up dollars and remaining creative energy. The first Moana had clarity of purpose, a streamlined story, themes about honoring the past and looking toward the future and catchy songs. Moana 2 has none of that.
But it still has the rooster and Johnson doing his affable Maui thing and a legitimately touching moment in its final act. I heard some squirming and general sounds of kid-boredom at about the hour mark at my packed screening, but kids also seemed to generally enjoy some of the goofiness and adventure. Moana 2 is, ultimately, fine — above average as family-chills-out-and-watches-a-movie entertainment, just not up to the high standard set by the original. B-
Rated PG for action/peril, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Directed by David G. Derrick Jr., Jason Hand and Dana Ledoux Miller, with a screenplay by Jared Bush and Dana Ledoux Miller, Moana 2 is an hour and 40 minutes long and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.
Tour inns, eat cookies at a Currier and Ives Cookie Tour
It is time for one of the most delicious holiday challenges, the Annual Currier and Ives Cookie Tour. Each year, inns, B&Bs and small businesses around the Monadnock area lure guests to visit them with homemade cookies. This year 17 local businesses will serve cookies to Tour participants who have purchased tickets and a tour map. At each stop along the way, each cookie tourist will get a cookie, the recipe for the cookie, and a stamp on their map. Participants who collect at least 10 stamps will be entered into a drawing to win a gift certificate that can be redeemed at any of the stops along the tour.
One of those stops is the Benjamin Prescott Inn in Jaffrey. Chris Neilson, the inn keeper and manager of the inn, said that aside from raising money for a good cause — The Helping Hand Center in Troy — the Cookie Tour brings people to the inn who might never visit otherwise. He said the 2023 tour was an eye-opening experience.
“We ran out of cookies last year,” Neilson said, “and I was giving tours all the way past the deadline of 4 o’clock last year because there were just so many people that just wanted to come in and see this place.”
Running out of cookies was a bit of a feat, because Neilson and his family had baked 800 of them. “So … we’re going to [bake] 1,200 to 1,400 cookies this year,” he said. “I’m not going to actually say what kind of cookies they are going to be yet, because a couple of those are still under consideration. We already have the dough made for roughly about 200-ish of the cookies already made up. It takes a little while to get the dough made for that many cookies, especially in a small establishment like what we have here at the Inn.” Neilson said baking that many cookies is a group effort. “It’s a family thing here. I have both of my daughters participating in it, I’m doing it, my girlfriend’s doing it, my mom’s doing it — it’s a family endeavor here at the inn to get the cookies made for the cookie tour.”
Tour participants can buy their tickets at three locations. One of those is the Park Theatre in Jaffrey, where Christine Witham is the box office manager. She said the staff at the Park is enthusiastically throwing itself into the Cookie Tour this year.
Currier and Ives Cookie Tour When: Saturday, Dec 14, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tickets: $20 per person and are available at the following locations: Park Theatre (19 Main St, Jaffrey, 532-9300, theparktheatre.org) Frogg Brewing (580 Sawyers Crossing Road, Swanzey, 547-7639, froggbrewing.com) Inn at East Hill Farm (460 Monadnock St, Troy, 242-6495, east-hill-farm.com) Cash and checks will be accepted. For a list of stops on the Cookie Tour, visit currierandivescookietour.com/participants.
“We’re actually a unique stop on the Cookie Tour,” Witham said. “We have 12 volunteers making 12 different kinds of cookies. We’re anticipating 400 to 500 people coming through. We’ve had as many as 800 in the past.” She hopes the cookie tourists will exercise self-restraint when they visit. “Visitors can “show us the map and pick one cookie out of our varieties,” she said. Like Neilson, she is tight-lipped about what kind of cookies the Park will serve. “I don’t think I want to say. It will definitely have something to do with the Park Theatre and its history,” she hinted.
Debbie Byrne Jonson is the owner of The She Shed in Swanzey, a home and garden decor business. This will be her first year on the Tour.
“We’re really excited,” she said. “We’ve heard about it and we’ve been told about it, so we’re really looking forward to it.”
Because this will be Jonson’s first year, she is a little unsure of how many cookies the She Shed will need. “We’re anticipating something like 350,” she said. “One of our teammates is going to be baking the cookies herself, and she’s actually doing two cookies, chocolate chip cookies and snickerdoodles. The other teammates have volunteered that they’ll finish them if need be.”
More cookies Make a weekend of cookie adventures with the 27th Annual Holiday Inn to Inn Cookie Tour on Saturday, Dec. 14, and Sunday, Dec. 15, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day at nine White Mountain inns stretching from Jackson to Eaton, with inns at least 15 minutes apart. See countryinnsinthewhitemountains.com/annual-holiday-inn-to-inn-cookie-tour.
Executive Director Deanna Hoying is sounding the horn on New Hampshire Symphony’s upcoming Holiday Brass shows.
“We have our first on Thursday, Dec. 5, at the Rex Theatre in Manchester, and then we follow that on Friday, Dec. 6, at the Coptic Church in Nashua. Both of them are going to be at 7.30 p.m. This is going to be a really fun show that kind of mixes an opportunity to show off our brass section and our percussionists, and we have a mix of what we would call kind of the sacred and the secular, so those really beautiful pieces by Gabrieli,” Hoying said. Giovanni Gabrieli was an Italian composer born in the 16th century.
Brass holds a special place for Hoying. “I’m a brass player, so I’m a horn player, so these are things I kind of grew up with playing. Our guest conductor, David Upham, has picked some really lovely carols from all over the world and then the second half of the show is going to be probably more on the pop secular side with everything from ‘I’ll Be Home for Christmas’ and ‘Jingle Bell Rock’ and ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.’”
The show allows this section of the orchestra to really ring out loud.
“It’s a nice opportunity to play some music we don’t always get to play when we do the full orchestra,” she said. This year they’re working with a guest conductor who is based at UNH. “He is their director of orchestra studies there and … I reached out because I knew my music director was going to be tied up in Indiana for much of December … so we’re really happy to have him join us for this show. We get to spend much of the season with our music director, Roger Collier, which we really love.”
At the Rex, “They love the idea of doing a holiday program there,” she said. “The Palace is running A Christmas Carol pretty much through December, so they love the idea of having the holiday brass at that venue.”
And at the Coptic Church in Nashua, “We did our holiday brass show there three years ago. It’s a different set of pieces, but a similar idea,” Hoying said. “It’s a beautiful venue. I remember the first time we did it there. So many people, even Nashua residents, had no idea that church was there. They’d never been in the church before, and they were just blown away. It’s an absolutely gorgeous interior. The setting worked really well for these pieces too.”
Much of the music was written for brass. “Gabrieli wrote a lot of sacred music, and a lot of his work is written for essentially a brass choir, and so there’s something when you start to play that with your fellow brass players that it’s just so beautiful and so moving and particularly when you’re playing in a church, because that’s where he wrote them to be played, it is just beautiful and it is one of those things that I really enjoy,” Hoying said.
“We’ve got French horns, we’ve got trumpets, we have trombones, we actually have a euphonium for this one. This is something that we don’t get to usually play very much because most orchestral music doesn’t use a euphonium, so we’re really excited about that. Of course we have a tuba player, and then we actually have some percussion that are going to join us too. Our timpanist and two percussionists are going to kind of round out the complement. We have about 17 or so musicians on stage, which is nice, but it gives you that nice big full brass sound.”
Music means a lot to Hoying. “The music is very close to my heart. I already played piano and I started playing it and there was just really something about the quality of the sound coming out of the horn that was just really kind of hooked me. There’s so much great stuff that’s been written for the horn, both as a solo instrument and within the orchestra.”
As a former music teacher, Hoying is always encouraging younger ones to find an instrument that speaks to them. “I would always tell kids when they wanted to play an instrument, don’t just settle for something because someone said, hey, you should play this. Try a bunch of things, because you’re going to find that you have an affinity for certain pitches, certain resonance, certain quality of sound, and if you’re going to be practicing this thing, you want to be in love with it.”
Symphony NH Holiday Brass Thursday, Dec. 5, at 7:30 p.m. at the Rex Theatre, 23 Amherst St., Manchester. Tickets $29 to $39. Info: Rex at 668-5588, symphonynh.org. Friday, Dec. 6, at 7:30 p.m. at St. Mary and Archangel Michael Coptic Orthodox Church, 39 Chandler St., Nashua. Tickets $40. Info: 595-9156, symphonynh.org.
Discover — or rediscover — your love of making music with help from the experts
“So you wanna be a rock ’n’ roll star?” Roger McGuinn asked back in the ’60s. The answer? “Just get an electric guitar, take some time and learn how to play.” If only it were that easy. Back then, The Beatles and Stones fueled the dreams of would-be music heroes. These days, it’s Taylor Swift or Ed Sheeran.
For the kids, anyway. It’s different for the recent empty-nester who’s always wanted to play the opening riff to “Smoke on the Water” and just bought a vintage Stratocaster on eBay. Both young and old need a place to take their rock ’n’ roll fantasies and flesh them out.
Fortunately, there are many places to go for acquiring the skills, for all ages, whether it’s someone picking up an instrument for the first time or looking to brush up on long-neglected talents, or a talented enough player with a desire to take things higher.
Further, options are available for a wide range of lifestyles, from free online lessons to one-stop shops that sell instruments with a book of lesson coupons, to one-on-one sessions that prep the ambitious for an open mic night. Here are a few that exist in the area.
Beginnings
There are a few things that every instructor agrees are essential. The first is to keep the instrument where it can be seen and played. “It’s better to just have it out,” says Danielle Miraglia, who teaches guitar on Zoom. “When you’re bored, instead of picking up your phone you can grab your guitar and noodle around on it.”
This means it’s smart to buy a stand to go with a new guitar, and save the case for a birthday present. Ditto for keyboards; get something to set it on. For the budding drummer, start with an electronic kit and headphones, so it won’t rock the house.
No. 2, though practice is essential, too much may have a negative effect.
“Fifteen to 20 minutes three or four times a week is better than an hour one day a week,” believes Eric Bilodeau of Strings & Things. “Just getting your hands used to it will help build finger strength, the neural pathways to tell a finger to move a certain way, and get your hand memory going.”
The third item is a rule that applies to a good instructor, and it’s typically the first topic of conversation when sitting down for the initial lesson. Begin with an understanding of why a student wants to learn how to play. Is there a specific song they want to master, or a musical style that attracts them?
Try to figure this out before buying an instrument. For example, it’s a bit easier learning to play on an electric guitar, but someone drawn to a coffeehouse vibe is better off with an acoustic.
“The important thing is finding one that’s going to make you want to play,” Bilodeau said. “Play a bunch and see which one speaks to you.”
School days
When that decision is made, the next question is, what’s the best way to learn? For a youngster, structure is important, so a schedule of lessons is a good idea. Bedford Youth Performing Company (BYPC) offers instruction for a wide variety of instruments and even has classes for full bands.
That idea may seem counterintuitive — shouldn’t mastery of the instrument come before playing with others? But Dave Couture, who’s taught guitar and drums at BYPC for over 35 years, spotted an opportunity to turn making music into a family affair, and further solidify a student’s engagement.
When parents came to the studio, Couture would inquire about their music background. “I’d go, ‘do you play an instrument?’ They’d say they do, or they used to, and I’d tell them to hop on the bass or whatever,” he said by phone in mid-November. “Then they’re playing along with their kids. It got me interested in creating these adult bands. It’s a lot of fun, and it keeps them interested.”
Eric Biloudeau of Strings & Things. Photo by Michael Witthaus
Couture leads a couple of all-adult band classes as well. Yes, though “youth” is in their name, BYPC is all-ages. “I have up to retirees,” Couture said. The disparity between groups means a different set of challenges in motivating students, he continued.
A youngster’s mood can change daily, depending on how school went. “I’ll say, ‘did you practice?’ and if they didn’t, we’ll work on what we did last week,” he said. “Sometimes the adults are worse. They’ll say, ‘I really wanted to do this, but I’m not practicing.’ I’ll tell them, ‘don’t worry, you’re learning every week … let’s learn a fun song.’”
On the other hand, working with retired people is often much more satisfying, Couture continued. “I’ve had a few of them that have said they wanted to do this forever. They’ve been thinking about it, and they’re usually pretty focused.”
Couture will remind those stressed about time or stuck in a rut that music is an art form. It’s something one of his Berklee professors told him once, and it calmed him down. “When I thought of it as an art form, I just relaxed and let it flow.”
Time management
Bob Desmarais, who runs NHTunes in Manchester’s Waumbec Mill, offers his own retiree story as proof that no one’s too old to play. “Janet is 94 — she started when she was 89,” he said during a tour of his studio and music academy. “We just had a show at RiverWoods; me, her, and two other residents. She was exhausted, it was an hour show, but she’s 94 freaking years old!”
Desmarais opened NHTunes in 2010, the same week he paid off his son’s college tuition. He continued to work as an IT manager at the outset while he recruited students. He quit his day job a year later, with three teachers on staff and almost 40 students. That’s grown over the years to 14 instructors who teach close to 140 students. In 2013 it moved down the hall into a space twice the size of the original.
A Berklee grad who plays Jimmy Buffett songs and bar tunes in a duo called the Sonic Boomers, he always had a passion for music, but Desmarais continues to parlay his computer skills in his business. A Google search of “music lessons in Manchester” will result in NHTunes near the top, proof of his SEO skills.
He has a slick web-based scheduling system. “It links all the instructors, what they teach, their availability,” Desmarais said. “Just book online, and it’ll put it in a Google Calendar. We have gift certificates for people to buy, and they can schedule lessons when they want.”
It’s perfect for busy professionals. “We have a group of people that just book per diem, they don’t sign up for monthly tuition,” he said. “They don’t want to commit to weekly lessons. I was nervous of that at first, worried that people were going to take one or two and stop. But we have this core group that books every week, every other week. It fills in the gaps in our schedule.”
NHTunes offers lessons on a range of instruments, along with studio production classes using Ableton Live and other software packages. That’s an extension of the studio recording services they provide, which is one of the key reasons Desmarais opened the business.
There are also frequent student recitals.
“I think the performance aspect of musicianship is really important,” Desmarais said. “We get kids out in front of people at nursing homes, senior centers, and stuff like that. The last thing you want to hear is, ‘They never play in front of me.’ Because music should be shared.”
Finally, with the youngsters, Desmarais strives to keep mom and dad looped in. “So they know what’s going on,” he said. “It’s really important, because unfortunately some parents have to ride kids sometimes to play and practice in between lessons, so you gotta know what they’re working on.”
Try before you buy
Andrew Grosvenor leads jam fusion band Andrew North & the Rangers and hosts the monthly open mic at BNH Stage in Concord. He also teaches piano at Concord Community Music School and Strings & Things, a store that’s now in Penacook Village after a couple of decades in downtown Concord.
He offers a unique way to check out his instructional skills — for a certain type of student. Grosvenor teaches all levels, but many of his charges have some experience and are looking to grow. For those, he has videos on his YouTube page, songs like Vince Guaraldi’s “Skating” or “Esther” by Phish that aren’t novice fare.
The videos do provide a sense of how he teaches, though.
“I’m the best fit for more intermediate or advanced folks,” Grosvenor said by phone recently, “who know the basics of the instrument but are looking to take the next steps in understanding theory and improvisation. That’s where my strengths are.”
Strings & Things is a one-stop shop, a place to go to purchase a guitar, keyboard or drum kit, schedule some lessons, and pay for everything at once. It’s also one of the more venerable places in the area. Mike Bilodeau opened it in 1982, and these days his son Eric oversees instruction there.
The shop offers classes on several instruments, Eric explained during an interview in Strings & Things’ piano room. “We do guitar, bass, drums, piano, mandolin, banjo and a lot of the brass instruments, like saxophone, flute, clarinet and trumpet,” he said. “I always say, if you like to annoy your neighbors, we can help you out.”
Students can be anywhere from 5 to 16, and beyond, and lessons begin with defining goals. “Do they want to be Jimi Hendrix or Ed Sheeran? There’s a big difference,” Eric said. “Do you want to get up at an open mic [or] go to a blues jam and be able to sit down and play a solo over a song? Maybe you just want to stay at home and make music in your bedroom … there’s all different ways you can take music now.”
The 14-member staff is mostly working musicians, like guitarist Mike Gallant, who performs around the area as Mikey G., drummer Paul Donahue and fiddler Jordan Tirrell-Wysocki. Fittingly, that was the path taken by Mike Bilodeau when he opened the store 42 years ago.
“I did a hitch in the Air Force, and the skills I had from the Air Force didn’t blend into society,” Mike said in the store’s guitar-filled back room. “I figured I’d go with my hobby; I love to play music. At that time, there was a lot around, and I was working five nights a week. My wife decided that I should be busy during the day too. So with her cheering me on, we opened up a very small store with very limited inventory.”
School of Rock. Courtesy photo.
Two years ago, they relocated for a sixth and final time, buying and renovating an old bank. “We had leased buildings for 40 years, and branch banks, as you would probably expect, are kind of going away,” he said. “So this place was a very good deal for us to purchase, and we’ll be here until the end of time.”
Though the store currently doesn’t hold student recitals, Mike thinks that will change in the future.
“We have a wonderful situation,” he said. “Riverside Park is right behind us on the Contoocook River, and our goal is to get some live music going there next spring. There’s also another brand new park being built across the street … we’re excited; this is going to be a real happening area for us.”
The covid effect
Before 2020, lessons were always taught in person, one on one. Then a pandemic changed the rules. Though there’s mostly been a return to the old days, there are a few instructors like Danielle Miraglia who decided to continue teaching after Covid.
“I never went back to in person,” she said by phone recently. “It was nice not to get a cold every five minutes for one thing, and to be honest, there’s a little bit of a different kind of drain when you do it via Zoom. If I miss the in-person experience, I’ll think, ‘what are you, crazy? You can do this with a cat sitting next to you.’”
A multiple New England Music Awards winner and Boston Music Award nominee, Miraglia started teaching as a way to deal with rising rent costs in Somerville, where she and husband live. Initially, she taught at the Real School of Music in Burlington, Mass. In hindsight, she’s glad she did — even if economics forced her decision.
“I think everybody should teach for some amount of time,” she said. “It forces you to learn things you might not have bothered with for your own stuff, and it reminds you of things you knew before that you might have forgotten. It’s made me a sharper musician in general.”
When working with a student, particularly a younger one, Miraglia encourages them to have patience with themselves. “Some kids will get really frustrated right away. They’ll be like, ‘I can’t do it,’ and I’ll say, it would be insane if you could do it right now. Of course you can’t, that’s why I’m here. I’m here to help you with that.”
Some are slow to pick it up, while others roar out of the gate. Miraglia recalled a 7-year old prodigy. “He immediately could do the Bo Diddley groove with his right hand, it was very easy to teach him,” she said. “He just kept getting better and better … now he’s in jazz band in school.”
Begin at the end
In Nashua, there’s a new spot that could be a major force on the local music scene. Though it won’t officially open until Dec. 14 — hopefully — the School of Rock has a unique approach to learning that begins with focusing on what an aspiring student wants right away.
“We start with the goal of performance and work backward from there,” school owner Andy McKenna said by phone recently. “They do get a full music education, but we start by saying, ‘Hey, you’re going to be playing in three months.’”
To that end, “we focus on helping people learn the stuff that they really like to listen to and want to play and go from there,” he continued. “That’s a big difference from music education that starts with learning all the technique and theory first and eventually getting to songs. Let’s figure out what you’d love to be able to play.”
For example, a budding bass player should leave the first day knowing the opening riff to Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust” so they can go home and play it for the parents. “They go, ‘Wow, I know that song, that’s great,’ and feel like they’re getting their money’s worth too.”
School of Rock is a national chain inspired by the Jack Black movie, with hundreds of locations. Nashua is the first in New Hampshire. Their core age range is 8 through 18. “That said, we have programs starting at age 3,” McKenna said. “I like to say it’s from age 3 to 103.”
It begins with the early childhood Little Wing and ranges to the Rock 101 performance program. “We’ve got adult programs as well. In fact, a full 25 to 30 percent of people interested in signing up are adults. And I get basically two stories. One, they used to play a little bit, but had to give it up because they got busy. The other story is, ‘Hey, I always wanted to play, and never did. Am I too old?’ Our answer is, ‘absolutely not.’”
The full Rock 101 program lasts for three months and includes a 45-minute weekly lesson and 90 minutes of group rehearsal. “That runs about roughly $400 a month,” McKenna said. “If you break down the number of hours that are being spent with instruction, it comes out to $40 an hour.”
For the ambitious, Rock 101 can be followed by a performance program that includes longer rehearsals and more challenging material. “There are 15-, 16- and 17-year-olds playing Steely Dan, Rush and Pink Floyd,” he said. “It’s fairly complex musical stuff, so they get quite good as they move through the program.”
McKenna’s interest in opening School of Rock came from his empathy for kids struggling to fit in, who don’t for example play a sport, but find concert band too staid. They just want to rock, and he can relate.
“The friendships and connections I’ve made have been mostly focused and centered around my enjoyment of playing music with others,” he said. “I think School of Rock has a formula that helps people do that. It’s a place where a lot of kids have really been able to find their people, their place, and really thrive. When I heard those real stories about the many schools that are in operation, I just felt, yeah, that’s what I want to do.”
Take it to the next level
There are performers who’ve moved past rudimentary musical foundations and want to go further. A guy like Chad LaMarsh can help. A veteran singer, guitarist and songwriter with a long resume, LaMarsh offers Get Gig Ready, an effort geared toward taking all those acquired skills and doing something with them.
“The program is all-encompassing of absolutely everything that goes into playing a gig,” LaMarsh said in a recent phone interview. “We do a lot of what I call vocal maintenance to make sure that everybody can get through singing three to four hours a night for five nights straight. That’s a lot of abuse on your throat.”
It covers gear and more — what to buy, where to put it, and ways to measure results.
“How you use your mixing board, that’s a huge one,” he said. “There’s a technique I’ve designed for practicing so that the musician knows exactly what it’s like to have your speaker a few feet away from you…. We often fall short because we don’t know what we sound in front of the stage.”
The short-term goal of Get Gig Ready is an appearance at an open mic, like the Tuesday night gathering at KC’s Rib Shack in Manchester. It’s the beginning of a long road that optimistically ends at SNHU Arena, or at least a ticketed club gig. Clearly, this is geared toward performers with serious intentions.
“If it’s somebody just looking to kick the tires and just poof around, I don’t have any time for that,” LaMarsh said. “These are people that are actually already super talented … they’re already at a level that I know I can do something to help them excel even more. Those are the people I work with.”
Sage Advice
Guitarist Brad Myrick also works with and mentors other musicians. Every summer for the past several years he’s conducted master classes in Italy, along with touring. His advice, however, is applicable for those at any level looking to make music.
“Whatever it is that’s exciting to you about your instrument, that made you want to play it, always access that thing … that’s absolutely the first advice,” Myrick said from his home in Hopkinton. “I’m still doing that, after playing the guitar for 30 years.”
It’s a great time to be a musician, he continued, adding that finding an instructor to connect with is critical. “Having a little bit of structure and accountability, the consistency, of ‘hey, I’m going to show up once a week and I’m going to do this thing’ … that sometimes will keep us from slipping back into our old habits.”
Myrick recalled that when he first picked up guitar at age 14, ultimately taking his first lesson at Strings & Things, there were some affordable resources available to help him jump start his interest. There are even more today, and many of them don’t cost a thing.
“When I started, I knew a little bit about music, but I didn’t know anything about guitar,” he said. “I got a basic guitar book and started reading … it was like, ‘this is the E string, place your finger here.’ I got pretty far in the first couple weeks before I had any formal interaction with somebody. And if you’re self-motivated, there are endless online resources. Not all of them are great, but a lot of them are really good.”
Whatever path is chosen, Myrick believes a little bit of self-guidance can add a lot to the learning experience. “When I’m teaching, I try to incorporate both models,” he said. “A little bit of self-curiosity, a little bit of other free resources, and having someone also to check in with — mentorship. It’s a great combination.”
Learn how to play
Here are some area music teachers.
• Bedford Youth Performing Company (BYPC) 155 State Rte. 101, Bedford bypc.org. One-on-one lessons for ages 9 and up – 30 minutes, $148.32/month, 60 minutes, $222.48/month and 60 minutes, $296.64/month. Costs vary, call for a quote.
• Danielle Miraglia daniellem.com. Online only, $37/half hour Zoom or FaceTime, volume discount available ($105/three half-hour lessons).
• Get Gig Ready With Chad LaMarsh getgigready.com $60/half-hour lesson, 13- and 26-week coaching classes available, contact for quote.
• Let’s Play Music & Make Art 2626 Brown Ave., Unit 2, Manchester, plus locations in Derry and Hudson, letsplaymusic.com. Trial private lesson $36.25, trial group class, $27.50, tuition ranges from $149/month for weekly 30-minute lessons.
• Manchester Music Mill 329 Elm St., Manchester, mmmlessons.com. Teachers set their own rates, which range from $20 to $25 per week for a half-hour private lesson.
• Merrimack Music Academy 1 Bryce Drive, Merrimack, merrimackmusicacademy.com. $155/month tuition covers up to five private lessons, instruction materials and access to academy resources.
• North Main Music 23 Charron Ave., Suite 1, Nashua, northmainmusic.com. 30-minute introductory lesson is $25, flexible drop-in program is $140 for four lessons.
• School of Rock 225 DW Highway, Suite C2, Nashua, schoolofrock.com. Rock 101 program is around $400/month, averages out to $40/hour.
• Strings & Things 339 Village St., Concord, stringsandthingsmusic.com. $30/half-hour lesson, usually paid by the month with four or five lessons per month.
• Ted Hebert Music School 880 Page St., Manchester, tedhebert.com. $30/half-hour lesson.
Connected to the recall of organic carrots from Grimmway Farms, 4Earth Farms of California recalled “multiple brands of Organic Vegetable Medley, Conventional Vegetable Medley, and Organic Whole Carrots because it may be contaminated with Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (E. coli),” according to a company announcement from Nov. 27. The products, which have “best by” dates of Sept 7 through Nov. 2, were distributed to seven states, including New Hampshire, according to the announcement, which is available at fda.gov.
Meanwhile, SunFed Produce announced a recall on Nov. 27 of whole cucumbers with the grower’s name “Agrotato, S.A. de C.V.” due to potential salmonella contamination, according to a company announcement also available at fda.gov. The recalled cucumbers were sold between Oct. 12 and Nov. 26 to several states and Canadian provinces, not including New Hampshire but including Massachusetts, the recall said. “The cucumbers would have reached consumers through food service and retail outlets that may be located in states other than those listed above,” the announcement said. See the FDA’s website for product specifics.
Fuel Assistance Program
Dec. 1 marked the official opening of the New Hampshire Fuel Assistance Program (FAP), which helps vulnerable Granite State families with their heating bills. Last winter the program provided assistance to more than 28,400 households with an average benefit of $1,284 to help with heating costs, according to a press release.
The Fuel Assistance Program is a federally funded program administered by the New Hampshire Department of Energy (DOE) in partnership with New Hampshire’s Community Action Agencies. It’s known in Washington as the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program or LIHEAP, according to the release.
The Fuel Assistance Program provides assistance to New Hampshire families and seniors whose annual household income is at or below 60 percent of the State Median Income, the highest amount allowed by federal statute. This year that means that means an annual maximum income of $87,949 for a family of four or $45,733 for a single-person household, according to the release.
More than 23,000 households have already applied for this winter, according to the release, and households can also apply for the NH Electric Assistance Program at the same time, which provides eligible households with a discount on their electric bill.
Households that qualify for the program are also eligible for the Weatherization Assistance Program, which can help homeowners make improvements and upgrades that provide further reductions in energy costs.
To apply to the program, New Hampshire residents should contact their local Community Action agency. For Information about the NH’s Community Action agencies, including locations and contact information, visit capnh.org. Visit energy.nh.gov and find information about the Fuel Assistance Program under the Help with Energy and Utility Bills tab.
Save the sturgeon
According to a press release, the Atlantic coastal states of New Jersey, Maryland and Virginia have scheduled hearings to gather public input to an addendum to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Spiny Dogfish to reduce accidental capture of Atlantic sturgeons in nets made for spiny dogfish. In addition to the Dec. 11 hearing, stakeholders are welcome to participate in any of the virtual hearings, according to the release.
While the 2024 stock assessment update for Atlantic sturgeon showed signs of improvement, the stock remains depleted coastwide, according to the release.
The hearings are on Wednesday, Dec. 11, Tuesday, Dec. 17, and Wednesday, Dec.18, from 6 to 8 p.m. To register for a virtual public hearing webinar, find links at nhfishandgame.com. The Draft Addendum is available via the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s website at asmfc.org/about-us/public-input. Visit wildnh.com/marine.
Metallica scholars
The Community College System of New Hampshire (CCSNH) was recognized as the first institution in the Granite State to receive grant funding for the Metallica Scholars Initiative (MSI) through All Within My Hands (AWMH), Metallica’s foundation, according to a press release.
The nonprofit philanthropic organization was created by the members and management of the band Metallica. CCSNH was awarded $75,000 to support students developing trade skills at New Hampshire’s seven community colleges, according to the release.
In New Hampshire, the Foundation for New Hampshire Community Colleges administered the grant and awarded 224 students with $50,575 of financial assistance to date to offset the cost of specialized equipment, materials, protective gear or other degree-specific equipment. The students receiving assistance had majors including health sciences and services, hospitality and culinary, industry and transportation and STEM/advanced manufacturing, according to the release.
In a statement, James Hetfield, Metallica’s lead vocalist and guitarist, said, “I am so proud — we all are — to see how this program is changing lives by providing much-needed resources to empower students, and it’s great that we’re able to make our biggest grant yet to support these students and the future workforce. … This year, our program will be in 60 schools in all 50 states!”
Red River Theatres in Concord (11 S. Main St.; redrivertheatres.org) has two classic holiday screenings on the schedule next week: catch 2003’s Love Actually on Tuesday, Dec. 10, at 7 p.m. and 1946’s It’s a Wonderful Life on Wednesday, Dec. 11, at 7 p.m.
Cirque Dreams Holidaze will play one show at the SNHU Arena (555 Elm St., Manchester, 644-5000, snhuarena.com) Tuesday, Dec. 10, at 7 p.m. This long-running holiday theatrical event wraps a Broadway-style production around contemporary circus arts. Tickets start at $59.
Noel at LaBelle is an evening with NSquared Dance accompanied by a three-course meal by LaBelle Winery on Sunday, Dec. 8 at 6 p.m. at LaBelle in Amherst (345 Route 101). Visit labellewinery.com for tickets.
The Picker Artists (3 Pine St. in Nashua; pickerartists.com) will hold their Holiday Open Studios on Saturday, Dec. 7, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
