All About You FRIDAY – The Last Set List

I play in a band, but I’m not a rock star. I’ve been paid to play some gigs, but its not really about that for me. For almost a decade, every Tuesday, I grab my guitar and head to one of the most special places in Metro Detroit, The Detroit School of Rock and Pop Music (DSRP). Housed in an unassuming rectangular building on Washington St. in Royal Oak, the DSRP was founded in 2007 by Jason and Sherry Gittinger, professional musicians with a passion for music education.

The first time I walked through those doors, I knew it was different than any other place that offered music lessons. I could feel it. I went in there to purchase a gift certificate for a young woman I was mentoring who was about to turn 21. She had a heart for music and I wanted to gift her three months at the DSRP to fuel her interest. Little did I know it was the beginning of one of the best journeys of my life.

“What about you?” Jason asked as he handed me the gift letter for the young lady. I smiled. What about me? I thought. I had always wanted to play in a rock band. I had written it on my life list in my early 20’s, alongside traveling to Europe, climbing a mountain and doing a triathlon. Though I played a lot of instruments in my life and was a part of brass ensembles, bands and orchestras, It was the only item on that list left unchecked.

So, I signed up and life has never been the same.

There are bigger music schools. More prestigious places with shinier equipment. But the magic of the DSRP is embodied not in the recording studios but the music mentors who sit in the lesson rooms and direct student bands. Every one of them is a gigging musician. And every one of their students is an opportunity for them to share their love of music with someone else in order to create a growing community of musicians.

I got a chance to chat with Jason this week as I was waiting for band practice to start. And he told me a story I will never forget.

“One of our first adult students (we’ll call him Ken) came to me one day and told me he had terminal cancer. He didn’t tell me at first. He disappeared for awhile and when he returned he told me the horrible news,” Jason said. “His wife wanted him to come back because she told him he was better when he was coming here. The doctors told him he only had a few months more to live.”

At the DSRP, each band member gets to pick a song for the setlist. Once you learn and perform the setlist, they wipe the slate clean and you pick another round of songs. It is a method to get you to learn a lot of music you would otherwise probably never play. Sometimes you love the song choices and sometimes you don’t, but you always learn something new. That is the point.

“Ken came to me one day and said, I have all of these songs I’ve always wanted to play, but in band, I only get to play one of them each set,” Jason continued. Feeling the urgency of the situation, but not wanting to alter the rules of the band program, Jason thought of a plan.

Gathering the music mentors at the DSRP, he pitched an idea. Without hesitation, they all agreed and the plan was put into place.

“What if you put together that list of songs and you got to play it with a pro band from the school?” Jason asked Ken. I wish I could have been in that room to see the emotion that must have crossed Ken’s face.

Weeks later, Ken took the stage with his guitar. Backed by a group of professionals and in front of a screaming audience, he stood on that stage and played his favorite classic rock tunes with Jason sitting behind the drums and his music mentors by his side. All the songs he ever wanted to play. His final setlist.

I get emotional just thinking about it.

If you have to leave this world, there’s no better way than to rock out your exit with a bunch of screaming fans. And I’ve had the chance to play with some of those pros. They can make you sound good. Really good.

Ken died weeks later. His guitar was donated to the school. And the proceeds from the benefit concert ended up being used to buy state of the art recording equipment that is still used today to help the DSRP student bands perform.

And that is why I will support the DSRP for the rest of my life. I’ve often thought if I made a million dollars, I’d toss a chunk of it their way. Revamp their facilities. Buy them new equipment. Sound proof their practice rooms. And if any of you know of a corporate or individual sponsor that wants to invest in music education and getting music out to the community, there would be no better place to put your money than with Jason and Sherry Gittinger at the DSRP. They will change lives with it. I am living proof.

For them, it isn’t about the bells and whistles. It’s about the impact they make every day on each student that walks through their doors. It’s about making music for life. However long that it is.

It’s been a long week. Don’t forget to celebrate. Maybe in honor of Ken, let your hair down and turn up the volume on your favorite tunes. Life is short. Live it.

Until next time…