Written by Bobby11 Comments
Parent article: Guitar Lessons 101
QUICK HIT: How much do guitar lessons cost at School of Rock locations? Showing some of my own research into the typical School of Rock cost, which isn't super-easy to find.
How much do guitar lessons cost at School of Rock locations? It's a bit difficult to get a "face value" answer for this, since the price varies depending on the location, similar to Guitar Center's lesson pricing. For this article, I'll give you a broad overview of the School of Rock cost, then hone in on some of the locations closer to where I live to get a more realistic and specific price tag.
First, the broad price range for School of Rock guitar lessons is extremely wide.
Typical School of Rock Cost for Guitar Lessons
Per their FAQ guitar page, School of Rock guitar lessons range from $150 to $350 per month, depending on the location.
This includes what's described as "weekly private lessons and group rehearsals." However, there's also language about private lessons that seem separate from the group versions.
If you break weekly lessons down and assume they each last one hour, here's how the pricing looks:
- LOW END: $37.50 an hour
- HIGH END: $87.50 an hour
It's unclear what determines the discrepancy in price from one location to another. My guess is that individual instructors rates (they're likely paying a certain amount of their fee to the School of Rock organization), local economy, and age of the student, all play a role in establishing cost.
Cheaper School of Rock Alternatives I Recommend
Is it worth the $50-$60 dollars an hour? It might be, but if you don't think so, here are a few online alternatives we recommend that are far cheaper.
PROGRAM | DETAILS | RATING | TRY |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Guitar Tricks
| 92.8 RATING Detail | |
 | JamPlay
| 88.7 RATING Detail | |
 | TrueFire
| 86.7 RATING Detail |
These are programs that I have personally used and tested, both in a student and teaching context. In terms of online guitar lessons, I recommend them without hesitation.
Please note, they are also our partners that help us keep Guitar Chalk running.
You can support us by checking out a free trial via the buttons in the above table or signing up for a membership.
Finding Specific Pricing for School of Rock Locations
To get a more accurate number, we need to narrow in on some physical School of Rock locations. Since I'm in Virginia, I went to the School of Rock locations page and found four places that were somewhat close to where I live:
Start by finding specific locations in your area. In my case, Haymarket Virginia was the closest.
As you can see from the screenshot, each location listed has a LOCAL SITE button next to the city name and address. This will take you to a locations page for that particular site, which has a good deal of information on it, but still nothing about specific pricing.
Plenty of information on the Haymarket School of Rock page, but still no price.
What you'll need to do is scroll down to the bottom of the page until you see a phone number and informational email address. I emailed that address and just said that I was interested in guitar lessons and wanted to know what they charged.
Scroll down to find the contact information for your local School of Rock.
After emailing three of these places I (disappointingly) only got one response. The response made a distinction between guitar lessons for adults and kids, as follows:
- Adult: $225 monthly for 45 minute lessons (one/week or four/month)
- Kids: Response stated "pricing varied" based on age and experience
This response was a little hard to understand and even a bit cryptic, so I'll try and unpack the details.
First, let's cover the obvious math.
At 45 minutes per lesson four times per month, that gets you 180 minutes or three hours per month (fifth weeks would be included without extra charge). Given the $225 monthly price, divide that number by three to get your hourly rate: $75
Now granted, this is just one example. However, it's consistent with the School of Rock cost estimation listed on the main page ($150 to $350). There's no way to deny that $75 an hour is extremely expensive for guitar lessons, especially given the digital options out there.
Given the $225 monthly price, divide that number by three to get your hourly rate: $75
I'm not saying it isn't worth it, because I know that School of Rock is a good program. But it's definitely on the higher-end of your pricing options.
Have you tried School of Rock lessons?
Again, this is not meant to comment on the value of School of Rock lessons or whether the pricing is justified.
Personally, I've never took lessons or taught at School of Rock, so I can't really speak to that.
However:
If you've taken lessons at School of Rock or served there as an instructor, we'd love to hear your two cents in the comments section below. Did you like it? Was it a good environment? Do you know what the typical guitar lesson cost was for your location?
Feel free to share your war story.
Additional Guitar Lesson Resources
Before we go, here are some additional guitar lesson and teaching resources that you might find helpful:
Article banner image via Flickr Commons contributor Yooperann
We just visited the SOR in Webster Texas today and before any discounts it’s $305 per month per child , for a total of $610 per month, for 1 lesson each per week plus 1 band practice a week. After a few discounts we were quoted it dropped to $540ish a month! If we just want lessons it’s $438 per month! This is for beginner lessons for a 10 yo & a 14 yo. I have no doubt the school may be worth it however these are monthly car payment prices and definitely walked away with sticker shock and two bummed out kids….the search continues.
Are you guys trying to find something for in-person lessons specifically, or was it the band practice/comradery that they’re looking for?
Of course, having lessons in a teacher’s living room is going to be a lot cheaper because there’s little overhead. A local SOR has to pay an initial franchisee fee, up front commercial rent, invest in remodeling the space, pay for local permits, advertise, hire, etc. It’s a scary amount of initial costs, and will take a lot of students and patience to make that money back. (For the record, I don’t own or work for one.) Keep rocking, everyone!
I am a guitar instructor at a Virginia area School of Rock. We are only paid about $20 an hour average; that means $20 per 45 min lesson and about $30-$40 per group class. My coworkers are talented gigging musicians, with many trained at music schools. It’s frankly suspicious as to why School of Rock is priced so high when their staff is paid so little.
Mark – thanks for sharing this insight. We would have had no way of telling what instructors are paid otherwise.
I wonder how they come up with this pricing. The cost of living for your location is twice my area, yet I was quoted $300 per month!
Where are you located?
I hate to fuss about their program too much (I think what they’re doing is really good), but I will say it’s hard to tell exactly what you’re paying for, and the pricing seems kind of hit or miss.
I’m only interested in the adult program here and lets pretend there’s no virus now and they were open for business as usual. The School Of Rock website says 1 weekly lesson and 1 weekly group rehearsal. Say the actual lesson is 45 minutes. Is the rehearsal 45 minutes as well? Does the monthly price, whatever it is, say $225 at location X, does that also include the qty of (4) 1x a week 45 minute rehearsals ? What if you already knew how to play an instrument but never played in a band setting, would you be able to pay for and attend rehearsals only, just so you can get experience with playing in a band or would you have to attend lessons as well so that you were instructed what/how to play in the rehearsal part of it. Why is there no information out there about these details? The short of it is, I’m trying to find music lessons that are all about playing with others in a band setting right away so as to then finally have that experience to then go out and seek a band to try out for.
Ted – my guess is that the details exactly how this is handled would depend on the SOR location you’d be attending. I believe that $225 price DOES include the rehearsals, but I don’t know if you can do only the rehearsals without lessons. I also don’t know exactly how long those rehearsals are. Which SOR location are you closest to?
My son plays keyboard at SOR. We pay $240 a month for one 45 minute lesson a week and one 2 1/2 hour rehearsal. My son has been playing classical piano since he was 5 but never played rock or anything other than classical pieces with his past instructors. He loves playing with other kids (ages 11-18) in his band. The lessons explore music theory and how to talk music with band mates. It’s expensive (more than his travel soccer monthly fees) but I don’t know where else he could get this experience.
Thanks for sharing. I agree that the experience is unique, and could be worth the investment for some folks.