The Rock Era Shines at Smoky Hill Music

Learn to play your favorite music! 

Here are just a few of the artists our students have learned to play :

*AC/DC

*Green Day

*The Eagles

*Weezer

*Metallica

*Guns 'n Roses

*Foo Fighters

*Motley Crue

*Red Hot Chili Peppers

*Tom Petty

*Bon Jovi

*Boston

*Evanescence

*U2

*Nirvana

*The Beatles

*Queen

*Iron Maiden

*Lynyrd Skynyrd

*The White Stripes

*The Rolling Stones

*Pearl Jam

*Poison

*Fleetwood Mac

*Ratt

*Ozzy Osbourne

*Heart

*ZZ Top

*James Taylor

*Rush

*KISS

*Led Zeppelin

*David Bowie

*Elvis

*The Cars

*CSNY

*Santana

*Bruce Springsteen

*Steve Miller

*Bob Seger

*Buddy Holly

*Aerosmith

*Jim Croce

*Journey

*Allman Brothers

*Jimi Hendrix

*The Ramones

*Alice in Chains

*Ghost

*R.E.M.

- and many, many more!

-1950's : The birth of rock and roll! Elvis, Buddy Holly, Eddy Cochrane, Richie Valens, rockabilly, doo-wop, and more! This was rock's Big Bang decade as the Blues picked up a new groove and became Rock and Roll. The lead guitar takes the spotlight in the rock era's first smash hit Rock Around the Clock.

-1960's: The Beach Boys kicked off the decade capitalizing on the surf craze in southern California. The folk explosion hit the California electric rock sound and created a unique new style as the musicians in Laurel Canyon created a mountain of hits. Motown and Stax Records were turning out the Soul and R&B hits. The Beatles and the 'Stones led the British Invasion and created timeless classics.  The San Francisco music scene exploded with bands that would become legendary like Jefferson Airplane, Steve Miller Band, Santana, and the Grateful Dead.

-1970's: The third decade of rock music brought an amazing variety of styles. It was the era of singer/songwriters like James Taylor, the Glam Rock of T. Rex and David Bowie, the progressive rock mastery of Rush, Yes, and Queen. Former Beatle Paul McCartney conquered the music charts again with his new band Wings. California-rock took the spotlight with The Eagles and Journey. The city of Boston gave us the slick and polished guitar wizardy of BOSTON; the bluesy rock of Aerosmith; and The Cars, who ushered in the coming sounds of New Wave. Steely Dan brought jazz rock to the mainstream.

-1980's: Heavy blues rockers AC/DC kicked off 1980 with one of the biggest albums of all time. The Eighties brought some new styles to the realm of electric guitar such as the cinematic, arpeggiated soundscapes from The Edge of U2, the jangle and twang of Tom Petty and college radio bands like R.E.M. and the Bodeans, the shredding of Eddie Van Halen and Yngwie Malmsteen; the Glam Metal style of bands like Poison and Motley Crue. Guitarist Slash and Guns 'n Roses brought a heavy, bluesy hard rock edge to the decade of big hair and synthesizers. The Red Rocker Sammy Hagar brought his party rock to the masses, with his solo albums and as a member of Van Halen.

-1990's: The grunge rock scene dominated, with Nirvana leading the way. An aggressive, often drop-tuned, garage band approach to guitar was very popular, with bands like Pearl jam, Alice in Chains, Stone Temple Pilots. Foo Fighters formed in the middle of the decade and are still one of the biggest bands in the world. Punk rockers Green Day broke through to success in 1994 and eventually became the most successful punk rock band in history.

-2000's and beyond: The Red Hot Chili Peppers, The White Stripes, Linkin' Park, Jet, Limp Bizkit, Halestorm, Greta Van Fleet, The Pretty Reckless, Mammoth WVH, .. and... your band?