![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/635810298569239938-college-of-rock-smal-1-jpg.jpg\")
Michael Lang is one of the co-founders of the Woodstock Music Lab, a rock school for college-age students.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n Photo Credit: Mike Groll\/AP<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n They are looking for talented, college-age and post-college students. Metal heads, indie types and beat makers are all welcome. Everyone will take two instruments a semester, one the student chooses and the other chosen by faculty members. They will not grant degrees at first, but expect <\/span>students will be able to earn\u00a0college\u00a0credits acceptable at other institutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A big attraction will be guest professors. Green and Lang will use their music-world connections to bring in names, some who have homes in the woods around Woodstock. For now they’re naming just a handful, such as former Yes singer Jon Anderson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “You ever see the commercials for ‘SportsCenter’ with Grant Hill hanging out?” Green asked. “We want it to be like that.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Students also will get a dose of Green, who has been teaching younger students since he opened his first Paul Green School of Rock Music in 2000, later selling the chain in 2009.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He now runs the Paul Green Rock Academy, a one-story building outside of Woodstock with a pirate flag flying out front. On a busy day of after-school lessons, Green moved from room to room, acting pretty much like a character that could be played by Jack Black, hugging and teasing students. He stuck his head into one lesson to belt out a line from “Jesus Christ Superstar” in full ham mode: “One of my 12 chosen, will leave to betray meeee!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rock has had an ambivalent relationship with formal\u00a0education\u00a0at least since Chuck Berry sang about teachers “teachin’ the Golden Rule.” But Lang and Green see their school nurturing young artists in a way that big record companies have largely abandoned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mark Mulligan, a music industry analyst at London-based MIDiA Research, said such a talent incubator could be useful, especially in an era when bands looking to get signed need to work not only at music, but skills such as marketing and social media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “To be an artist in the current era \u2014 right or wrong, good or bad \u2014 requires much more than being a good musician,” Mulligan said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Green stressed that their focus will be on creating great art like that of the Rolling Stones and Radiohead. Asked if a strict curriculum could strangle the spirit of rock and roll, Green laughed and offered a joke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “We’re standing over the spirit of rock and roll with some paddles and rubbing them together,” he said, “and I’m yelling, ‘Clear!’ “<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A planned new school will allow young musicians, producers and arrangers to mingle with each other as they learn the business.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":99735,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3009],"class_list":["post-66655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education-transition"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"X4FL4T62OFHARP7OESHHO7QMQQ","arc_canonical_url":"\/education-transition\/education\/2015\/10\/21\/we-will-rock-u-rock-college-takes-root-in-ny\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n