HERO Guitar - Mario Licciardi

GuitarHERO
By Jeffrey Westhoff
Photography Julie Linnekin
Reprinted With Permission - Quintessential Barrington Magazine - Copyright © 2011

Mario Licciardi teaches the band how to connect the A-section (verse) of a song to its B-section (chorus) in rehearsal. From left: Tyler Schultz, Gracie Ransom, Mario
Licciardi, Mateyko Jazwinski, and Matthew Wilson. On drums (in front) is Max Kiley.
Mario Licciardi teaches communication, self-discipline, and leadership skills. But his is no
typical classroom. Here, the students belt out Pat Benatar lyrics and practice the best of
garage band-style music, with a professional leading the way.
Tapping his foot, Mario Licciardi listens as a rock combo of three youngsters – none of them yet a teenager – play Green Day’s “Holiday.” The band members,
who call themselves The Purple Tomatoes, power through the song until they reach the guitar solo, then the beat flags.
Mario waves for them to stop. “You’ve got to keep the tempo up,” he says. “The energy and the tempo need to stay the same through the whole song.”
To demonstrate, Mario takes the drummer’s place and bangs out a driving rhythm.
The young drummer resumes his seat behind the kit, and The Purple Tomatoes are rocking again, fast and loud. Mario is 36-years-old, but looks at least
seven years younger. He wears jeans and an embroidered denim shirt. His hair is black and closely cropped, with a ridge running down the center. His
eyeglasses are also black, with a frame like Buddy Holly’s – but hipper. The band is jamming now and Mario smiles as he struts among the budding rockers,
bobbing his head like Mick Jagger. It may not look it, but class is in session and Mario is teaching. The name of the class is Rockstar 101.
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QBarrington.com | Quintessential Barrington • 107

Mario started Rockstar 101 at Consolidated
Music, the music store located in the Barrington
Commons, four years ago. A guitar instructor at
Consolidated Music for 16 years, Mario had been
mulling the idea of playing mentor to young rock
bands for a long time, but the true impetus was
the persistent popularity of the 2003 Jack Black
movie, “School of Rock.”
“It made parents and adults realize what a fun
thing it is for kids to learn rock ’n’ roll,” Mario says.
The movie inspired an influx of rock ’n’ roll classes,
but Mario believed many were too regimented.
He wanted to create something looser, something
that reflected the true spirit of rock ’n’ roll. “The
Rockstar thing is really cool,” Mario says, “because
I’m definitely an individual who likes to teach to
individuals.”
Once students enroll in Rockstar 101, Mario
arranges them into bands of four to six members
sorted into the classic garage band arrangement:
drummer, bassist, singer, one to three guitarists,
and possibly a keyboard player. Students range in
age from 8 to 17, and Mario prefers that they have
six to nine months of music instruction before
signing up.
we’re an american band
Mario lets the students choose their band’s name.
He gets them started with simple songs of two
or three chords and one or two change-ups, but
108 • Quintessential Barrington | QBarrington.com
the bands determine their own set lists. “I let the
kids pick the songs,” he says, “which is really cool.”
Students play everything from Chuck Berry to the
Beatles to Nirvana to the White Stripers. At the
end of the three-week session, the bands “graduate”
with a concert at the Penny Road Pub in
South Barrington.
Steve Muscarello’s daughter, Alyssa, is a Barrington
High School student and Rockstar 101
veteran (at age 15) who is lead singer in the band
Theater Candy. He will never forget the look of
joy on her face the first time she performed at the
Penny Road Pub. “After the show, she said to me,
‘This is the best day of my life!’”
Steve adds, “This really has been life-changing
for her. It’s probably the most important thing in
her life right now.”
Mario believes Rockstar can be life-changing
because it teaches lessons beyond musicianship.
“It’s about the whole entire band having to learn
the song and playing it in time,” he says. To do
that, they must master communication skills.
“They learn they have to speak and not text or
Twitter each other.”
it’s only rock ‘n’ roll
Mario usually sees students coming to grips with
this issue after a few weeks. “By the third or fourth
class of the session, they see that they have to address
the issue of the musicality of the band face
to face, with each other, and with me. They have to
face the music, so to speak.”
Teamwork grows from this kind of communication,
as 11-year-old guitarist, Joseph Jazwinski
of Cary realized. “It’s not that you all have to learn
to play your parts. It’s harder than that,” says Joseph,
who plays in a White Stripes cover band. “It
makes you realize that teamwork really does count
in everything,” adds the band’s 10-year-old lead
singer, Gracie Ransom of Lake Barrington.
Seventeen-year-old Ron Gierlach, who will
be a senior at Barrington High School this fall,
says he gained leadership skills through Rockstar.
“Even if I’m not the most talented musician in the
room, I’m the one who knows how to get everything
together,” he says, “and if it weren’t for Rockstar,
I’d be just as lost as I was before.”
Ron adds that he loves spending time with
Mario simply talking rock history. “I’m always
bouncing bands off of Mario, and he’s always
bouncing bands off of me.”
Joseph’s mother, Tamara Jazwinski, has noted
this connection between Mario and his students.
“He’s like the Pied Piper,” she says. “Kids follow
him, they ask him questions. He keeps them curious.”
Mario has a dual passion for music and teaching.
A major reason that he created the Rockstar
program was to give students the benefit of something
he didn’t have at their age. “It may sound
Reprinted With Permission - Quintessential Barrington Magazine - Copyright © 2011

a little pompous,” he says, “but I didn’t have me
growing up.”
sweet home chicago
Mario’s father, a strict Italian immigrant who
worked in a factory, didn’t understand rock ’n’
roll. He thought his son would make a better living
with a broom or a shovel rather than a guitar.
“The support level was very minimal,” Mario says.
“I had to discipline myself and force myself to be
successful.”
Mario grew up in Edison Park on the Northwest
side of Chicago. His first exposure to rock
came at age 10 when his sister began dating a guitarist
in a heavy metal band that played a lot of
Scorpions music. “I thought he was cool,” Mario
remembers.
Mario got his first guitar a year later, but it took
him several more years to become proficient. That
frustrated him. “When you watch these bands as
a kid,” he says, “you don’t realize how much discipline
it takes to actually get good at it.”
His guitar heroes were Jimi Hendrix, Ritchie
Blackmore and Alex Lifeson of Rush. Although
Mario’s first love was lead guitar, he would sing or
play bass if it got him a gig. “There were so many
guitarists in my neighborhood I had to take up
whatever I could find to play in a band.”
Mario eventually joined a band called Flavored
Pain and played at venues including the Avalon
Nightclub, the Vic, and the Thirsty Whale. This
was the early ’90s, and Chicago’s alternative rock
scene was teeming as the Smashing Pumpkins and
Urge Overkill became nationally famous. It was an
inspirational time, Mario says. “Bands from Chicago
who were getting record deals were really
exciting, because they were from here and were
making an impact in the music world.”
how to save a life
Contrary to his father’s predictions, Mario became
a professional guitarist at age 17 and has
made a living at it ever since. Looking back, Mario
says his father believed the worst stereotypes
about rock musicians, that their lifestyle was all
about sex and drugs and trashing hotel rooms. Yet
Mario credits rock with keeping him off drugs,
because his form of rebellion was to perfect his
guitar skills.
Mario believes rock ’n’ roll teaches the same
working-class ethic his father extolled. “Rock ’n’
This ensemble represents students who have been in the Rockstar 101 program more than two or three times,
and have learned how to play together, growing as a band. In front, from left: Gracie Ransom, Max Kiley,
Mateyko Jazwinski, and Matthew Wilson. In back, Tyler Schultz.
roll has values,” he says. “It’s a blue-collar thing.
You use your hands. And if you’re not good, you
don’t get a call back.”
Yet rock’s bad reputation persists. Tamara
Jazwinski says she often sees shocked faces when
she tells people Joseph and her other son, Matthew,
are students of rock. “People think, ‘Oh, rock
’n’ roll,’” she says, “but this couldn’t be a healthier
outlet for them.” She adds that her sons have done
better academically since joining Rockstar.
Tamara opened up another educational opportunity
for Mario last fall. A counselor in Cary
Community Consolidated School District 26,
Tamara was upset that the district cut its music
program earlier that year. Talking to Mario in
November, she wondered if he had any ideas that
could bring music instruction back to Cary’s primary
school students. “Mario just looked at me
and said, ‘Let’s talk about it.’”
39,000 guitar lessons
As a solution, Mario called in an instructor with a
background in classical music, Ron Swanson, and
along with Tamara they formed a private company Ron Gierlach
Reprinted With Permission - Quintessential Barrington Magazine - Copyright © 2011 QBarrington.com | Quintessential Barrington • 109

called Stage One Music to teach an after-school
program three days a week (students who enroll
in the class pay a fee). The program started in January
and teaches basic music components such as
melody and rhythm using current pop songs.
Stage One has been a success. “It was a terrific
gift for these kids who were starved for music,” Tamara
says. Mario adds, “The kids love it.”
In the fall, Stage One will add a guitar class for
Cary Junior High, and eventually Mario would
like to bring the program to other communities,
such as Schaumburg, where schools have eliminated
music programs. “We’re at the ground floor
of something,” he says. “We’re working to give
back our knowledge to
school districts.”
Even before Stage One
Music can reach that next
level, Mario already is
developing another educational
program. He is
setting up the 100 Red
Guitar Foundation with
the goal of giving guitars and lessons to children
who cannot afford them. “I know how hard it is
growing up,” he says. “My parents were unemployed
for about three years when I was a kid.”
As Mario envisions it, children will submit
110 • Quintessential Barrington | QBarrington.com
essays on why they want a guitar and why they cannot
afford one to a website—www.marsguitar.com
—that is still being constructed. Mario will choose
a recipient once a month or once every three
months, depending on the number of donors he is
able to line up. “I’ll figure out a way,” he says. “I’m
good at that.” He also would give guitar lessons via
Skype. He plans to have the program under way
by September.
Meanwhile, Mario has Rockstar 101 and private
lessons at Consolidated Music to keep him
occupied. He joined Consolidated Music as a parttime
instructor in August 1995 and went full time
six months later. He estimates he has given 39,000
Aside from gaining the personal values of
communication, discipline, leadership and
confidence, students do learn much about music.
guitar lessons. Mario commuted from Chicago for
15 years until moving to Barrington in 2010.
Mario credits Consolidated Music owner
Jeff Lindahl for supporting his career as a guitar
teacher. “He’s been like a dad to me,” Mario says.
Lindahl was enthusiastic when Mario started
thinking about Rockstar 101.
stand by me
Mario teaches Rockstar 101 in the basement of
Consolidated Music. One concrete wall of the
room is decorated in a checkerboard pattern of
carpet samples alternating with 45 rpm records
from the 1980s. A drum kit, with the Rockstar 101
logo on the bass, is surrounded by Fender amps,
and a keyboard sits to the side. Students bring
their own guitars. “It’s a lot more than I had when
I was a kid,” Mario says. “We had to rehearse in a
smelly kid’s bedroom with a broken amp.”
After completing their first
Rockstar session, many of the
bands return to learn more songs
and to hone their talents. Mario
has watched many of these children
grow in confidence. “I’ve
seen the most insecure kids become
a lot more secure about
themselves,” he says. “They find
their identity.”
Aside from gaining the personal values of
communication, discipline, leadership and confidence,
students do learn much about music. For
younger students who follow current pop stars
Reprinted With Permission - Quintessential Barrington Magazine - Copyright © 2011

such as Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga, the first
few sessions can be a bit of a time warp, because
guitar-driven rock is largely absent from today’s
music charts. “A lot of the music doesn’t have any
guitar parts,” Mario says. “It’s mostly overproduced
Disney stuff.”
Vocalists in the Rockstar program often must
make a quick adjustment to the no-frills, garage
sound. “They realize how many singers today have
Auto-Tune behind them,” Mario says. “They learn
that when you sing into a mic [on stage] you have
to be good. There’s no candy coating.”
Gracie Ransom is one of those students. “Before
I was in Rockstar, I only listened to pop,” says
Gracie, the daughter of Kelly and Ken Ransom.
Two years later, Gracie ferociously belts out hits
Mario Licciardi takes a break at Barrington’s Canteen restaurant.
Reprinted With Permission - Quintessential Barrington Magazine - Copyright © 2011
by the White Stripes and the Rolling Stones. She
loves Pat Benatar’s “Heartbreaker” and Chuck
Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode.”
“I’m a rocker now,” Gracie says, “and I feel
like I can get my anger out. Rock is a good way
to get out my feelings.”
As Rockstar 101 has grown, Mario has taken
on an assistant, Drew Ray, to help. The program’s
rising popularity has brought new faces to the
basement. In the beginning, Mario knew all the
students through private lessons at Consolidated
Music. Now, new students signing up are strangers
to him. One recently enrolled student wants
to play the flute. “So I guess we’ll have a Jethro
Tull tribute band,” Mario quips.
As the summer begins, Mario is involved in
two wildly different music education programs,
Rockstar 101 and Stage One Music, and he has a
third, the 100 Red Guitar Foundation, in the offing.
These are in addition to the private lessons
he teaches. And he also plays in a Chicago-based
band, Elston.
Where does he find the time? The question
makes him laugh. He’s heard it many times. “It’s
always a stretch, my friend,” he says. “I’m lucky I
have the energy I have.” He makes a joke about
drinking copious amounts of espresso. “The secret’s
in the coffee,” he says.
Not to mention the music.
Jeffrey Westhoff is a writer who lives in Palatine, and
is a regular contributor to Quintessential Barrington.
QBarrington.com | Quintessential Barrington • 111

While his students are learning their songs and preparing for their show at Penny Road Pub, Mario Licciardi is developing an outreach effort called “100 Red Guitars
Foundation” to connect rock ‘n’ roll music and instruments to children who cannot afford a guitar or music lessons.
Teach Your Children Well
Mario Licciardi gets excited when talking about
the energy and fun that students bring to the
Rockstar 101 classes he teaches at Consolidated
Music in Barrington. His students and their
parents are quick to return the praise.
“I don’t think the Rockstar program would be
half as successful if he wasn’t able to inspire
these kids,” says Steve Muscarello of Barrington.
His daughter, Alyssa, has gained new
confidence as a rock singer through the program.
“He demands a level of commitment,” Steve
continues. “Mario doesn’t give an option to fail.
It’s not an option for him.”
Gracie Ransom, a 10-year-old from Lake Barrington,
also learned to sing through Rockstar
101 and appreciates Mario’s no-fail attitude.
“He really pushed me to do my best,” she says,
“and I’ve never had someone push me like that
before. And I realized I had a good voice.”
The Rockstar Schedule
Ron Gierlach, a 17-year-old guitarist who will
be a senior at Barrington High School in the
fall, says Mario is much more than a musical
taskmaster. “He teaches you to really enjoy the
guitar,” Ron says. “He embodies someone who
gets fulfillment through playing music. With
him it’s so visible. Every encounter is something
that makes you want to practice more.”
Maria Dahnke of Barrington has two children
enrolled in Rockstar, 11-year-old Nate and
9-year-old Ava. She appreciates that Rockstar
is less competitive than school music programs
such as orchestra, and that there is no
“first chair” for guitar in a rock band. “I think
that frees up the kids to be more comfortable,”
she says.
It frees them up to be versatile, Maria adds. Nate
played guitar when he joined the class, then
switched to drums. “He picked that up, drumming,
just from being in Rockstar,” she says.
Ron agrees that Mario creates a comfortable
setting for creative personalities. “It’s a place
where people who aren’t of a group mentality
can be in a group,” he says.
Ron has used the lessons he learned in Rockstar
to coach a band himself. He credits his new
confidence to his former teacher. “I would
never see myself playing in a band much less
coaching another, younger band if it weren’t
for Mario,” he says.
Mario’s confidence allows students to find new
possibilities within themselves, Gracie says. “Before
Rockstar, I didn’t know I really had music in
me,” she says. “When I came here, I got music.”
Gracie saves her strongest praise for Mario’s
gift of inspiration. “When you walk through his
door, he’ll make sure your dreams come true,”
she says. “He’ll give you passion.”
Mario Licciardi will teach two more Rockstar 101 sessions for the remainder of the summer. All classes are taught at Consolidated
Music, 125 Barrington Commons. Final performances are at the Penny Road Pub, 28W705 Penny Road, in South Barrington.
July session – Classes: July 5 to 22. Final performance: August 4
august session – Classes: Aug. 1 to 19. Final performance: Aug. 21
Rockstar 101 bands will perform at the following venues this summer:
June 30 – Barrington Cruise Nights, Harris Bank Parking Lot, 8:30 to 10 p.m.
July 3 – Brat Tent at Barrington Fourth of July Celebration, 2:15 p.m.
July 21 – Barrington Cruise Nights, Grassroots Store, 8:30 to 10 p.m.
august 21 – Rockstar 101 free concert at Penny Road Pub, South Barrington, 2:30 p.m.
august 25 – Barrington Cruise Nights, Grassroots Store, 8:30 to 10 p.m.
Enrollment for Rockstar 101 is $375 per session. For more information, call Consolidated Music at 847-381-0164, or visit
www.consolidatedmusic.net/rockstar101.php.
Reprinted With Permission - Quintessential Barrington Magazine - Copyright © 2011