HERO Guitar - Mario Licciardi

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