myBurbank reporter Ashley Erikson, sits down to chat with Jason Land, the owner of Guitar Ninjas, a music school in Burbank for kids and adults. Jason shares his personal story of music and how the Guitar Ninjas, came to fruition. HIs story is one of serendipity and perseverance that you won’t want to miss. Guitar Ninjas has established itself in the community through events and after school classes and is known for their specialized learning program that was designed by Jason himself. Guitar Ninjas has evolved to more locations, more instructors, and more instruments, and continues to grow as the leading music school in Burbank.
Jason talks about upcoming summer camps that are now open for enrollment and how you can try a Guitar Ninjas class for free!
For more information on summer camps: https://www.guitarninjas.com/summercamp
This episode was sponsored by Compass Realtors Mike McDonald and Mary Anne Been. https://burbankarealiving.com/
myBurbank reporter Ashley Erikson, sits down to chat with Jason Land, the owner of Guitar Ninjas, a music school in Burbank for kids and adults. Jason shares his personal story of music and how the Guitar Ninjas, came to fruition. HIs story is one of serendipity and perseverance that you won’t want to miss. Guitar Ninjas has established itself in the community through events and after school classes and is known for their specialized learning program that was designed by Jason himself. Guitar Ninjas has evolved to more locations, more instructors, and more instruments, and continues to grow as the leading music school in Burbank.
Jason talks about upcoming summer camps that are now open for enrollment and how you can try a Guitar Ninjas class for free!
For more information on summer camps: https://www.guitarninjas.com/summercamp
This episode was sponsored by Compass Realtors Mike McDonald and Mary Anne Been. https://burbankarealiving.com/
From deep in the Burbank Media District. It's time for another edition of my Burbank Talks, presented by the staff of my Burbank. Now let's see what's on today's agenda as we join our program.
Speaker 2:Hi, my Burbank reporter, ashley Erickson, here with an episode of Burbank Business Spotlight, and today we're meeting with Jason Land, who is the owner of Guitar Ninjas, a music school for both kids and adults. Thank you so much for being here today.
Speaker 3:That was an awesome intro. Thank you, very pro, and yeah, my pleasure.
Speaker 2:Awesome. Well, before we get into Guitar Ninjas and this legacy you've built here, I want to get to know you a little bit more and, when you came to Burbank, what your life was like. Where were you born? So give us the rundown on who you are.
Speaker 3:Sure. So I did everything in my power to get out of New Jersey as soon as I was able. So when I turned 18, I moved to Florida and went to music college and then from there moved back to New Jersey temporarily to just get money. You know, save up, packed two duffel bags and two guitars in a Hyundai and drove across the country and came here, came here, 2002. Yeah, I remember the, the, the moment where I first stepped on California soil.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, did you take a picture with the sign as you crossed the border?
Speaker 3:Well, I'm so old that they didn't even have cameras then Okay.
Speaker 2:No, no, Mental selfie no.
Speaker 3:I was never, never been a picture person. So uh and there I think it was only like uh, there wasn't even flip phones.
Speaker 2:Then I don't yeah, I don't remember, but I think it was like a nokia, I think I had in 2002 with like the face plates and stuff on it I was. I was so mission focused, uh, in that moment that I I wish I would have documented, looking back on it now but uh, no, I was just like let's go first of all, that's like the weirdest thing to me to think back to, like when we had no phones and you were just like by yourself going across the entire country without a phone Right.
Speaker 3:That's terrifying. I literally had a Thomas guide.
Speaker 2:You pull over and pull out your map and go through the pages.
Speaker 3:So I had to put in the address for this place in my phone so it would guide me from my office, which is 10 minutes here. Not even like recognizing okay, you drove across the country.
Speaker 2:Yeah, a giant map Bible, right, just go that way, yeah.
Speaker 3:Kansas was a weird place, that's for sure.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, I bet you saw a lot of cool things along the way.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, I mean, it took me four days, I think. It was drove through a tornado, like literally through. It was like the scariest thing. There was like several times where I was like do I turn back? Like what do I do?
Speaker 2:And then you get to Vegas. No GPS to tell you how to go around the tornado. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3:There's like hail I'm driving like through, I'm going underneath underpasses, cars are on the side Like people are out of the cars, like up in the rafters looking at me like going, what are you doing? Get out of the way. It was pretty terrifying.
Speaker 2:Oh, but you made it, but I made it and you're here and you've established in Burbank. Yes, so you went to music college in Florida, but when did you fall in love with music?
Speaker 3:Okay, I am the first of four boys, so I need attention.
Speaker 2:So when I was- You've established that and you acknowledge it. Yes, yes.
Speaker 3:Yes, unfortunately, when I was in fifth grade I think it was fourth or fifth grade Like you get assigned a musical instrument and I got assigned saxophone.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:I didn't care about playing it. I just cared about standing in my front yard and like having people drive by and watch me act like I was playing.
Speaker 2:Oh, my God.
Speaker 3:So that was my introduction to music. I was more interested in entertainment, yeah, but it wasn't until I was in maybe eighth or ninth grade. So you know, I don't know 12, 13, that like I saw the power of music. You're really into Jurassic Park. Very much so yes, Do you remember the first time that you saw Jurassic Park?
Speaker 2:I actually don't remember it the actual first time, but I know that my life was never the same after that.
Speaker 3:Okay. So for me, that moment was watching a documentary on VH1, when they used to play play music called the Song Remains the Same, which was by Led Zeppelin. And I'm watching this and you see the guitar player his name is Jimmy Page standing in fog and he's playing this guitar in this jumpsuit with dragons on it and I'm like, whatever that is, I want that, that's what I want. So, okay, he's entertaining people. Yeah, yeah, he has a. Is I want that, that's what I want, yeah.
Speaker 3:Right, so okay, he's entertaining people yeah, yeah, he has a guitar. I should probably learn guitar so. And then I got a guitar that next Christmas and it was like instant Wow.
Speaker 2:It was instant connection. Were you self-taught? Did you take classes?
Speaker 3:It's always been a hybrid for me. I'm extremely highly motivated, so when I get into something, I'm all I am all in. So up until that point, I was like obsessed with playing basketball, where I would literally play like eight hours a day, and so the transition into like practicing was super easy. So I was just like you're already disciplined, oh, yeah.
Speaker 3:So I was like, give me content. I'm good. So I took some lessons at the local shop for maybe two or three years, but I was so just obsessed so I would anything that I could find anybody that would show me anything, I would just practice and practice, practice. And then you know, eventually you get on to music college and then I moved out here and then started taking mentorship with, uh like some really great players and just keep evolving from there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, do you think that if you never saw that music video, you would never become a musician. Do you think that if you never saw that music video, you would never become a musician?
Speaker 3:Or do you think it eventually?
Speaker 2:would have found its way to you.
Speaker 3:I think it would have found its way because it was so powerful when it happened. I'd always kept an eye on musical instruments. I just never got the opportunity to try them, which is one of the great things I like about where I work with Boys and Girls Club a lot and that's probably one of the coolest moments is like most of these kids never tried music. So to give them a guitar yeah, some of them, they don't really care, but there is the one or two that just they get it and you can just see it Right and you're like I know that feeling.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I do think that I would have. I would have eventually like circled back and yeah. So when you went to college, what were the things that you learned there?
Speaker 3:did you have to learn other instruments, songwriting, what was a lot of production like? Really? I was really interested at that point. I knew that I wanted to write songs. I knew that I wanted to uh, work in the recording field and do session work and do all that stuff. So my focus was on engineering and production. So I went there and just learned the ins and outs of how do you put a studio together, how do you manage a session, and then it got into the artistic world of it, of you know how do you extract excellence from an artist, which all of those things came to help me later when I became a teacher.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then when you left college, you came back to New Jersey Temporarily. It was like and you came to LA for your big break.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah Right, I was waiting. Yeah. So what was this time between leaving college to starting Guitar Ninjas? What were you doing musically?
Speaker 3:A lot. When I first started I was solely focused on being an artist or in a collective right, in a group, and that went well. I mean, I dedicated maybe four years of my life very intensely to that and there were some successes, there were some failures, there was the whole thing, but the experience was all. I was all in, fully committed. So no regrets on that at all. And then from at the end of that run, I was so burnt out because it was like every day doing this you know, hours and hours a day um, that I took a complete career pivot and went and became a fitness trainer oh wow, I didn't see that coming yeah, I've always been interested in an exercise and I was like you know what, let me just go do something completely different yeah which ended up being a massive uh learning lesson for me, because it taught me about programming right and it taught
Speaker 3:me about goal setting and how to like try and do analysis on what somebody's trying to accomplish and how do you help them get there. So, again, more tools that helped me. Eventually, you know, get to be a teacher and open guitar ninjas. So it was maybe a year and a half break from that and then I got back in, but it was in a different way, like I didn't want to do like the artist path anymore. I wanted to be more on like the professional side. So was doing a bunch of sessions, uh, just as a guitarist, and then doing short run tours and then doing, uh, pro songwriting. So I bounced between here and nashville and just write and pitch songs and that lasted, I don't know, maybe five years and before I was like I don't, I don't want to do this yeah because it was you I you had very little control of your income stream.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Welcome to art.
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly yeah exactly I was like. Nobody's going to outwork me.
Speaker 3:I know that, but at the end of the day it's somebody else's decision on whether they're going to pay me for that, or not so then, you know, I get to be almost 30 and I'm like, hmm, I would like to see the world, I would like to have nice things. You know, maybe we better do something different. And a friend of mine had had opened a music school a couple years past and he's like you want to come up and teach, or down and teach us in huntington beach, sure. So I go down there and I remember day one of my guitar lesson, teaching experience sitting in the room. Or a student has not come in yet my buddy, who's the owner of school, comes in and uh, he goes all right, you're ready. I'm like ready, what do you want me to do? He looks at me, he goes, you'll figure it out, closes the door, good luck. Student walks in. That's the beginning of my teaching career. No training, nothing like that.
Speaker 2:No, lesson plan Nothing, just figure it out.
Speaker 3:But I'm so grateful for that because it allowed me to be super creative.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you came up with your own lessons, exactly.
Speaker 3:Right, like that was the genesis of my whole methodology. Yeah, those early years teaching in Huntington Beach, experimenting, you know, because it allowed me to fuse my passion for philosophy and my sports coaching background and my fitness coaching background with music and just kind of put it all together and just test things and whatnot, which was it was awesome.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so you were living, you're living in Burbank. Burbank driving to Huntington Beach, that's pretty far, it's very far. And then you decided well, the whole Guitar Ninja's coming about story is a little bit of fate and luck, right, Totally. Do you want to tell us about how that started?
Speaker 3:I'd love to. So I was living on Clark. There was a house two doors down to the left if you were facing I guess that would be west that every weekend they'd have a rummage sale, you know, just like stuff. So I worked in Huntington Beach on Saturday. So I leave in the house nine o'clock in the morning, got the guitar in the back. They're having their yard sale. Somebody buys a guitar. They see me with the guitar. Hey, do you teach lessons? Well, I had my business cards cards right, with my email address on it. Here you go, contact me, right. Don't hear anything from this person ever again.
Speaker 3:But two to three weeks later I get an email from Dr Meg, who was the principal at Roosevelt Elementary. Hey, somebody gave me your business card and said that we need to have after school guitar lessons. Would you like to come in and do? It was like, yes, let's do it. Okay, great, so I go and I meet with dr meg. We end up having the same birthday, oh my god. So like, we're like totally connecting, vibing right, like it's all good, uh. So she lets me hand out flyers for for the after school class. We enrolled, I think, 22 kids, uh, in the class. I think it. It was on Thursdays I used to. I was doing it and then at the end of the class I was able to convert 17 of those students to private students, to just start coming to my house and and just start doing lessons.
Speaker 2:So had you not walked out of your house with that guitar at that exact moment, as they were buying a guitar?
Speaker 3:none of that would have happened? I don't think any of this would have happened because I wasn't even thinking it. I wasn't even thinking about opening my own location. I didn't even know Roosevelt was down the street. You know what I mean? Yeah, Like who goes right out of their house. Right, I'm going left. So I don't think any of this would have happened. You know what? I mean, here's the crazy thing is, I've never seen that woman since that moment.
Speaker 2:You don't even know her name?
Speaker 3:I don't even know her name. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:So if you're out there and you're listening, it's all owed to you.
Speaker 3:Come to 3310 West Burbank Boulevard Guitar Ninjas. You're going to get a big hug and a coffee.
Speaker 2:That's incredible. We're going to take a quick commercial break and then we're going to dive into everything Guitar Ninjas, right commercial break, and then we're going to dive into everything.
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Speaker 2:All right, we're back and I am excited to learn everything there is to know about Guitar Ninjas. I know a little bit because I've had both my sons have lessons there in guitar and drums. Which brings me to the fact that Guitar Ninjas has moved on past guitars.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:So it started with guitars and then you've increased your space, you've increased your instructors, you've increased and your instruments, so tell us about that.
Speaker 3:And my stress level.
Speaker 2:And your stress level and your locations, locations. There's a lot going on.
Speaker 3:There's a lot going on, so let's start with the instruments. So when I got those first 17 students, that quickly started to multiply and before long there were, I'm gonna say, 50 to 60 people coming to my house every week for lesson wow, just to you, just to you.
Speaker 3:Just to me, it was just me at that point. People were waiting on the front lawn. That didn't go so well. I think that's not a good business. Look, so now they're coming in through the alley in the back. Then a tree falls and I'm like my whole life flashes by.
Speaker 3:Oh no, it hits this person. Oh my gosh, you know what I mean something. And like okay, what are we going to do here? Well, I'm really big on systems like I talked about earlier, right I'm I was highly, uh, influenced by tim ferris's book. Um, uh, four hour work week, right, which is just about efficiency. And then I was really into accelerated learning and all these concepts at this point. So I'm like, how can I streamline the work that I'm doing? Because I I was doing lesson video recap videos for every single student.
Speaker 2:Like, tailored to each student yes. That's a lot of work.
Speaker 3:It was hours a week, so I'm cranking these out, putting them on YouTube. There's got to be a better way. So that was the kind of foundation for me to build the program and it was just guitar. So I built the Guitar Ninjas program. I started handing out the picks, we started doing the whole thing, then expanded to a place called Nightingale Studios, which is I think it's Providencia, that it's over on. It's on the east side of town and I don't know how we got people to go there.
Speaker 2:I guess if they came to your house They'll go anywhere.
Speaker 3:It to go there. I guess if they came to your house they'll go anywhere, it's true, but this is a musician rehearsal space, okay. There's like suspect things that go on over there. So we started offering drums, piano, voice, and then, um, one of my students, uh, who's now a director at our school, she was teaching guitar as well and she's teaching the method, right. Um, what was big for me before we met we moved forward was that I didn't open a location with leverage, so I did not want to open anything with debt.
Speaker 3:I wanted to just be like cash flow positive day one. That was my rule. So I found this. I've been looking for spots for maybe six months because we were at capacity at both my house and the other place. And then I'm driving on Burbank Boulevard and the owner of the building that I'm in was literally hanging the for rent sign as I'm driving by.
Speaker 2:You went like serendipity. I mean it's crazy.
Speaker 3:So stop talk to him and he goes well, here's the place, right. So it was just the back unit at that point, and if you can imagine the room that we're in right now, filled with papers to almost the ceiling- oh my god that was all three of the lesson spaces in the back and in the in.
Speaker 3:What would be our lobby was just desks like this just stacked up. Yeah right, like crazy, um, but I all I saw was there's tons of windows. Could, like drive up, drop their kids off. The rent is affordable, right?
Speaker 2:We're going to be able to move in here. Did it look like that, with the little rooms in the windows and everything? Everything was as it is. That's like perfect.
Speaker 3:It was perfect. Yeah, the whole thing was perfect, just minus all the clutter, right, yeah? So I move us into there. I don't even remember what year this was at this point. It was probably nine, ten years ago. We're in our 10th year of business now. Move us into there. And it was again voice, drums, piano, guitar. At this point. Well, we started getting such a demand for guitar that I was like everything else is done, we're only doing guitar.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow.
Speaker 3:So we started with all of the other programs, but I made the decision to pivot and just do, guitar is done.
Speaker 2:we're only doing guitar.
Speaker 3:Oh wow. So we, we started with all of the other programs, but I made the decision to pivot and just do guitar, okay, and that lasted maybe four years where it was just guitar. We acquired the front space after central artists moved out, which allowed the backspace to open up for these other programs. Right, which, which is where the drum program came, came back in, uh, bass, ukulele, piano. I've never taken back on voice but those other core programs, and we've since developed curriculums based on the guitar and inches program.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So I don't remember what the initial question was, but we started with multiple programs.
Speaker 2:Instruments you got it yeah.
Speaker 3:Went to just guitar for a while. Now we're back, and now we're crazy enough to have multiple locations. But the beauty of having a method, well, tell us about your method.
Speaker 2:Like you've got the picks are part of the method, right, the colored picks? So it's kind of, like you said, like karate, right? So you kind of level up professionally with your colored belts and with Guitar Ninjas you level up with your colored picks.
Speaker 3:Right, with your colored belts and with guitar ninjas, you level up with your colored picks. Exactly right, exactly so, it's, it's skilled learning applied to songs rewarded with colored picks awesome, right. So in karate, you learn a skill, you apply the skill, you move on. Same thing with all of our lesson programs, um, and I and I wanted it to to be motivational, right, uh? So every step of the journey, you're learning a specific skill set, and part of that skill set is the musicality of it. Like, how do you count the music, what are the chord names? And then how do you apply it? And then you apply it to songs, and the songs are used to test the concept. Right, and you really do this.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and it gives us a way to grade it because it's based on speed. If a song is played at, let's just call it 100% song speed, as you would hear on the radio or in your phone, we could slow it down to maybe 70%. Okay, you can play it at 70%. Next week, you can play it at 80% until you're at 100%. And once you've played it at 100% and you can count the rhythm and you can say the chord names, you've passed that skill. Let's move on to the next skill, and then it's grouped into levels.
Speaker 2:I'm sure the kids get so excited when they get to move up and get their little pick.
Speaker 3:Yeah Well, we've now taken to another level and we've installed a gong.
Speaker 4:Oh.
Speaker 3:Yeah yeah, this was an idea that came up maybe four or five months ago with a chat with an instructor. He's like we need to have like a gong to like tie it all together.
Speaker 2:I'm like done deal. I'm on amazon like an hour later, so as soon as, and everyone in the studio knows what's happening exactly right.
Speaker 3:So, because I was trying to like figure out a way to create a community vibe, um and the gong like tied it all together is it like when you tip and everyone like, does a song and claps?
Speaker 2:is that like the gong and everyone just stops what they're doing and starts singing and clapping in?
Speaker 3:In theory, okay, in theory. Yeah. What I'll settle for right now is that everybody comes out and claps. Great, that's great, great job it's the same thing.
Speaker 2:It's the same thing.
Speaker 3:But the kids and adults get super excited about it yeah, yeah. Everyone loves a reward. Yeah, yeah, for sure, and I think it's a good way to really gauge your progress on where you're at in your journey 100%, and so now you're building this for the other instruments as well. Yes, we're launching our Drum Ninjas program and our Piano Ninjas program, hopefully by the end of the summer. It's just polishing up a couple things before they launch.
Speaker 2:And so one of your big goals is having 1,000 students, correct that is correct, okay, good for you. You've done your research, I do a little bit of reading, and so a way that you're trying to reach that is through franchising. Yes, so tell me when that started and how that's developed.
Speaker 3:Five years ago it started by again. Get back to the serendipitous moments of things. There was a shop here in Burbank called Imperial Vintage Guitars. I've been friends with those guys for a long time. The owner, shai, messaged me and said hey, I'm opening up a spot in Orange County. There's space over top of us to rent. If you want to try opening a location, great. Well, my lead instructor happened to live in orange at the time, like literally the city that they're moving to that is very random right, we're in.
Speaker 3:So we built a two lesson room uh suite and started testing. What would it be like if I'm not there?
Speaker 3:yeah it went really well. And then two years ago my brother's talking to me and he goes uh hey, danny, who's my sister-in-law's cousin, has space in Glendale he's looking to rent. Sounds like it would be great for you. So I go over there and it's perfect Three lesson room suite, lobby. You know done, sign the contract we're in. So I tested the concept in Orange and then validated it in Glendale, me not being there. How would a location grow right Like, without me being involved in the community or like being on the ground.
Speaker 2:Do you have like managers at those locations?
Speaker 3:Semi. The way I structured the business was I wanted a centralized admin team that could work remotely from anywhere that handles all of the accounts Okay, remotely from anywhere that handles all of the accounts and then in the actual locations we have a lead instructor whose responsibility is just to make sure that all the instructors there are cool and that the location looks clean. So this has gotten us to I haven't checked in maybe three weeks, but about 540 clients right now. To scale to 1,000, we need two more locations, so the fourth one fingers crossed opens in August.
Speaker 2:Where Is it a secret?
Speaker 3:Not really a secret. I mean, I'm pretty committed to Santa Clarita at this point.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's a good space-wise of all the different locations, right yeah so I've been up there in the past few weeks just looking at different spots, but it's important when you're opening a location to not get out ahead of yourself financially, right? So I mean, I know what our overhead is per month, obviously, and going through Glendale and Orange, I know how long it takes to be at a break-even cash flow per month. So the name of the game is finding a space that is kid-friendly, that is pre-built out so there's lesson rooms already built or offices pre-built and the rent can get you to break even cash flow in under a year. So it's a matter of just being patient but at the same time….
Speaker 2:Well, you've got this rate of just waiting and things coming right to you, so maybe you should just keep going with that one. It seems to be working great.
Speaker 3:If I walk outside and there's a free Porsche, your point is valid. Yes, because I've been waiting a long time for that.
Speaker 2:Have you Okay. So another thing I want to talk about is how invested Guitar Ninjas is in the community. Yeah, yeah. You guys are at every event. You're at after-school programs. You're guys are at every event. You're at after school programs. You're at boys and girls club holiday in the park. You're performing on the stage, the multicultural festival. Why is it so important for you to be so invested in the community?
Speaker 3:because the community's everything. I mean like, like, literally the the people of burbank helped me build this. You know, if they didn't come and support the school then there would be no school, uh. And I also think it's good for the kids because these are mostly we present our kids at these events to be involved in the community, to have the opportunity. I don't do them and this is the honest God's truth. I don't do them to solicit new business. We've never gotten new business from any of these events. I strictly do them because I think it's a cool thing to do. You want to be involved. I want to be like known as the music school in Burbank, been here so long and I want to continue to be here, you know. So I just I want to set up the legacy by really focusing on the roots, and I think the roots are definitely in the community events.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and what a cool experience these kids get to have to like perform not just at their school or with their families, but like out in the public with thousands of people.
Speaker 3:Definitely. I remember when we the first time we did Holiday in the Park. I don't know if you'll remember this, I'm pretty sure you were like running the show there.
Speaker 2:I've been doing it for 12 years, so probably Okay.
Speaker 3:So the very first time that we performed at Holiday in the Park, we played on the sidewalk in front of what was Healthy Bites.
Speaker 2:Okay, because before we didn't close the street, then Exactly yeah.
Speaker 3:Right. So I knew Tomek who owned Healthy Bites and he's like, yeah, just like set up a table and like play, yeah, no amplification, yeah Right, no anything. But we were there.
Speaker 3:That's amazing and know anything but we were there and then to go from that to, like the past couple of years where we're like on the bank of america stage and like there's like so many people, yeah, it's just so fun. It's like dude, like this is amazing, like like this whole, and that's why another reason I do the community events. It's like I like being a part of a growth.
Speaker 3:You know, what I mean, and that, for sure, has been something that I've just watched evolve and evolve and evolve and evolve, and to like be a part of that, as like just to experience the growth of it. I think it's fun to feel that you know because you remember the struggle.
Speaker 2:Yeah, where you came from, yeah.
Speaker 3:Exactly right, and it's like all right, cool, Like we're all in on this, it's cool.
Speaker 2:Now you're like headlining the main stage at, like Holiday in the Park, yeah, fun, and having your table right across the street. Yeah, yeah yeah, that's pretty awesome Fun Well, for all the people that are listening and they want to get their kids involved. You guys have some big summer camps coming up, yes second year.
Speaker 3:So tell us Until last year. So we did them last year and it was so fun. Like way different than what I expected, right, Because I'd come at it from like, very, like structured we're going to do this and you can't really do that in summer camp. Right, it's summer camp.
Speaker 2:They don't want to take order, then no, no.
Speaker 3:So what we do in the camps is we start the day off with just musical games, right, and it could be a whole variety of things, and then it evolves to pick an instrument that you want to try, and a lot of the students that attend the camp are students at the school, so one of the rules is you can't play the instrument that you study.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's a good rule.
Speaker 3:So you have to try something different, right, and so they'll study with some of the teachers and just kind of mess around and we do like breaks in between and have various games and whatnot, and the point of the whole camp is at the end of the camp you have to perform an original song that you've written with your band Wow lessons on various instruments and then they do about a 45 minute session with either me or one of the other um senior coaches to play together in a group, right, they have to pick a band name, they have to create album art, we like decorate the whole school and then we do an outdoor concert, um on the the last day of camp. So we're doing three weeks of camp this year, the first three weeks in june and uh, so each week it would be like a completion right At the end of each week there's a show.
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly so every week. Even if you're enrolled all three weeks, every week you're getting assigned a different band, probably a different instrument. You have to pick a different rock star name, Like all the kids have to pick a rock star name at the beginning.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, how fun.
Speaker 3:That's their name for the week, so they have the name badge and everything. Fun story on that is we had one student last year. She picked the name the Suspicious Rat. That was her name. Okay, all week Great. So she gets a new guitar for Christmas, comes into our Jam Club program, which is our performance program, and on on the guitar her dad had gotten the name the suspicious rat on the headstock.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, I was like this is the coolest thing better than a tattoo, right?
Speaker 3:so yeah baby steps, yeah, yeah, but uh, yeah, it's cool, so that's pretty fun. It's like we just try to create the illusion of like we're here for like a party, you know, but we're also being educational, yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, it's like art and creativity and music and you're writing. I mean, that's like so many different skill sets that you're incorporating in it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and it's just. I try to wrap it all in fun. Yeah, that's really the main point.
Speaker 2:And how many students are open in each week, like how many spots?
Speaker 3:Sure, so it's limited because you know we don't want to dilute anybody's experience, so we cap it at 15. It's 15 per session. Most of the weeks last I checked last week most of the weeks are already half full. So if anybody's listening and wants to enroll their child, you do not need musical experience. We will work with anybody. I would definitely go to guitarninjascom slash summer camp and get on the list, because we saw a big surge, like a week two weeks before camp started.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:When school lets out, it's like a lot of parents are like, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh, I was supposed to sign my kids up for stuff, yeah, so it most likely will sell out pretty soon. So you want to get on the road. We'll put a link in the bio of this podcast too. And so if let's say they don't get to the summer camp but they want to learn more about Guitar Ninjas, do you guys offer like a free trial class? How can people get involved?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so there's always a free trial. You just go to guitarninjascom or guitarninjascom slash Burbank and you can pick any of the available times. We put them all up there on the site, so that goes for any instrument. It's a free 30 minute lesson to come on and experience it.
Speaker 2:Awesome. Well, thank you so much. It was so great to learn about you and how Guitar Ninja started and, if you're listening, we will put all that information in the chat and I also have a feature article coming out with all this great info as well, with the summer camps and and um, how to get involved. And, uh, yeah, thank you for being here.
Speaker 3:Thank you and I just want to, as a side note, I just want to say, like, how awesome of a job you have done, like really like developing, like just how you do all this. It's been cool to watch from afar.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thank you and. I get to be part of it. Yeah.
Speaker 3:A lot of respect for you, thank you.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you guys for Bank Business Spotlight. We'll see you later.
Speaker 1:Enjoying the show right now, thinking you may want to do your own podcast. Viberate Talks is renting out our podcast studio on an hourly rate. You can do audio podcasts or both audio and video, and even bring in guests to talk with. We will help you get set up on podcast platforms and start a YouTube channel, and we can edit your productions to make you look and sound your very best. If you are arrested, please drop us an email at studiorentalsatmyburbankcom. That's studiorentalsatmyburbankcom and we will get back to you.