Rob Melton wanted so badly to be a rock star.
He was a little kid in Pocatello, Idaho, when he started taking music lessons. He fell in love fast and started hunting for a music school or teacher with the real-world connections to get him some real gigs, some sort of venue where he could jam in front of people for real, not just regurgitate material for an instructor.
“But I never found that,” he said, not even after he moved to Clark County at age 16.
He did play in his own bands in the late 1980s and 1990s, and he moved to Los Angeles to break into the songwriting business, but eventually returned home and went back to school at Portland State University, where he earned a master’s degree in teaching music.
“I knew I wanted to create a school like the school I wished that I would have had,” he said.
Melton’s first Opus School of Music opened in Ridgefield almost a decade ago, and the dream he missed as a kid is fully front and center there, he said.
“We have something called the Jam Band. Everybody in the school is a member of the Jam Band. As soon as you sign up for lessons, you’re in the band,” he said.
In addition to their individual instruction sessions, instructors and Jam Band members come together to work up a handful of straightforward, popular songs that aren’t too tough to take from rehearsal room to stage — and are pretty guaranteed to get an audience revved up. The current top of those pops includes “Three Little Birds” by Bob Marley, “We’re Going to be Friends” by Jack White, “Brown Eyed Girl” by Van Morrison and African classic “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” Melton said.
He lines up a gig or two per month — school carnivals, outdoor festivals, business openings — and spreads the word among students and parents that the upcoming Jam Band gig will need this many guitars and that many horns. He’s usually aiming for a group of no more than a dozen. Everybody gets a solo, Melton said.
“For some of them, it’s their very first time performing,” he said. “Some of the older kids have more skills and go on to form their own bands. They get really good, but we want immediate gratification for the ones just starting out.”
Melton added that it’s lovely when former students return to rejoin the Jam Band on occasion.
“Just show up,” he said. “If you’ve been in the Jam Band, you’re a lifetime member.”
Now, east county kids and grown-ups who are eager to master music and join the jamming will have an easier time of it. On Monday, Melton will open a new branch of Opus School at 726 N.E. Second Ave. in Camas in a classic older home that was recently a consignment store. The place was already a network of tiny rooms and perfect for music instruction, Melton said. He has added sound reinforcement, and upgraded a reception area and lounge where students are welcome to hang out, he said.
Now Melton, 45, is eager to hear from east county businesses and other organization looking for talented young people who will add music to events for little or nothing, he said. Visit www.opusschoolofmusic.com to learn more.
“These are students who want to play, and they’re getting really good. And many times, it’s free.”
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