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School of hard rock

A class at the Patel Conservatory, where they also teach the classics, is the stuff of garage band dreams.

TAMPA - They have the grunge look down-pat. The bass player wears a knitted cap. The lead guitarist dons untied shoelaces, as if in protest. His long curls drape over his eyes.

Then, the instructor steps in, and the middle and high school students look at him with a touch of awe and a lot of uncertainty.

"Got it in your brain?" asks Lee Ahlin, 53.

The 12-year-old drummer presses his sticks against his forehead, thinking. Ozzy Osbourne's Crazy Train races through his mind.

Finally, the youngster pumps the bass pedal and a sound like a speeding train emerges.

"I'm going off the rails on a crazy train," screams Ahlin, neck veins bulging.

Used to be garage bands played in garages, among the grease stains, tires, lawnmowers and pegboards. Today, there is another option: the sparkling new Dr. Pallavi Patel Performing Arts Conservatory, an $8-million facility with classes in ballet and flute-playing.

And rock. "Tap into your inner rock star!" reads the brochure. No experience necessary. Fifth graders to adults sign up for eight weeks for $265.

Call it the Juilliard School for garage bands.

Students, four to a class, sit on cushioned chairs, as they did in Tuesday's 4 p.m. class.

Teens and preteens are in this class, all plucking and picking their electric guitars with nervous energy.

Most have played instruments before. Parents like Ray Shattenkirk of Temple Terrace eavesdrop outside. A local composer, Shattenkirk wanted his son to play cello and for years, he did. Until, the 12-year-old shared his real dream: to play guitar.

But Raphael had to ace his FCAT to get the purple guitar with flames. He hasn't touched his cello since.

On drums is Raphael's neighbor, Luis Ruiz, 12.

On bass is Max Okun, 15, of South Tampa. His band at Plant High School is called Local Contest Winner.

On guitar: Hayden Kelly, 13, who signed up after he tried to form a band in his North Tampa neighborhood to no avail.

"I couldn't find someone to play music with," he said, braces showing.

And so, he's at Rock School.

The class comes with all the makings of a regular music lesson.

When Kelly asks a question about the A-E-F sharp chord progression, he raises his hand.

"Watch my hands," said Ahlin to his students.

At age 53, Ahlin looks the aging rocker. His silver hair hangs over his face. He hops from microphone to keyboard in white tennis shoes.

When he was 12, his garage band, The V.I.P.'s, played three-chord songs like Louie Louie.

Rock star dreams took him in another direction and Ahlin, a USF graduate, composed music for musicals, including many for American Stage, which produces Shakespeare in the Park locally.

After decades, he still teaches at Paragon Music Center on Hillsborough Avenue. The Patel class is based on that program.

Classes are back-to-back on Tuesdays and Saturdays for Ahlin, which can mean five straight hours of yelling.

"Keep time for us," he says to tells the drummer.

"Four bars of E now!" he says to the bass player.

The goal, Ahlin says, is "learning teamwork," with a recital in early March, called the Rock School Blowout.

And then, who knows?

"Maybe we get signed in 10 years," said Raphael Shattenkirk.

"And cut a record," said Luis Ruiz.