Teaching to a very different drummer

In the world according to the Paul Green School of Rock Music, tradition maintains that when a branch opens up, the first concert the new students (ages 8 to 18) play will be selections from Pink Floyd’s seminal rage-against-alienation album “The Wall.”

So on a recent sunny Saturday afternoon, in a gentrifying West Side neighborhood still known as Hell’s Kitchen, a dozen budding rock musicians were preparing for their debut concert by banging drums, twanging guitars and practicing the lyrics to “Another Brick in the Wall.” The carpeted floor was vibrating in the small room and the air was becoming warmer by the minute as they sang:

We don’t need no

education

We don’t need no thought control ...

Teacher, leave them kids alone

Overseeing it all was Green, who has been presiding over such teaching jam sessions since 1999, when he founded an after-school and weekend music program in his living room. The school that started in Philadelphia now has nine branches -- in suburban Philadelphia, and in San Francisco, Salt Lake City and, most recently, New York -- with about 900 kids enrolled.

His unconventional teaching methods that aim to turn kids into would-be rock stars is the subject of “Rock School,” a documentary by first-time filmmaker Don Argott that opens June 3 in Los Angeles. But Green, his hair dark and unruly, makes no apologies for his sometimes shocking tactics.

As the kids prepared for their upcoming concert, he jumped about the small room, coaching, coaxing and screaming, settling down for a moment as Ilana Roth, who is 9 and soft-spoken and has huge brown eyes, held her mouth close to the mike in Mick Jagger fashion and sang the lyrics from “Mother” (“Mother, do you think they’ll drop the bomb? ...).

Green spied two students sitting in a corner whispering to each other and not paying attention to his instructions or the music.

“You two falling in love over there?” he yelled, and, continuing in a mock swoony voice, added, “Oooh, you like sunsets? Oooh, I like sunsets.”

They began paying attention.

“Rock School” is set primarily in Philadelphia and follows Green and a half-dozen young musicians over nine months as they prepare for, and attend, Zappanale, a five-day festival in Bad Doberan, Germany, dedicated to Frank Zappa’s music.

Zappa’s music isn’t all that’s in the documentary; there’s also Santana, Black Sabbath, Metallica and Billy Idol.

Argott, 32, and Sheena Joyce, 28, his partner (both romantic and workwise) and the film’s producer, live in Philadelphia; their production company’s bread and butter is producing political spots. But a few years ago, the two felt they needed to work on something that would get “our creative juices flowing,” Joyce said.

Plastered on walls and telephone poles throughout the city were colorful posters advertising Green’s school, so one day Argott checked it out.

“Here was this 12-year-old kid playing Zappa, stuff he just shouldn’t be able to play,” recalls Argott. “Paul said, ‘You know anything about our school?’ I said, ‘No, but I think it would make a good documentary.’ ”

(Inevitably, the question of whether the 2003 comedy “School of Rock,” starring Jack Black, was modeled on Green and his school arises. “It depends on who you ask,” said Argott. “Bottom line is, we have the real thing.”)

The cameras started to roll in January 2003, four or five days after Green and Argott met. For financing, “we maxed out on credit cards and borrowed from Don’s family and my family,” said Joyce; music rights brought the cost from an initial $40,000 up to $200,000.

“I’d shoot for four hours and I couldn’t believe the footage we were getting,” said Argott, who shot 120 hours in all. “The characters, the candor, the personalities.”

There’s Madi, a talented musician whom Green teases for being a Quaker, who plays guitar and keyboard and sings. And C.J., on guitar, who practices and practices and practices. Both are now attending the Berkeley School of Music in Boston. (Although Green’s school hasn’t been in operation long enough for anyone to emerge a star, these two seem well on their way.) Will is a self-reflective, often depressed teen who plays bass guitar. Asa and Tucker, 9-year-old twins who are the sons of a punk-rock mom and play drums and guitar, alternate between a Zen-like tranquillity and banging away at heavy metal music.

And, of course, there is their teacher.

“Every time we showed Paul being a total jerk, we followed it by him being a good guy,” said Joyce. “He’s genuinely invested in those kids.”

“Believe it or not, no one’s complained,” Green said when someone asked whether parents take issue with his tough-love, guerrilla-style teaching tactics.

On the contrary. Green is “perfect for the job, a high-energy type of guy,” said Richard Roth, Ilana’s dad. They first saw Green and his students perform in New York in late December, at a time when he was thinking about enrolling Ilana in music classes. “My daughter loves it.”

Back in the classroom, Green began screaming “Stop, stop, stop” at his budding rock-’n’-rollers as they battled away at Pink Floyd. “This is too chaotic. Here it should be just acoustics and bass,” he explained.

“Paul is scary and funny,” said Ilana, taking a break. “Last week he took his shirt off ‘cause we weren’t singing.” (Green is a bit portly.)

“He’s a little crazy,” Ilana added.

A few minutes later, Green threatened to tell the students about his first sexual experience.

The spontaneous eye-rolling and groans that welled up needed no orchestrating.