Get to Know Bach to Rock Carlsbad!

I recently had the pleasure of chatting with the team at Bach to Rock Carlsbad. Opening their doors just before Halloween in 2025, owner Ranjith Kumar and site Director Lucas Clayton shared their insights into the B2R philosophy and finding a home in their North Carlsbad location.

When did Bach to Rock Carlsbad open?

Bach to Rock Carlsbad open its doors on October 24th , 2025, and we held our Grand Opening event on November 15th , 2025!

How is the B2R approach to teaching music different than music schools?

B2R has a unique approach to not only teaching, but music appreciation in general. Our organization runs the gamut and leaves no stone left unturned. As one would expect, we offer all the usual options for private lessons (guitar, bass, drums, piano, vocals, etc.), but we also offer lessons for orchestral strings and wind instruments as well as DJ lessons. Yes, we are equipped to hold private DJ lessons as well as group classes. That alone puts B2R in a unique category.

We also have a curriculum and graduation process that has been carefully constructed by the Bach To Rock company. Where most schools will use your tried-and-true student resources (Hal Leonard and Alfred method books), we have our own constructed curriculum to track student progress and prepare them for joining a band.

Our band building program also sets us apart from many other music schools, because we find that people learn faster and play better when working with other students. Our band program is our pride and joy. We love seeing our students make new friends, learn about different styles of music and improve their skills through band. Our bands vary from pop to metal to reggae to jazz, whatever the students in the band gravitate towards. We also create plenty of performance opportunities for our band students’ multiple times out of every month, rather than a quarterly recital or performance which most schools provide.

B2R also offers the option of renting our stage room for birthday parties and recording sessions. We have skilled instructors who can, even in the simplest way, get party attendees to play an instrument and jam with their friends. At the end of our parties, we cut a recording of what the party attendees worked on, and that gets sent to the parents at the end of the day. We like to have fun and make music fun in all kinds of ways, that is what really sets us apart from your average music school.

Tell us about your Site Director and his background in music.

Bach to Rock Carlsbad has been an idea for over a year now, but it really took shape when Site Director Lucas Clayton became a part of the team. Lucas has played music since he was eight years old. He was taught to play blues guitar by his uncle and ever since then, he has taught himself to play many instruments over the years and learned to read music while attending Calavera Hills Elementary and Middle School as well as in band class at Carlsbad High School. Lucas found his passion for teaching and helping the youth of his community while working at the Boys and Girls Club Carlsbad Village Branch when he was 16 years old. He has taught children to play and read music professionally for over ten years, and we are so thrilled to have him as our Site Director at B2R Carlsbad!

How many music teachers are on staff at B2R Carlsbad? Please tell us how you choose teachers and the qualities and qualifications they need to possess.

Our staff consists of a total of nine teachers as of now. They are skilled multi-instrumentalists with backgrounds in performance and teaching. We have a handful of instructors who have experience working at other Bach To Rock locations so they are
aware of the programming, philosophy and general on goings of the school.

We hire multi-instrumentalists particularly to have instructors who can comfortably lead our band programs. It is not so easy to help a drum student in a band setting when the instructor has no experience with drums, for example. We audition our instructors to ensure that they are comfortable sight-reading music on all their instruments and to determine what skill levels they can handle when teaching lessons. All of our instructors can read music, improvise on their instruments, understand and explain music theory and have, or are pursuing, an education in music. These are the qualities we look for in our rock star teachers.

Is there a particular instrument that kids gravitate toward learning?

At Bach to Rock Carlsbad, we provide children with an array of options and opportunities to explore different instruments and find the one that truly speaks to them as individual. But we have noticed that piano and drums (sorry, mom and dad) are the
ones children tend to gravitate towards when asked what interests them.

Please describe your music school and philosophy.

Our school’s philosophy is first and foremost, to have fun playing and learning music. Anyone who has had private lessons or taken music classes in school has had that one instructor/teacher/professor who is too strict, too dry and only goes by the book. Music is a fun experience. Music is a uniquely human experience.

We carefully choose our instructors and train them to have fun with their lessons and really create a welcoming and engaging environment for all our students. We find our students practice more, push themselves further and stick with it longer when they have fun playing.

What’s the best part of the B2R method?

The best part of our method is when our students come together and work with one another through our band and ensemble programs. We know that students thrive when they work in groups and make new friends with similar interests and musical tastes. Especially when there is a performance on the horizon, which we try to create as many performance opportunities for our students as possible here at B2R Carlsbad.

What ages are the kids in your music school?

Our school is for everyone, from the youngest to the oldest. We offer many early childhood classes including a group class called “Rock ‘N’ Roll”, which is a course for ages 1-3. Our “Rock ‘N’ Roll” class is an interactive mommy and me class that focuses on introducing sonics to the youngest of the young. The class incorporates sing-alongs, dancing, story times, games, and hands-on experiences with simple percussion instruments (bongos, bells, chimes, triangles, shakers, etc.) to promote healthy brain development and motor skills.

We also have early childhood classes for students aged 3-6 that explore the piano, ukulele, guitar and drums and introduce simple musical concepts to our developing students.

Anyone aged 7 and older can enroll directly in private lessons—no experience necessary. We also have DJ mixing, scratching and production courses offered to anyone aged 10 and up.

All this being said, we do have many adult students on our roster because our school is for everyone. The way we see it, it is never too early or too late to get into playing music.

Tell us about your spring and summer camps?

We offer music camps at B2R for winter, spring and summer breaks from school. We are currently enrolling for our spring and summer camps. Our camps are reflections of the various programs we offer at our school. We offer Rock Band camp for children 7 and older, we also offer our Rock City camp for children aged 4 – 7, Glee Club camp for vocalists aged 7 and up, as well as Beat Making and DJ camps for students 10 and older. We offer morning camps as well as afternoon camps for students who have other camp options throughout the day, but we also offer full day camps. Morning sessions are from 9 am to 12:30 pm, and our afternoon sessions are from 12:30 pm to 4:00 pm Monday through Friday.

First day of summer camp is scheduled for Monday, June 8th . More information and online enrollment options can be found at www.bachtorock.com/carlsbad. (Scroll down for more summer camp info.)

Most parents love a night to themselves every now and again. Do you offer any parents’ night out opportunities that might introduce new kids to B2R or give current students opportunities to rehearse and practice?

We are working on setting up some regular internal events including workshops, jam nights, karaoke nights, open mics and group classes in the evenings to provide parents with a little bit of time to spend together and grab a nice dinner or movie. These are options that we are going to provide multiple times out of the month. Eventually, we will graduate to holding small concerts for children to participate in or just to attend and cheer their friends on! These are items that will hopefully be implemented as early as January 23rd , 2026!

Do you offer classes to children with special needs?

We are an inclusionary program that offers our services to everyone. We have quite a few students who attend our school with special needs, and we happily accommodate them. Some parents look for music as a method of therapy or assistance in their child’s development, and while we are not music therapists, we do understand the importance of music in every individual’s life. For our students with special needs, we turn to our most experienced instructors, as well as our Site Director, who have experience in inclusionary care. Some of our students need help projecting with their voices and pronunciation so we set them up with vocal lessons, some students need help with motor functionality so we place them into drums lessons, and some of our high functioning students are really improving on their instruments and want to improve their playing so we nurture that and do the best we can to help at the student’s pace. B2R Carlsbad is for everyone, and we mean that.

Tell us about some of the feedback you’ve heard from parents (and their kids) about the Bach to Rock method of learning music.

Our school has been open and operating for a very short time, and so far, the response from parents this early on has been nothing shy of incredible! Our parents love our instructors and are very happy with the progress of their children in this short amount of time. We always get such wonderful feedback from our students and parents after every single lesson. They enjoy the environment, their instructors and our attentive admin team. We have many students who enjoy the functionality of our company’s online app (My B2R App) which we use for homework assignments, tracking a student’s progress, accessing printable sheet music and scheduling/rescheduling. So far, our student count has only grown with a remarkable disenrollment count of zero students, which makes us think we are doing something right.

What do you like most about being located in North County/Carlsbad?

Who doesn’t like being in North County? We absolutely love this Carlsbad location! We love the weather, our neighbors, and the wonderful food that is in our area, but most of all, we love this community and the people who make Carlsbad a truly special place. Many of our instructors as well as our Site Director grew up in North County or Carlsbad. So not only is our team lucky to be working at home, but we also get the opportunity to leave a lasting mark on our community and in the lives of Carlsbad’s wonderful residents.

We love going out into town for events and meeting new people there. We also love working with the fabulous leaders in the elementary, middle and high schools in this area and making connections with them. There is a wonderful and vibrant music community in North County, and we are so happy to contribute to this community and help shape the next generation of players who will one day take over this scene. Being in North County and Carlsbad, particularly, is truly a blessing and a privilege. We are excited to be here for a very, very long time.