Melissa Knox was a working as a nurse when a bass teacher in her home town of Reno, Nevada, recommended the one-week summer program at the LA Music Academy...

"I played part-time in rock bands for years, but never studied my instrument. I just faked it all along and played songs by ear. The one week program changed my whole view.

Music had always been a dream, and then I realized it could be a real career. I fell in love with studying and playing music all day long at the school. As the week was ending, it was mentioned to me that there was a full-time bass program. You had to write an essay, send a tape, have an evaluation done by a bass teacher. So I applied and got in. Now, I’m halfway through the program. There are only ten of us in the bass program in my class, and we’re like a little family.

I spend 4 to 6 hours a day in classes. We have sight-reading and ear training almost everyday. Classes vary between styles such as rock, blues, funk or some others. Technique class happens once a week.

In style class we listen to bass players who have excelled in that style. For the funk style, we studied Verdine White, the bass player for Earth Wind and Fire. For jazz, we listened to all the people who played with Charlie Parker. We do a lot of theory and harmony in jazz class, too. Paul Chambers played jazz bass with John Coltrane and Miles Davis. Jimmy Garrison was an upright player. His son, Matthew, now plays electric and upright, and he did a clinic at our school. We studied rock players too, like Paul McCartney and John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin.

We have a bass line class where we go over what kinds of bass lines could be played for a particular piece of music. We also have ensembles, so we actually play with a drummer and guitar player.

In bass history class, we’ve gone as far back as Slam Stewart. I hadn’t heard of any of these people before. Slim and Slam were a comedy duo. Slim played guitar and Slam played bass. They were hilarious.

Last quarter, I arrived at school as early as 9 am and as late as 11 am. Classes were spread throughout the day and I would practice in between. People practice up to 6 hours a day, and more.

Several of the teachers at school have bands and we go out as a class to hear them in Hollywood or on Sunset Boulevard or in the Valley. For jazz there’s Lavalee and The Baked Potato, and for rock there’s Paladino’s, The Viper Room, The Roxy and House of Blues. We go out to hear music all the time and every time we go, I hear something brand new.

Being a rock star is my dream but that doesn’t happen to everybody. You can’t really apply for the rock star position. It used to be a joke, but it’s the simplest way to describe what I like doing, which is to play rock music. I’m having the time of my life and I feel like I’m getting an education that can make me a pro player."