A graduate of Ramapo College of New Jersey with a BA in Music Performance and Production, Rob Spampinato has spent more than 25 years building a life and career around music.
Rob is a professional guitarist, educator, content creator, author and the founder of Rob’s School of Music in Suffern, NY, an award-winning music school that has delivered more than 75,000 lessons.
Since 2007, Rob has been an endorsed artist with PRS Guitars, a relationship that has now spanned nearly two decades. Over the course of his career, he has toured throughout the United States, performed thousands of shows, recorded professionally, worked with Grammy Award-winning artists and producers, released original music and collaborated with major companies throughout the music industry.
His online presence has grown into a major part of his work. The Rob’s School of Music YouTube channel has built an audience of more than 182,000 subscribers, while more than 90,000 people follow RSM on Instagram for guitar education, gear, performances, student stories and life inside a working music school.
In April 2022, Rob added published author to his career with the release of the Amazon #1 bestselling book This Book Shreds.
Today, Rob’s primary focus is building the next generation of musicians through Rob’s School of Music while continuing to perform, create content, record, work with music-industry brands and personally mentor a limited number of students.
Music has been around me for as long as I can remember.
Growing up, my father was a drummer who performed weddings and corporate gigs on weekends. When I was five years old, my parents bought me my first guitar. It was a little Stratocaster-style guitar with a built-in amp made by a company called Terminator.
I struggled with it for about a year and eventually quit because playing hurt my fingers.
My parents tried a few different teachers, but at the time it was difficult to find someone who knew how to connect with such a young student and make playing guitar exciting.
So I stopped.
My dad was so frustrated that I had given up that he literally threw my guitar out the front door.
As funny as that story is now, it became one of the experiences that would eventually shape the entire philosophy behind Rob’s School of Music.
A student doesn’t always quit because they aren’t musical.
Sometimes they just haven’t found the right teacher, the right approach or the right reason to keep going.
By the time I reached my teens, music had completely taken over my life.
I was listening to grunge, Metallica and all kinds of guitar-driven music, and I found myself wanting to play again.
I experimented with drums, piano and clarinet through school music programs, but what I really wanted to be was a guitarist.
At 13, I convinced my parents to buy me another Stratocaster-style guitar and a small amplifier. This time, thankfully, the amp had an overdrive channel.
From that point on, I never looked back.
At first, I tried teaching myself and struggled with technique. Eventually I found an incredible guitar teacher through a flyer posted at Alto Music.
That teacher changed everything.
For the first time, I experienced what it felt like to work with someone who understood how to help me move forward while keeping me excited about music.
I still sometimes think about the fact that I quit the first time around.
If five-year-old me had found the right teacher, who knows what would have happened?
That experience continues to influence the way we teach at RSM today.
The goal isn’t simply to deliver information.
The goal is to connect with the student, find what inspires them and give them a reason to keep playing.
At 15, I started my first band and began playing local shows.
By 19, I had released multiple CDs and performed shows opening for national acts. At 21, I went on my first tour, performing on the West Coast.
After graduating from Ramapo College with a degree in Music Performance and Production, I opened a recording studio and continued building my career as a performer, recording musician and educator.
By my mid-20s, I had secured endorsement relationships with major companies including Dean Markley Strings, Dunlop/MXR and PRS Guitars.
By 30, I had toured much of the United States both fronting my own projects and working as a hired guitarist, while performing and recording on numerous releases.
Music wasn’t something I did on the side.
It had become my entire professional life.
As my career developed, I began teaching between tours and running music programs for summer camps.
After the birth of my son, Jack, my priorities began to change.
Instead of spending long stretches of time on the road, I moved increasingly toward education, high-level regional performing, recording and building Rob’s School of Music.
For years, I performed hundreds of shows annually throughout the private-event, corporate and club circuit while continuing to teach and build the school.
I also continued writing and recording original music through projects including heatedXchange, The Tommyknockers, In Question and Just Us.
In Question has become an active part of my musical life again, with new music in the works and live performances including shows in California. Revisiting that project has been a chance to reconnect with an important part of my musical history while creating something new rather than simply looking backward.
In 2020, the song “Outbreak” was remixed by Grammy Award-winning producer and DJ Dave Audé and received radio exposure around the world.
Today, I continue performing regularly with Just Us, while also recording, creating content, working on new In Question music and taking on select performances and projects that genuinely excite me.
Performing is no longer the entire destination.
It is part of a much bigger ecosystem.
The experiences I’ve had touring, recording, performing, writing songs, working with brands and navigating the professional music world have become part of what we teach at Rob’s School of Music.
When the COVID-19 pandemic shut down live music in March 2020, we had to move quickly.
Rob’s School of Music transitioned to a fully virtual model, allowing our students to continue learning even while the world around us was changing.
Over the following 12 months, RSM delivered more than 7,000 virtual lessons.
What started as a way to survive an impossible situation ultimately expanded what we believed a modern music school could be.
During that same period, I launched the Rob’s School of Music Interviews series.
What began as livestream conversations grew into interviews with some of the most respected musicians in the world, including:
Steve Vai, Phil X, Richard Fortus, Devin Townsend, Nita Strauss, Billy Sheehan, Paul Reed Smith, Andy Timmons, Pete Thorn, Tim Pierce, Rudy Sarzo, Bruce Kulick, Zach Myers, Bumblefoot, Ryan Roxie, Todd Kerns, Nick Perri, Mark Lettieri, Yvette Young, Adam Neely, Andy Wood, Jared Scharff, Jeremy Popoff, members of Living Colour and many more.
Those conversations became another form of education.
Instead of only teaching students what I had learned throughout my own career, I was suddenly able to sit down with world-class musicians and ask them how they think about practicing, performing, creativity, gear, careers and life in music.
What began with me teaching guitar has grown into something much larger.
Today, Rob’s School of Music is an award-winning boutique music school in Suffern, New York, serving students throughout Rockland County, Bergen County and beyond.
RSM has now delivered more than 75,000 lessons and offers instruction in guitar, voice, piano, drums, bass, violin, brass instruments, songwriting, audio production and more.
But private lessons are only part of what we do.
Students have opportunities to:
Learn an instrument.
Join real bands.
Perform on real stages.
Write original music.
Record in professional studios.
Release their music.
Develop confidence and creativity.
Become part of a community.
Rob’s School of Music has been recognized by Hudson Valley Magazine as Best Instrument Lessons for Kids and Best Voice Lessons for Kids.
Our faculty is made up of working musicians and passionate educators who share the same core philosophy:
There is no cookie-cutter curriculum.
We meet students where they are, learn what inspires them and help them build their own relationship with music.
At this point in my career, I don’t feel the need to choose between being a musician, educator, performer, creator or business owner.
They’re all connected.
I still perform.
I still record.
I still create guitar and gear content.
I still work with companies throughout the music industry.
I still write music.
I still love stepping onstage.
I’m also actively creating new music with In Question and returning to the stage with the band, including performances in California, while continuing to develop the next chapter of that project.
And I continue to personally teach and mentor a small number of musicians who want direct access to the experience I’ve accumulated over more than 25 years.
But my biggest focus now is building something that lasts beyond me.
Rob’s School of Music isn’t simply a place to take lessons.
It’s the music school I wish I had when I was five years old.
A place where students are treated like individuals.
A place where teachers are working musicians.
A place where lessons lead to bands, stages, studios and original music.
A place where students can discover not only how to play an instrument, but who they are as musicians.
Music has been the defining thread of my life.
Now I get to use everything I’ve learned to help the next generation find their own path through it.
Learning an instrument shouldn't only happen inside a lesson room. At Rob's School of Music, students have opportunities to take what they're learning and actually do something with it.
Learn your instrument. Play the music you love. Join a real band. Perform on real stages. Write original music. Record in professional studios. Release your music into the world.
Rob's School of Music was founded by professional musician, educator and content creator Rob Spampinato. For more than 25 years, Rob has built his life around music.
He has toured and performed across the country, recorded professionally, worked with major music brands, been a PRS Guitars endorsed artist since 2007, authored an Amazon #1 bestselling guitar book and built an online community of more than 180,000 YouTube subscribers.
Through the Rob's School of Music platform and podcast, Rob has also interviewed some of the world's most respected musicians about the craft, career and life of making music.
Rob built RSM to give students something traditional music education too often misses: the experience of actually becoming a musician. Everything we do, from private lessons to bands, songwriting, recording and live performances, comes from that philosophy.
MEET ROBFor some students, music becomes a career. For others, it becomes the thing they love doing after school. For others, it's where they find confidence, creativity, friends and a place to belong.
We take the music seriously, but we take the student even more seriously. Every student's goals, personality, learning style and musical interests are different. Their lessons should be too.
We meet students where they are and help them keep moving forward.
A great teacher can completely change someone's relationship with music. That's why the RSM faculty is made up of musicians who don't simply understand an instrument. They live music.
Our instructors perform, record, write, create and continue developing their own craft. They're also educators who understand that knowing how to play something and knowing how to teach someone else to play it are two very different skills.