A new school for young students of music is now open in downtown Redmond. It will offer lessons for young musicians as well as guitar rental and repair services.

The school, called the Central Oregon School of Modern Music, is located at 515 SW Cascade Ave.

The new businesses’s owner, Aaron Elston, 35, was born and raised in Bend and has played guitar for nearly 25 years. Ten of those years, he said, he has been teaching the instrument. Elston said he decided to quit his corporate job to pursue a dream of opening up a local music school.

“This has kind of been a dream of mine, to have a place to bring students together, to bring a community of musicians together,” Elston said “ Not just kids but to hopefully, eventually, one day be a place where anyone can come and gather and play with other musicians.”

Elston studied music business, said he has already started getting students who are signing up for classes. His classes are for kids aged 6-18, and he offers both private lessons, and space for bands to get together for collective classes.

“I really want to uplift the community that I am a part of now. I do live in Bend, but I just know that Redmond is such a growing community and could really use some art and music and things like that to lift up the community,” Elston said. “Hopefully, eventually I can get into a place where I have a big stage and stuff like that. That is kind of the dream. But right now I’m just getting going.”

In addition to the music classes, Elston hopes to host community events focused on songwriting and restringing guitars.

He said he grew up listening to classic rock with his father, and in his early days was motivated to play guitar because of bands like The Eagles, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, and the Rolling Stones. Eventually, he expanded to other stringed instruments.

“Honestly, I can play anything with frets,” Elston said. “I can figure it out anyway.”

Elston said as he got older, he started gravitating toward more contemporary bands like The White Stripes and The Black Keys. His favorite band right now? A bluesy rock ensemble out of Nashville, Tenn., called All Them Witches.

“That is actually what I gravitate towards, definitely Electric guitar styles that are more bluesy and kind of all out rockin’,” Elston said.

He stopped himself from saying whether guitars are cooler than cellos, and said the music someone decides to play is based on what motivates them.

“The idea is to not have a school that is focused on classical music,” Elston said. “You can certainly rock pretty hard on a guitar … I am just excited to have people who want to get better and grow and learn.”