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Youth Jam Opens the Future
Well after last night we find ourselves having completed
our 2nd Allstage Eastside Bar Wednesday Night Youth Jam and so far it has been
a great success on all levels. In the two weeks we have done it, we have had
the pleasure of some excellent young musicains grace our stage: Charlotte Morgan, Carter Bogart, M.A.D. (Mason Otte, Dinith Nawaratne, Adam
H.T. Swallowell) Populusque Romanus (Jesse Grant, Queena Liu, Lucja Mioduszewski Grant).
It has been a great experience so early into this and I
can see where it is going to get even better with young musicians coming out to
it. Like many of my peers, when I was 12 years old, the only option was practicing in my parents
basement with my bands or playing Public School Friday Nighters - that was the
"big time" at that age.I couldn't play in bars until I was 18 legally
as back then you were in the Musician's Union and had to sign contracts to
play.
When I pitched this idea to George Karigan at The
Eastside Bar where I do my usual Wednesday Night Jam - he bought into it right
away. Rainer Wiechmann and Ian Hebert, my band mates in our After Eight Jam
band, agreed to it too and we were off to the races - all we needed were
musicians from 8-18 to come out with their parents to participate.
Well, the young musicians and parents bought into it
100%.
The way I look at this is simple: we are giving young
musicians a chance to come in and play on a big stage with backline supplied, a
top notch sound and light system along with excellent soundmen man in Scott
Atchison or Mike Woroniuk, to make them sound like a big name band. The young
musicians get a taste of being a "playing" musician and all the fun it
involves and it drives them to want to be better at their craft - which
instills in them the discipline to get better and focus on music as opposed to
hanging around shopping malls and school yards late at night.
The upside is their parents will become even more
emotionally invested in their child's passion and it creates yet another bond
with their children that keeps them as "best friends" instead of just
parents. Add to that that the parents come out and get a taste of live music
again and hopefully they decide to go out on "date night" and see
some live music in a club like they did when they were younger.
My Mom & Dad were HUGE supporters of me as a musician
when I was a kid. My Mom booked gigs for my first band and my Dad bought a
trailer and drove us to our "Friday Nighter's" after a full day at
work, and for the first few years they did this every weekend. Even now close
to their Eighties, they still come on a regular basis to Bender gigs of mine
and my Jam - often travelling an hour to and home again to see us - its amazing
and I'm so proud of them for being supportive of me for over 45 years.
So pass the word about this and lets get kids out to play
in an atmosphere that they normally wouldn't get a chance to play in.
We do this bi-monthly so contact me if you are interested
in participating.
Blog Author:
Jim McCormick
President of
Allstage
Member of London Chamber of Commerce
Member of
London Musicians Committee
Member of
London Business of Music Committee
Member of the
Executive Board at London Musicians Association
Member of 2017
JRMA Steering Committee
Drummer/founding
member of Bender
Endorsed by: Tee Custom Drums (England), Eccentric
Systems Drum Company, Schecter Guitars
2015 London Music Award
Winner, 2016 JRLMA Winner