Kalamazoo Academy of Rock: Inspiring young musicians to light up on stage

Leading up to today’s Local Spins Fest, it’s another profile of an area school of rock that tutors the next generation of musicians. Learn more about Kalamazoo Academy of Rock and its advice to parents.

 

When Local Spins Fest 2024 marks the Local Spins website’s 12th anniversary of covering Michigan’s music scene at Studio Park in downtown Grand Rapids under sunny skies this afternoon, it will tout the theme, “The Future of Michigan Music.”

In addition to showcasing three wildly talented, head-turning professional ensembles, the summer kickoff event will also feature two teen bands spawned by area youth academies or ‘schools of rock’ (namely, Triumph Music Academy and Red Rose Music Lab), giving them a chance to showcase their talents on the same stage as established acts.

Local Spins Fest also will feature videos of performances by youth groups from area music schools on the big screen at Studio Park, including Kalamazoo Academy of Rock, Girl Rock! Grand Rapids (hosted by Grandville Avenue Arts & Humanities), Byron Center High School (Jazz Orchestra) and New City Kids Grand Rapids.

General admission tickets are just $10, with children 10 and younger admitted free. Get tickets — with a $25 VIP seating option also available — online at themidtowngr.com. Scroll down for the lineup and schedule.

For today’s segment profiling the work of area ‘schools of rock,’ we asked Jay Gavan — a musician, community college history teacher and guitar instructor/band director for Kalamazoo Academy of Rock (since 2014), about the importance of tutoring and inspiring young musicians. Gavan also currently fronts Jay Gavan & The Flying Leaps and performs with The Cornfed Girls and The Birdseed Salesmen.

Local Spins: What’s the single most satisfying thing about educating and tutoring the next generation of musicians?
Gavan: Educating and tutoring young musicians can be extremely gratifying, especially when there are frequent chances to see those kids using their skills on stage, in venues, and in front of real audiences. “Practice” can be a daunting term, but when that word/idea turns into “getting ready for our band’s next rock show,” it changes the game for many. And, the information we get about their skills from seeing their band perform every few months informs our teaching; it turns into a nice feedback loop (pun intended).

Local Spins: What’s the most important lesson that young musicians need to learn?
Gavan: Many young musicians are enthralled by either the glitter of playing onstage with others in a band, or by their technical ability on their specific instrument. We teach those elements at KAR, for sure, but there are loads of other intangibles that young musicians have to learn to really be successful and comfortable on stage. “Stage presence,” as it were, is often the last thing musicians will work on; however, it’s often the first thing–and sometimes the only thing — that members of the audience notice. Acknowledging the audience, eye contact, having your instrument in tune, not “noodling” on stage, singing into the microphone so you can be heard, blending your volume rather than being louder (or quieter than others), reacting coolly to a mis-played note, banter between songs, set lists, etc. These are just a few of the many “lessons” that young musicians learn as they play shows and learn the importance of stage presence.

Local Spins: How can parents — and the community at large — best support young and enthusiastic musicians?
Gavan: By far, the best way for parents and the community to support enthusiastic young musicians is to give them places to play. Today it seems that most venues are targeting older audiences with nostalgic tribute shows. This makes sense, given that older adults have expendable income and can afford to pay for expensive beers. However, there are too few venues that cater to young people, either as performers or as audience members. In a perfect world, more parents would be able to trust their kids and allow them to attend shows, sending along with them the money to pay the cover charge and to buy whatever food and beverages and merch is available. If the community worked to establish more venues of this ilk, or if existing venues could devote more nights to all-ages shows featuring younger performers, this would lead to more bands performing more original, innovative and diverse music. And, they’ll grow up and eventually have older, loyal audiences. In short, not necessarily more venues, but more venues that cater to all ages.

Local Spins: What’s your impression of West Michigan’s talent pool when it comes to music?
Gavan: West Michigan is brimming with musical talent, of all sorts. In Kalamazoo, for example, we have multiple thriving High School music programs that are not only leading excellent and award winning marching bands, but also great symphonic and jazz bands. Each year, thousands of kids are performing music in our community in this way. We also have the Crescendo Academy, the Kalamazoo Music School, Broughton Music, the Kalamazoo Academy of Rock, and many other organizations that are teaching kids to play piano, guitar, drums, and world musical traditions on a myriad of instruments. And the evidence is there for after High School as well, as the WMU School of Music is thriving and producing top notch talent in jazz and other genres. Finally, there is a rich–if perhaps underground/hard to spot–pool of talented local bands and songwriters and hip hop producers and sound engineers in our region. So yes, if the net is widened beyond Kalamazoo to West Michigan as a whole, I think it’s incredibly promising. The challenge for us adults is to help create an environment for and opportunities for–and, really, reasons for–young people to continue playing and performing beyond high school and college.

Local Spins: What’s the most popular instrument among young musicians and what not-so-popular instruments should young students consider?
Gavan: Currently, at least in our organization, everyone seems to want to play the DRUMSET. We have to put multiple drummers in many of our bands, because there are so many coming to us whose focus is on that instrument. Unfortunately, most rock bands have only one player on the drum kit at a time; however, we make the most of it by having drummers learn songs on other instruments or play percussion. And, anecdotally, it seems that far less popular are keyboard instruments. The Hammond B-3 organ and the Fender Rhodes electric piano have been SO INTEGRAL to rock and roll. Similarly, backing vocals are an important part of rock and pop music that young people overlook. Perhaps it’s because those instruments/performers are less flashy than guitars and drums? Yet at some point in nearly every session, our band directors will have to inform a group of two guitarists, bassist, and drummer that that Pink Floyd or David Bowie tune they want to do is not going to sound right without keyboards and big backing vocals. Those moments of realization–the “ah, that’s why it sounds so cool”–are really great as both a teacher and a witness.

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