After the award success of JamPod at the recent Music Education Expo at the Barbican in London UK, we take ten minutes with JamPod’s designer and our Managing Director Dan Jones.
Huge congrats on the award Dan!
Thanks so much! It’s an award for all of us though and I don’t just mean the guys at Mix, this award is for all the tutors and students who work in JamPod sites every day and make them so successful.
Did you think we had any chance of picking up the award?
Truthfully?
Yep!
No, not a chance! When you look at the quality of the ABRSM app and the amazing work our friends at Charanga do, I was pretty overwhelmed just being nominated. To then go on and win was really emotional. I’ve been so lucky these past two years travelling around the UK working with so many wonderful teachers and seeing the effect JamPod is having in primary, secondary and further education. I felt a tremendous amount of responsibility collecting this award on behalf of all those tutors and students who have helped shape the development of the project and who make it is.
What made things even more special was having our friends and colleagues from Gwent Music Support Service come up to the show with some students to perform. We also had many more customers with us at the Awards ceremony including Diane Rivaud from Leicester-Shire Schools Music Service, Ruth O’Keefe from Trafford Music Service, Carolyn Baxendale from Bolton Music Service, Steve Legge from Gloucestershire Music and Sue Beckett from Portsmouth Music Hub. Steve and Sue also picked up awards for vocal strategy and hub innovation respectively.
That raises a question I know I’m being asked a lot, ”So what is this JamPod thing then!”
It can be a tricky one to answer can’t it! I like to pull it right down to the environment we’re creating. JamPod is a trademarked wiring system and tutors desk. By installing this into any room, we create spaces for students to connect instruments.
What instruments can you connect?
Pretty much anything, if it doesn’t have an electrical pick up you can just play it down a vocal mic.
How do the students hear themselves?
Two ways, firstly, when any student starts to play they are naturally nervous, they take time and persuasion to get going. We’re finding in JamPod pretty much across the board if you start your students on headphones, this barrier is removed. Each student connects up their instrument and plugs in a set of headphones.
How do they know where to plug it?
Everything is colour coded, from the wires to the instruments to the headphones! The plan is to make this fool proof…..If I’m playing the guitar which is red, with a red lead and a red strap, where do you think you should plug it?
In the red channel?
You’ve got it
How does the tutor engage with the students?
The wiring system we install runs back to a tutor’s desk we make. The tutor plugs in there. They can then listen to who they want to when they want. But that’s just the start. The tutor can also talk back to whoever they need to without physically standing over that student. We’re finding this removes another barrier for students as any perceived peer pressure from not succeeding quickly is completely removed. No one knows how you’re doing apart from your teacher.
What about if you want to work in groups?
One of my passions is enabling students to work in bands or groups from lesson one so every site is set up in such a way that you feel connected to the other musicians in the JamPod. When the time comes to work in a group the tutor can join up the whole class so everyone can hear each other either on the headphones or on the in house system.
So every JamPod can either run on headphones or through a speaker?
Absolutely. Its vital students experience music acoustically live as well as in the closed environment of a studio.
Differentiation must be much easier then?
That really lies at the heart of what JamPod is about. I could have a group of students all working on individual tasks, I can listen to whoever I want, talk back to whoever I need to all without disturbing anyone else in the group. Our dream was to create as near to perfect a learning environment as we could.
It gets really exciting when you consider I can place a beginner in a group with much more advanced musicians, they can’t hear him so they’re not being disturbed or affected, he or she though is getting a unique experience playing in a band with outstanding musicians. This approach is driving on students in a way I don’t think anyone who is involved in the project expected. JamPod really levels the playing field, it’s a bit like playing golf, you can adjust your handicap so you can play with anyone! The inspiration you get from that is outstanding.
JamPod turns classroom work on it’s a head a little bit. I remember a session back in 2011 in Duffryn High Schools JamPod. A student came in who you could see was going to be a challenge. He got on a drum kit and started really going for it, playing when he shouldn’t and trying to attract attention. But no one looked because they couldn’t hear him, the tutor let him get on with it and 15 minutes in he had stopped showing off and was fully engaged in the learning.
Which instruments/products do you recommend with any JamPod?
There are some elements of JamPod that pretty much always stay the same. Our wiring system and tutors desk IS JamPod but also into that we plug a JamHub. I’m tremendously fortunate to know Guy and Steve at JamHub Corp personally and these guys really get education. Their product acts as the access point for all the students in the JamPod. Into that we then plug instruments. We’ve been focusing very much on drums, percussion, guitar, bass, keyboards and vocals but we can do anything. If it’s acoustic, play it down the mic, it’s got a pick up plug it straight in!
I’m so thankfully to the guys at Roland UK, specifically David Barnard who have encouraged and supported us along the way. We incorporate many Roland products for their build quality and educational features. We also work very closely with Korg Education and Dean Clarke along with Andrew Stirling of SCV Electonics and Richard Llewellyn and Chris Swaffer from Notion Music to name just a few. We are though always looking closely at what’s out there, testing it out and seeing if it has something to offer JamPod and the classroom.
How are schools affording to invest in these challenging times?
It really is a key question. We have unique relationships with instrument manufacturing so we can supply at preferential rates. We’ve created JamPods for pretty much every budget you’d imagine. Where things get interesting though is you can generate income from your site. Right across the UK we have sites in schools and communities who launch music academies where bands can pay to come and practice which inevitably leads to them taking lessons. These activities operate outside of school hours and as such can generate an income. Where schools or educators wish to follow this path we help develop a business plan then support the site as it starts to operate.
How do you support sites?
We now have a team of teachers supporting JamPod sites across the UK. After a school or educational establishment engages with the project they receive at least three onsite training sessions so they get the most from their gear. This is a key element, I believe, to Mix Music’s success. Anything we supply we are going to see in action on site with our customers therefore we make damn sure it’s tried and tested before it goes in! We are also constantly developing and sharing best practice and resources free with our customers. We make this as easily accessible as possible for tutors and students.
I know we’ve only really scratched the surface here but we need to wrap up. What lies in the future for JamPod and Mix Music?
JamClassHD for one. Its unique iPad music IT suite that I believe will transform the learning of notation, theory and composition. We’ve had initial sites go in during 2012 and the feedback is looking mind-blowing. ClassTaiko is my passion and I hope to make it a huge part of what we do in 2013-14.
I sense you’re holding something back?!
I’d love to tell you what we have planned for JamPod but we’re a few of months away I think. We’re going to make it even easier to use. That’s all I can say at the moment! We’ve always known where we were going with this so every site we’ve installed is easily upgradeable when we release what we’re sitting on. We’ve also got some apps coming out late 2013 and 2014.
Thanks so much for your time Dan! Do you have a final message for our readers?
I do. Thank you so much to all our partner tutors and their students, 60 sites now with approximately 50,000 students engaging each week. This really is just the start though. JamPod and JamClassHD provide a learning environment that is proving to transform music education. JamPod provides a practical suite that engages and empowers whilst JamClassHD bridges that practical learning with the building blocks of music, theory, notation, production etc.
We have worked hard for the last three years fine tuning and developing our projects, through 2013 onwards our mission is to emerge from the mists and get to know more of you. We exist to make a difference for tutors and their students because we believe there is an opportunity to change the world. Our vision is to empower all who want to, to engage in music and then give those students the best possible opportunity to achieve excellence. I hope we can share that vision with you sometime soon.
