For reasons that escape me as my lovely grade school daughter attempts to coax something pleasing from the electronic keyboard, I insist that music be a part of her education. While her earnest attempts are improving—she no longer simply bangs on keys and has progressed to melodies which last two maybe even several notes—I wonder which will cry uncle first; my sanity or my liver.
Then, like manna from heaven, I stumble upon a website which may save not only my organs but will likely aid school music programs everywhere from their budget-slashing demise; www.jamhub.com. The product, JamHub, which its creator, the Founder and CEO of JamHub, LLC Steve Skillings has dubbed “the silent rehearsal studio†and I’m already calling the last hope for my liver, holds out that promise that bands, real, loud, rock
bands—note the plural—can practice within a home without neighbors calling the cops and which can also allow several bands to practice in the same school music room. How? Earphones and a special “hub.†Really. Musicians will be able to hear each other by plugging themselves and their instruments into a special device, a JamHub, so that they can hear each other but those not striking up the band will only hear minor toe-tapping, picking and maybe the incidental sounds of people doing something they love but that’s it. It’s that simple—and that elegant.
I schedule my interview with the East Coast based of Skillings at 8:15 a.m. PST believing that both my tykes would’ve been shuffled off to school and nanny care by then… but foolishly forgetting that Spring Break has sprung on that sam
e day.
“The talent that we have is amazing and I have a couple of kids and know how hard it is to work and stay active with family life. If we’re having a group call and a little rug rat interrupts with, “Mommy, I’m hungry,†that’s okay,†says the understanding Skillings, “We have amazingly talented people and if we were to tell them that they had to be at the office five days a week we wouldn’t be able to afford the gazillions we’d have to pay to keep them,†he concludes as one of my aforementioned vacationing kids hits a discordant note.
Skillings cool focus and elegant treatment of our less-than-professional introduction is much appreciated and likely due in part to his training as an engineer. A graduate of Clarkson University, Skillings worked at Bose for ten years before coming up with his entrepreneurial baby which he hopes will, “allow teachers to encourage their students to study the instruments that the kids really want to learn and perform songs that parents can sing along with. The idea is that JamHub will lead to more parent involvement in the [music] programs, making them more willing to help out with the say, ‘Music Education Monthly Concerts’ via soda and snack sales, which will then enable these programs to fund themselves thus creating this virtuous cycle; play a gig, practice, play, prosper.†Says the logical but clearly passionate inventor and father, aka Skillings.
Despite the countless studies proving that children who study music show marked improvement in math and the sciences, ‘extracurricular’ programs like music, arts and physical education are usually the first to go in a budget crisis. Thus, Skillings’ dream is one we can and likely should support.
For more information on and a demonstration of JamHub see: www.jamhub.com
