So how did Grab The M.I.C. all come about then? Like most business ideas, it came from sheer frustration. I am passionate about music – it’s my friend when I’m down, my pick-me-up when I’m tired, my inspiration when I can’t think and a fundamental accompaniment to all the good times in my life. Throughout my school days, music was all about what the teachers chose for us to listen to (never what we wanted) and if you couldn’t play an instrument very well you were classed as “not musically talented”. Despite these negative setbacks, I persevered – continued to learn classical piano because I had to, continued to study boring music because I had to and continued doing really difficult music exams because I had to. I persevered because I knew deep down how much I connected to music. Needless to say, in my own time I immersed myself in all the music that I wanted to listen to.

As the years went by and I pursued a career in primary school music education, I noticed how music in schools was still being treated in the same way as it was when I was at school. Not through any fault of the teachers but because it was the general consensus that music was all about becoming the next Mozart or the next virtuosic violinist at the age of three. Eventually, more and more kids began opting for guitar and drums lessons which have been a breakthrough in recent years because at least it is reinvigorating that love for music once more. But in my opinion, that was not enough. A step in the
right direction for sure, but something was still missing.

To fully benefit from the gift of music, you need to utilise the styles of music that speaks to you as an individual, and to most teens, it certainly isn’t Beethoven’s symphonies. Why not then teach the basics of musical skills through Rock, Pop, R&B, Electro or Dance music? The next challenge is how do you know for sure which aspect of music you connect with heart and soul - music performance, composition, production, management, recording, engineering, mixing, editing? The only way to know something like this is to have a go at everything. How is a 15yr old going to do that?

And hence the spark that is now Grab The M.I.C. was born. Opportunities to “have a go” at all of these things in the one place without the pressure to conform to what others think you should do. Opportunities to try different instruments when you know you want to be on that stage but unsure where your talents lie. Opportunities to discover what doesn’t work for you without damaging your confidence – with every workstation having headphones you’re your own critic. Opportunities to meet others like you; to form a band; to learn how to record and produce your own music from others who may have more practice at it than you; to ask co-ordinators with in-depth musical experience for advice. Opportunities to do your own thing, in your own way and at your own pace. No one is going to tell you that you CAN’T do music because everyone is there to
develop a life long passion for music and maybe even carve a successful career in the process.