The West Bend Music Academy is deeply ingrained in our community. This week, the academy's co-owner, Jay Tamez, joins me to talk about how they got started, the challenges they encountered as they grew, and their education programs such as the Summer Rock Band Program and the innovative Technology Enhanced Music Program (TEMPO), as well the importance of music education for both children and adults.

• https://westbendmusicacademy.com/

Uh, we've had a good summer. We drove out to South Dakota earlier this summer to see Mount Rushmore and Custer State Park and a bunch of other things. We saw the Dignity Statue, the Jolly Green Giant, statue, Wall Drug the, Corn Castle place. A whole bunch of places. Last week, I went to Milwaukee Irish Fest, then to Green Bay to drop off our daughter and our dog.

Then we went to a wedding an hour west of Minneapolis, and then we went to Door County to pick up our daughter and our dog again, and then we drove home all within a weekend, well, from a Thursday through Sunday. But we're back now and I'm here with you. Thank you for listening to Fifteen Minutes with Fuzz.

This week, Jay Tamez joins me to talk all about the West Bend Music Academy, and The West Bend Music Academy is very actively involved in our community. They've taught many people, young and old, how to channel their love of music. And they have cool programs, like the Summer Rock Band Program. Rockin ain't no walk in the park, lady.

School of Rock reference. With that, here are Fifteen Minutes. I'm the West Bend Music Academy with Jay Tamez on Fifteen Minutes with Fuzz.

Jay, thank you for coming in the studio today. Can you first tell us about West Bend Music Academy? It's part school and part store, right? So you can give us a kind of background of what it is.

And that's where we started, so it was really more of a learning environment, you know, institution. But then, we of course started carrying instruments and other things, accessories. So that's kind of, yep, it's blended.

But also a place to learn, right?

This academy, and at the time I was working at, GW Music, which was here in town, and later on that was, sold to White House of Music, and, we really didn't think it was any sort of threat to our business, it really didn't seem like it was, you know, So, but I did want to find out what it was about.

So I walked in there and introduced myself and I had a conversation with the owner, John, and, it was really interesting how he got into it. It was basically his wife was a teacher and wanted a place for her to teach. So he, you know, formed this company and he, apparently was an entrepreneur and it started, other businesses.

He owned a bunch of different businesses. So anyways, I ended up, later on, I left music and I decided that I didn't want to be involved in music anymore and thought I was going to change my career and that didn't work out so good. So I, I had to fall back in my music career and the day that I came back to West Bend to, you know, just, I guess, start, over, I got a call from this, gentleman and he introduced himself, as the new owner of the, of the Music Academy of West Bend, it was called.

And I said, well, I don't know. I did everything in music industry retail. He wasn't really heavy in music industry retail at the time. He said, well, I'll tell you what, why don't we start with, teaching? You know, you were a teacher. And I said, Oh, that sounds great. So I started teaching and that year I met my current business partner, Rich Roschelski, who also started teaching there that same year.

And I actually tried to talk him out of it. Because it was, it's not an easy industry. It's very challenging. I've been working in music stores, you know, a long time and I knew how tough it was. Margins are tight. He didn't want to listen to me. He just was headstrong. He says, Nope, I made up my mind. I said, Okay, well, then if there's nothing I can do to dissuade you, then I fully support you and I will do everything in my power to make sure you succeed.

And so we decided to, create an official partnership, LLC, and then we ended up, relocating to the downtown West Bend and things just took off from

It's right there on the corner. So, Yeah. You offer a lot, obviously, besides the retail side of that, from lessons and programs and such. What kind of lessons can people take? What kind of instruments and such? And, training can people get at West Bend Music Academy? Sure.

Of course are the big four or three. You have the guitar. That's one of the most popular. We have four or five guitar instructors. I lose track now. There's so many. And then piano is also one of the most popular ones. We have, I think, five or six piano instructors. And so then you have, bass guitar.

You have drums, you know, we have, I think, two, drum instructors. Music. and we have, some of our other instructors are, are multi instrumentalists, so, we, you know, they're able to actually fill in if we have an over demand in a certain, instrument, then they can, cross over and teach that instrument.

But then, we have violin, then we have other types, let me think once, there's a couple of them that, are, are just, I guess band instruments, you know, a couple of band instruments that, I can't remember the exact ones. Flute, I know. I think clarinet. Okay. Yeah. So there's a couple of the band instruments some of the teachers, teach as well.

Sure. But then we also have these, auxiliary programs that wouldn't be defined as just one instrument, like the rock band program, for instance. Yeah, I saw that. Which is happening right now. And so what we do, it's kind of like the School of Rock, but we started out actually before the School of Rock.

Yeah, we started way before, but we basically, it's called Summer Rock Band, and we take open enrollment to our student base. And then we opened it up to the general public though. So you don't have to attend the music academy to be in the summer rock band program. Okay. Yeah. So, we have about five groups that we, we put together, right.

And they go on tour and play all these, you know, prominent, locations. So it's really cool. They play Summerfest, at the, they play the Bend Theater. That's, that's our, end of year performance. We do music on Main.

Okay. Yeah, so we always have the entry groups that are younger. So we have the middle school groups, and then we have, the high school groups. And then by the time they hit sort of at 18, 19, then we gotta give them the boot. Sure. You know, yeah, but it's not like we are forcing them out. They are, we train these bands to become professional bands.

So if you look at some of the bands locally, like Fallback, I know they play music on Maine. I think it's this Thursday. Yeah, tomorrow. They're a Music Academy band. We created that band. Awesome. Yeah, and so, So they were part of that rock band. Band, org, our program, right? Yes. Yes. And there's a lot of other prominent bands that are performing professionally that we created.

So it's, it's really cool how it starts. The younger bands, the, let's say the middle school bands start out. We, we put them together. Mm-Hmm. . Well then they re-enroll. And those, that group almost like, because they build a bond.

Yeah. You know,

and they get to know each other, so they insist on being enrolled in the same group.

Sometimes we have some, you know, because there's too many of one instrument, we have to, you know, create a different group and move them over a little bit. Sure. But for the most part, by the time they hit the high school, because they keep re enrolling, once, once you, participate in the rock band program, you're hooked.

Sure. Yeah. And so you guarantee you're coming back next year. That's awesome. And they keep getting older and older and more experienced. And the band itself starts to become this unit, this, this band, this bond. And by the time they hit adulthood, they're, uh, they're on their way to start booking shows and performing professionally.

How do I, and yeah, it's all trial by error.

Yeah.

Where in this program, you know, we have, of course. Our experienced team, which, I mean, we have backgrounds in performance, in recording, in electronics, in, of course, instrument education. There's so many facets that we have, you know, our team is so high level experienced.

that we pretty much give them the farm and the training. We mentor them, and they just kinda monkey see, monkey do, you know, and learn all the things that we take for granted.

Yeah. I also saw that you have a thing called the Technology Enhanced Music Program online, which spells out Tempo, which works perfectly. Yeah.

A lot of these books, I don't feel like they kept up with the innovation.

I said, you know, maybe I should write my own guitar method.

And then, so it kind of became, it turned into this learning management system. Sure, yeah. Yeah. And so we, you know, we built a website. Yeah. And then we had it interconnect with that website, and, and that was sort of where the ideas of Tempo started, and then when we did the build out and we moved to the downtown, we just made all the rooms the same, because we were piloting them in the old, in the old location, but, you know, all the rooms weren't retrofitted.

Sure. Yeah. But then we finally decided that every room needs to have this, because it is, such a force multiplier. Mm hmm. Yeah. So, yep, that was the beginning of Tempo, and it was funny because, I have to credit one of my employees, Sam, Rodman, he, at first it was Tech, Technology Enhanced Music Program, and so I came up with TEMP.

Yeah, it's online, so there you go. Yeah, well, Sam's like, you know, it would be really cool if we had something that sounded more music oriented, like, maybe if we could put the word online in there than to be Tempo, and I'm like, wow, that's pretty cool. Brilliant!

Yeah. It's online.

I guess through my journey starting when I was young, I started at the age of eight, and my mom and dad actually were musicians. They met on the stage. So, there's a lot of music in the house. And so, that influence helped me kind of decide that I was going to have, you know, a career in music. Well, what I come to learn later on, was that I had a hunch just from witnessing the effect of music.

Because, you know, you ask anyone, hey, do you like music? And most people, they'll look at you like you're weird. Well, of course I like music, you know. It's almost to be human. Right? So, but I love asking that question and I've never had a single person in the past 30 years that I've been asking that question.

Say, no, no, I don't like music. It's not for me. Yeah, no, I haven't had a single one. So I think we take it for granted how profound music is as an influence in our lives. Well, that's one thing, the effects of music. There's a book called, Your Brain on Music. I can't remember the author, but it is such a great read.

This neuroscientist was looking at brain scans. And notice these, anomalies where all the areas of the brain are firing off at the same time, which doesn't happen in humans. And he was trying to understand why, you know, these come about every once in a while, and he wanted to find a link. He found the link was that they were all accomplished musicians.

Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And so he began research into that direction to study musicians brains and what he found out was very profound. And apparently your brain, when, aside from just listening to music, but actually engaging muscle, you know, memory with music, so actually playing an instrument. You are firing off parts of your brain at the same time and developing areas of your brain that normally are not developed.

So really what you're doing is building a super brain. Sure. Yeah. And so it's a, it's a metamorphosis that occurs. Well here's the cool part. Once you go through that metamorphosis, your brain never returns to that original state. So it's transformative. It's transformative. And that's why music education is important.

It is extremely important because imagine a young person going through this metamorphosis and ending up with, so you're actually making new neural connections when you're learning music. And I tell parents that when I'm in the group classes and I'm like, you know, they're learning something and they achieve something.

And I tell parents now, the, your kids just grew, their brains just grew, you know?

You learn those things and they stick with you forever.

Do you have adults that come in and, and learn new instruments, guitar, drums, those kinds of things?

There's always, there's this, sense that they regretted not doing it. And so there's this excitement, but yet it's cautious because they're like, You know, they ask sort of, do you think I can learn? And I'm like, absolutely. . Absolutely. Mm-Hmm. . So I think they're, they get very excited that they can now begin this journey.

And I do feel like, you know, we feel like we shouldn't, we, we wish we wouldn't have waited so long, you know? Right, right. Yeah. But it is very exciting when we do, and we do have a large, amount of people that are adults that come in and, and you know, if you wanna call them late learners, but it's never too late.

Sure. Yeah. It's, yeah.

Awesome. But he loves it. He looks forward, it's the one thing they say that he looks forward to the most each week.

Do you have any success stories of people who've gone on to, bigger and better things, or I guess bigger things as they've graduated and, become, you know, musicians, professional musicians, or, has anybody come through the doors that kind of stands out?

So, I know we have some younger students actually that just won a scholarship. It was the WAMI Cares scholarship for recognition in music. And just seeing that some of these younger people are being recognized, you know, for their potential and their passion in music is exciting. We also have, you know, some of the teachers that we have are, are kind of local legends.

We have JJ, who is in a band called Versus Me. Okay. And they are unbelievable, man. They're touring, they're, yeah, I saw, their videos are amazing. You gotta look them up. Awesome. And we're talking world class, platinum grade stuff here. Okay. Yeah. It's good. Yeah. And then you have Andrew David Weber, who is in American Progress.

And, of course, all the part time problems, all these, you know, local artists. bands. And he's on tour right now as well. So, of course he's like, he's a legend, you know, locally. Yeah.

Okay. Yeah. They're weird. When I was, back in when I was in radio, we did a lot of stuff with Whammy when they were doing like the, they had the Hodag Country Music Festival thing that they had, that kind of, regional contest that they would feed to every year. It was, it was great organization, and like, bringing, bringing all the people together.

You're involved with a lot of community events. In fact, the reason that we're talking today is because I had Buck Blodgett on from Love is Greater Than Hate Project. I know you're working with them at an event at the Shower Center in September. I've worked with you at the, Guitars for Vets at the Bend.

That's right. But you're involved a lot with the community. What, what makes that important to you?

Exactly. It's, uh, so, you know, we often, laugh, Rich and I, like, why are we doing this, man? This is hard work. It's not a lot of money. But, I guess the way that we came up. with a sort of this quantification that, you know, it's not monetary. It's, we call it a calling. Okay. Yeah. And it really, when you see, like, for instance, the rock band program, we have these families that are showing up for these events and we have practices and all, you know, everything involving rock band.

Well, they end up getting to know each other and the families end up becoming friends. So there's community building involved. Yeah. And so, you know, The joy that comes from being a part of something, I think, is, it's like being a part of a team. It's exciting, and you feel like you belong.

And that's, you know, being a part of the community is important to any business, I think, but when you have talents and ability to bring people together like that, directly in the community, that's really important. Yes, music does that. Yeah. Easily, doesn't it? Yeah. I mean just, yeah, music on Main, right?

Oh, yeah. All these people come here just to listen to music and, and, have a good time. Have a good time and thereby also supporting local businesses and such. That's right. All through music. If somebody's If somebody wants to get their kids involved with music, or if they themselves want to get started, but don't know where to start, what's the best way to jump in and start with music?

So I encourage you to do anything you can just, you know, get an instrument first and foremost, or access to an instrument, and then just start engaging with that instrument. If you're a parent. have, buy instruments or acquire instruments, leave them around the house, you know, and kids instinctively will walk up and start playing with them, you know, they may not, you know, maybe it might be short term, you know, just to, you know, play around with it and put it back down.

But having it present is important.

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New episodes come on on Tuesdays. Next week, Maria Gutierrez Gurrola and Jessie Plahmer of Casa Guadalupe will be joining us to discuss Casa Guadalupe's Fiesta Latina, which is going to be two days this year, which is super cool. So tune in again next week, right here on Fifteen Minutes with Fuzz.