AMS Birmingham

Thanks man!

JamesBass, the issue with audition standards is being worked over during the summer break, but thank you for raising it. To be honest this part of the recruitment process wasn't marshalled well enough by head office at the beginning of our Degree provision in 2009, so each manager established a system of their own. I know that doesn't paint a good picture, but I can say hand on heart that I wouldn't accept anyone under qualified onto the Birmingham performance programmes. It's a shame we couldn't help you out when you were making your choice. As for BIMM, ACM, ICMP, Tech Schools, they're a fair way ahead of us at the moment. My ambitions are to reach their standards though. We're definitely getting there!

I'm grateful to all of you for taking the time to communicate your thoughts. I'm taking on board something from everyone I think! Thank you for your kindness and sound advice. Cheers! David

I like that and will use it. Have a good weekend all. Thanks for your input.

Oddly enough we have converted a couple of guitarists into tidy bass players over my 6 years in the job, but it's a rare thing. Nice idea though. I'll think of a way to badge it and give it a go!

Loving your work there fretmeister! I'll look up the Northampton Music & Performing Arts Trust. We have a student from Brackley studying here at the moment, with three more interested for September. We could really use some drummers for our Degree too if you know of any great ones who are feeling lost after their A levels!

Thanks Matt. Glad I'm not the only one struggling! There's an outside chance we could open in the North West before too long, so the invitation to send info will be taken up with enthusiasm if/when that time comes! We have Professional Music Technology and Hobgoblin down here, both of which run their own lessons, so it's tough to get them to back us. I think an event in house might work. We're running a mini festival in the centre on June 21st and our bass tutor Dave Storer is putting on a clinic as part of it. Hopefully that will be attractive to a few!

I'll go for that CamdenRob. A bit of queue bothering never did anyone any harm!

Thank you John. Facebook has been a healthy source for us following up student referrals, but I haven't really delved deep into bass forums on there. I'll get to work. Any suggestions for ones to go for? Thank you for your advice and help. Best wishes, David

You're right of course. I always tell any young bass player that their odds of success as a session musician are better than those of the average guitarist or singer, simply due to the ratio of people to opportunity. That usually switches on a lightbulb in their head, so to speak. I think maybe I/we at the Academy need towork harder on providing earlier years tuition, so free weekend band workshops and the like. We're up for that, but my focus right now is filling our BTEC for September, so I need a short term fix. Thanks for your input and time.

Thank you JamesBass. We have had some success face-to-face at gigs, so naturally we'll keep on doing that. We also pay referral fees to our own students if they recommend a friend (better a 17 year old approaches a 16 year old than I guy in his late 30s I think!). I guess I'm really asking whether there are any online places (alongside Basschat) that are worth us using to promote ourselves?

I run one of the 8 branches of the Academy of Music and Sound, a contemporary music school running Performance and Music Tech BTECs for ages 16+ and Degrees for 18+. My question to the wise is where on earth to seek out new bass playing talent. In our 12 years working so far, it has always been an enormous struggle to find bass players about to finish GCSEs. We've exhausted the school careers fair route, sent flyers galore, run open events and attended countless battle of the bands/open mics for under 18s; but the cupboard is invariably bare. ANY ideas would be most welcome! I run the Birmingham branch. Thanks, David CENTRE MANAGER