06/10/2026
Hey it’s John Kern for those who may not know I co-own Beachwood Music with my partner John Hawes
Here is the story behind a cool program that we are bringing back
Way back in the 1990’s while teaching bass guitar
at Toms River Music I would constantly run late and because of sitting all day
I was gaining weight
At Christmas time the parents would bring in plates of cookies brownies those turtle things OMG I was becoming a fat bastard
anyway the drum teacher at the time was thin and said it was because he’s always active playing drums
So I asked the owner John if I could put an electric drum set in my room he said go ahead
I figured
I’ll jam drums against the student and get my activity up
Game changer
When you teach lessons 30 min each back to back it’s inevitable that you’re going to run late because of either you or a student or just trying to make sure they “ get it “ before they leave
And sometimes parents would be upset that i would be running 10-15 min late by the end of the day lol
So because I had the drums I would let the next student in and we would jam and combine the two lessons
This was magic because the kids never wanted to leave
& they practiced more at home so that they wouldn’t let the others down
The parents that used to drop & shop
would (understandably)be upset with me at the lateness’
I’d get scolded lol
but when I had the kids jam together their child was begging to stay and the parents (who previously scolded me) would be like is this ok with you John ???
lol
The jamming became so popular that we eventually made it its own separate program “JAM CAMP”
The new Drum teacher John Hawes started helping out and became a thankless partner in it as did countless others along the way
We would rehearse 4-6 times (1 hour sessions) and play a show
crazy fun with the kids
they ate it up
We held a sign up orientation day
300 people showed up and the store mgr started yelling at me
I said there are 300 people here and you’re yelling at me
…you should sell hot dogs to them
Eventually other music schools started panicking because their students were coming to us to do JAM CAMP
One store/school even sent a spy to sign up for lessons just to ask me JAM CAMP questions
lol
He said he wtd to learn theory and that I was a “guru “…
I said wait a min bro you teach don’t you ?…
he said yeah “I just was sent over here to find out about jam camp” lmao
I told him (as I would anyone) exactly how to do it
Our price was the same as a month of lessons
$72 at the time
After the summer Jam Camp was over a lot of the bands wtd to keep playing and due to the lack of venues we would have other events like “battle of the bands” to give them more opportunities to play
One time 31 bands showed up to play and we put them all on ALL OF THEM
MTV heard about it through some students that were participating & came down and videoed it and we wound up being on a show called “made” Crazy
We did Jam Camp from 1998 -2014
Soon a lot of places were doing it year round and charging 3-500 a month unreal lol
There was even a movie that helped popularize this concept
I ain’t saying I’m jack black
But everybody knows everybody
I won’t name drop but SO MANY of our former jam camp participants went on to do and are continuing to do amazing things musically
I’m super proud to have been a part of their musical journey
Now it’s time to dust it off and bring it back
We are doing it this year !!
If you are interested please contact our drum instructor & coordinator
Siobhan Godsil-Lehmann 732-948-9672
for more info
Thank You All
Please feel free to post some jam camp pix
from years gone by
