What can bands teach work teams?
BandGarage is the brain-child of professional musician Tammy Martin and musical professional Nigel Dalton. Tired of metaphors from war and sport, they bring the lessons of musical collaboration to work.
I’m here as a professional musician who also thrives in the world of business, as a team productivity coach.
Look for me on Spotify if you like as Tamma. I am all about the joy of making things, of creating, and connecting through music.
Contact me any time using email - tammy.martin@bandgarage.com
Together, Tammy and Nigel are the core team at BandGarage. We also run The Battle of the Agile Bands every year for business bands to raise money for STEM charity Flying Robot School.
I’m here after 4 decades of working in business, a ‘business person’, who is learning to play a role in the world of the arts, in particular music and rock bands.
I’m more of a Twitter person, find me @nxdnz - you can DM me there.
BandGarage Masterclass
This all began with a frustration at the growing list of ‘THOU SHALT NOT’ team-building activities circulated by HR.
No go-karts! No paint-ball! No laser-strike! No cooking! No trampolines! NO escape rooms!
So we figured nobody could get hurt learning to play a rock song, with real instruments, real musicians as tutors, and a video at the end. All in 90 minutes. Here’s the result of that first experiment with a group of wonderful, willing IT leaders at REA Group.
Friends of BandGarage
As of early 2020, Anthony and I have done 116 mainstream shows, and plenty of side-gigs, and yet have not even got close to plumbing the deep ocean of music trivia, guitar history, or musical dad jokes.
Guitar Colonel
Nigel’s guitar teacher, friend, and supplier of fine vintage instruments - one of the many generous musical people who mentored him from noob to punk-certified (Level 2) band member.
You can watch their Saturday Facebook Live show, Shooting the Strings at 9am each week, or pick it up on YouTube or your podcast hosting service of choice later on. Look for the Rock & Roll Murder series for 2019’s most popular mini-series.
This photo is from the night I first met Kate - shooting for Save Live Australian Music at The Espy. She captured Lonely Planet’s Ian, Amy and Kate with such magic the image is now in the Australian archive.
Grifrocks
A picture tells a thousand words, but some stories are better than others. Currently on family hiatus from her career as a rock photographer, Kate Hunter (nee Griffin) is a BandGarage ally par excellence. Many of the pictures on this site are her work.
Check her amazing website out at http://www.griffinrocks.com.au and like us, and all the major global bands she has captured on film, pray that she makes her comeback sometime soon.
Music has the power to connect, inspire and transform. Like the transformation of the young bass player above.
The Musicians
We thank every single musician we have encountered who has supported us individually, or as BandGarage - you know who you are. Tutors, mentors, performers, venue owners, sponsors, producers, players, fans who paid to see us play.
Our mission is to bring that spirit and generosity to work teams.
“The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There’s also a negative side.”
Here’s some great books we have read about that…
"I think about kids watching a TV show like American Idol or The Voice , then they think, 'Oh, okay, that's how you become a musician, you stand in line for eight f****** hours with 800 people at a convention centre, and then you sing your heart out for someone and then they tell you it's not f****** good enough.' Can you imagine? It's destroying the next generation of musicians! Musicians should go to a yard sale and buy an old f****** drum set and get in their garage and just suck. And get their friends to come in and they'll suck, too. And then they'll f******* start playing and they'll have the best time they've ever had in their lives, and then all of a sudden they'll become Nirvana. Because that's exactly what happened with Nirvana. Just a bunch of guys that had some shitty old instruments and they got together and started playing some noisy-ass shit, and they became the biggest band in the world. That can happen again! You don't need a f****** computer or the Internet or The Voice or American Idol ."
— Dave Grohl, Foo Fighters
Photo by Kate Griffin, @grifrocks