By Tom Mulhern
The noise coming from the garage sounds convincingly like Led Zeppelin. You roll up the door to investigate, and–gasp–it looks like a bunch of middle-aged computer geeks, but they’ve got guitars, drums, and keyboards. Isn’t that keyboard player the woman runs the office supply store on Main Street? And isn’t that bass player the guy who just sold you your new car? Yes andyes. And they’re all playing in a band that started at the local music store that sponsors Weekend Warriors, the half-decade-old program that entices musicians and former musicians to pick up their instruments and get back in the game.
The hook is fun, but the idea is to fire up musicians to want to play, and as a side-effect, come into the music store more often and buy more often, whether it’s a whole new instrument, recording gear, or accessories. In addition, the hard part of getting a band together and a place to rehearse is taken care of by the retailer sponsoring the program. In four weeks of one-night-a-week rehearsals, the band meets, works out songs, and then finishes off with a concert in a local club, cheered on by throngs of friends, family, and fellow Weekend Warriors.
In addition to getting players back into a band experience, Weekend Warriors is a good avenue for musicians who never played in a band before to get their first taste of the power of onstage collaboration. There isn’t a commitment to a long-lived band (although one can come out of it), so if the experience doesn’t work out or if a musician feels that they aren’t cut out for the "job," they get a chance to shake themselves out gracefully. The opposite seems to happen almost without exception: Once a player gets a taste of playing again, it’s hard to retreat, and in fact music takes a huge leap to the front of their priorty list.
Weekend Warriors was initially developed by Skip Maggiora of Skip’s Music in Sacramento, California, and has grown to several stores across the U.S. Ideally, a store has a space where musicians can get together for rehearsals, but in some cases it’s impractical. Here’s where creativity comes in: Nearby warehouses, VFW halls, or other spaces are usually willing to accommodate responsible adults, even when they know that they’re going to be "rocking out."
Weekend Warriors is a nationwide program sponsored by the NAMM, The International Music Products Association and licensed to dealers around the country. For more information on starting a Weekend Warriors program, contact Amanda Wood at NAMM (amandaw@namm.com; 800-767-6266).