We’ve landed in NAMM!
No not the Nam of the 1960’s – NAMM the music trade show.
NAMM is short for National Association of Music Merchants and their annual show is one of largest music product trade shows in the world. It’s held every January in Anaheim, California, and sees thousands of exhibitors and tens of thousands of attendees through it’s doors.
A couple of days ago, David and I (Jon) left Rockstar HQ for LA to come to see what the show is all about. Two Rockstar boys in the big city. Basically, our objective is to find out what’s going on in the world of music products and to get some ideas from within the music industry for how we can improve what we do so you the student gets a better learning experience with Jamorama.
The NAMM Show is not open to the general public, so we thought we would share some of the interesting things we see at the show here so you can get idea of what it’s like.
Today was the opening day and we spent the morning getting our bearings and checking out some of the major exhibitors. NAMM is the premier music trade show in North America and all the big boys come to exhibit their latest toys. Martin, PRS, Fender, Gibson, Ibanez, Marshall, Orange, you name it, it’s there and then another 200+ boutique guitar, amp, piano, drums and audio gear manufacturers.
Some highlights from the day were seeing some of the new developments making electronic drum kits more visually appealing, new technology from digi design that enables guitarists to play directly into the protools environment and a coffee that was so hot it that it was still burny an hour later.
The best part of the day however was catching up with Andy McKee of Youtube fame. Andy’s a monster on guitar by any man’s standard. His percussive acoustic tapping style is truly unique and a joy to watch. Check him out playing his most famous piece, ‘Drifting’, in the video below.
