This weekend sees the seventh edition of SchoolJam, Germany’s largest school-band competition, actively supported by SAE Institute. The world’s largest educational institution for audio, digital film and animation, web design and development, and game design is using its renewed involvement to emphasize the importance of performances and competitions for young musicians’ development and careers. SchoolJam therefore reflects SAE’s practice-oriented educational approach and, through its performance opportunities, provides an ideal platform on which bands and musicians can prove themselves.
Rock Across Germany
SchoolJam is an initiative of the magazines Keyboards, Gitarre & Bass and Sticks. With support from SAE Institute and other partners including VIVA, Musikmesse Frankfurt and the German Music Council, the competition is searching for Germany’s best school bands. Prizes include appearances at open-air festivals such as Rock am Ring, band tours in Germany and abroad, and recording opportunities in professional studios. The winning bands’ schools will also receive high-quality music equipment.
More than 800 bands entered this year’s competition, from which 30 will be selected for the semifinals. To ensure their songs make the best possible impression on the jury, audience and online fans, each performance will be mixed and recorded by SAE Institute technicians and posted for online voting on the websites of VIVA, Spiegel Online, re:spect and bigFM.
The bands winning the online vote, together with additional bands selected by a jury, will perform live once more before an audience of more than 1,000 at Musikmesse Frankfurt in early April. A jury will decide the final winner there. An SAE team working with 301 Studios Cologne under renowned producer Ulli Pallemanns will record these performances live on a 32-track multitrack Pro Tools HD system. A dedicated mobile recording bus has been set up for this purpose and will accompany the entire tour through Germany.
