East London music school believes playing together leads to greatest progress, with co-founder Darryl Powis excited to grow the community
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“If you’re still looking at your hands, you’re not playing music,” said Darryl Powis, founder of Kitchen Jam.
That sentence may sound a little daunting to rusty players or those who’ve never even tried to strum a guitar, but it needn’t.
The music school Darryl and his wife, Jennifer Barlow, founded more than a decade ago is here to help and it’s opening a second branch in Canary Wharf.
Kitchen Jam is the latest business to launch in Wood Wharf, thanks to a collaboration between Canary Wharf Group and Tower Hamlets Council, offering companies affordable commercial space.
On the food and drink front, Mama Li, Nora, Ong Lai Kopitaim, Cafe Seek, Lockdown, Supershakes and Signorelli are all now trading.
Other openings include floristry from The Flower Club, Wayne Hairdresser Salon, beauty salon Awe London, Pawsome Pet Grooming And Spa, The Island Reformer Pilates Studio and clothing repair business Omnifix.
Kitchen Jam, however, is something truly new for the area – the first time retail premises have been used to offer music tuition in the district.
As a kid, Darryl tried learning the violin and then had some piano lessons aged around 10.
obsessed with guitar
“My parents had been musicians in a former life – guitar players – so I was around music the whole time,” he said.
“I really got into guitar at the age of 15, as I was banned from computers because I was so addicted to them.
“I taught myself guitar and bass. My piano teacher, who also taught me some clarinet, came back when I was 15 because he could play guitar a bit.
“He’d sit with me for half an hour while I played and he’d talk to me about music. I did music GCSE, but they didn’t really want me, even at A-level.
“You had to study pieces from the 1800s, and I couldn’t read music or chords at that time, although I could play guitar really well.
“I always had a good ear, so I could listen and then play what I’d heard.
“I just knew it was what I wanted to do.
“I played in a couple of bands in my school. Then, aged 17, I became the lead guitarist in my brother’s band.
“He was older than me and at university already.
“That took many different forms and that was my education – getting gigs and playing to very few people.
“I moved to London in 2012 with my band Neon Nurse, determined to make it.
“We thought retro-funk was going to have a resurgence. It didn’t. In fact, I’m not sure there was really a ‘surgence’ in the first place.
“When I came to London, I played in a lot of bands, although it was all by ear.
“I still didn’t really know the notes on the guitar neck, but people would book me for gigs and said what I was doing was great.
“When I first started teaching, I was really fixing my own problems.
“Initially I thought I was going to support my music career, but I ended up falling in love with the actual teaching itself – seeing people grow.”
developing a system of tuition
At first, Darryl taught students in the kitchen of the house he was sharing in Leyton.
More traditional methods of tuition follow graded exams as a way to mark progress and provide goals for players, but Kitchen Jam goes its own way.
Darryl said: “All the times I’d made progress as a musician were when I was playing in a band – it gave me something bigger to play for, like a gig coming up.
“So, I was looking for how I could give someone a personalised experience and that took me about six years to figure out.
“Once you get guitarists jamming in a room with others – people you may have thought you’d never spend time with – suddenly you all have something in common.
“It’s a community.
“I’ve been using the method I developed for more than a decade and we’ve had adults who couldn’t play the guitar at all go from that to fronting a band and playing gigs.
“Our approach is quite structured, but it’s intended to feel very fluid and be great fun.
“Everything you learn is in context and these are the milestones that unlock people’s abilities.
“We use a system of levels on the guitar so we can work out where people are before it then branches out into personal musical tastes.
“For example, someone might be able to play chords and some scales but doesn’t know how to solo.
“That’s a typical entry point at Kitchen Jam.”
from a kitchen table to a school
With a sound philosophy established, the next chapter in the business’ story began with a new location.
“Jen, my then girlfriend, who’s now my wife, couldn’t believe it was actually working, that I was getting people to come for lessons in my horrible house,” said Darryl.
“I was already using a community centre across the road as a venue where I’d invite guitarists from around the world to come and do workshops for my students.
“But she said she would figure out how to get a proper space.
“We looked at loads of places but the first unit we viewed – in Stratford’s East Village – was the one.
“It was closer to the stations and was a safer walk, so we thought we’d get more people. When we started trading it just exploded.”
Having grown and expanded, Kitchen Jam now caters to students of almost any age with sessions for babies as young as four months, guitar and ukelele programmes for younger children, lessons for teenagers and lessons for adults of all levels.
Darryl’s oldest student is in his 80s. It even welcomes bass players.
“This whole thing is about creating the space for what people want to do,” said Darryl.
“It’s about how we can help people fall in love with playing – with trying to do this thing.
“The first session is free and it’s always on a one-to-one basis – people need to know that relationship is going to work before they commit.
“If you’re a complete beginner, we’ll teach you something.
vIf you’re more experienced, you’ll go through an assessment to find out what your skills are, where it is you want to go and then we’ll formulate a plan.
“We also ask people to go away and list 30 songs that they love so we can get a rounder picture of who they are as a musician.
“They might be guitar related or not.
“Mozart, Metallica and Eminem will all help us see where you may be going and what techniques you’re going to need to get there.
“It also helps us refine what we teach – we’re not going to force a student to learn power chords if they have no interest in music that uses them.
“Through this process, we produce a sheet for your teacher and that becomes the plan when you come to your first group lesson.
“Every class is an hour long and they’re themed so the student understands the context – it might be guitar theory, phrasing, soloing and so on.
“These allow players to build confidence by playing real songs and jamming regularly.
“Our monthly rate includes five classes plus a workshop at the end of the month which is a larger, three-hour jam session based around one song.
“We break it down and play it through. Then there’s space to hang out after.”
a different offering to online
Kitchen Jam also organises gigs, open mic nights and facilitates the formation of bands to give students as much real-world experience as possible.
Darryl is passionate about the benefits that playing in a group can bring, partly as an alternative to learning online in isolation.
“Playing with people or in a band on stage is completely different,” he said.
“You might end up learning really impressive things online – because that’s what gets attention – but they don’t always make sense when you’re jamming with a group.
“When you listen to the Beatles, for example, the musicianship is incredible but the individual parts probably wouldn’t get much attention on TikTok or Instagram.
“Real playing is about learning how to fit in with other musicians and understanding how the sounds are created and work together.”
The business’ latest branch feels like the ideal place to facilitate that understanding.
Fully equipped with high-end amps and walls dripping with mics, guitars, basses and even tools to keep the instruments in shape, it’s an impressive addition to the Wood Wharf street scene, not least because of the hefty (working) Triumph motorbike in the window.
With a drum kit that’s always set up, substantial rugs on the floor and walls painted black, it’s just waiting to be filled with the sound of strings strummed.
key details: Kitchen Jam
Kitchen Jam’s Canary Wharf branch is located in Wood Wharf’s East Lane on the ground floor to the rear of 8 Harbord Square.
Initial one-to-one taster sessions are free. Guitarists signing up before April 1, 2026, will also benefit from the Founders discount, with monthly rates at £200 for adults, normally £257.
Three, six and 12 month packages are also available.
Find out more about the music school here
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