Aaron's weekly dispatch
Hi everyone,
First things first — apologies this one's landing a little later than usual, it's been another wild week!
What a couple of weeks it's been!
Last week was one of the busiest I've had in a long time, with gigs on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, three on Saturday and another three on Sunday. There wasn't much time to catch my breath before heading straight into my final week teaching at Anstee Bridge.
It's been a privilege working with those students. Every single one of them has shown incredible courage by trying new things, stepping outside their comfort zones and growing in confidence. Next week is their graduation, where several of them will be performing, and I honestly can't wait to watch them. Seeing someone stand up and perform when they never thought they could is one of the most rewarding parts of what I do, and I know it's something they'll carry with them long after the course has finished.
Teaching has kept me busy from 10am until 2:30pm each day, followed by my M:Tech lessons and a handful of private guitar students, so the evenings have quickly turned into gig time.
Wednesday was particularly memorable. About an hour before I was due to head out, I was offered a last-minute gig at Bonny's Road in Kingston, just before England kicked off. There was definitely a nervous atmosphere around the place! The following evening I was back hosting the Open Mic Night at Windsor & Eton Brewery, where we had an incredible turnout. Considering the sweltering temperatures, it felt like everyone had decided to stay indoors for the air conditioning just as much as they had for the live music!
Thursday I was at The Queen's Head in Dorking. I'll admit, during the first set inside I genuinely thought I might melt. Once the sun began to disappear it became much more comfortable, and we moved outside into their fantastic new garden to finish the evening. It turned into a lovely summer night.
Friday afternoon was my regular visit to the dementia care home. With the heat still so intense, we opted for a more relaxed set full of familiar favourites including All I Have To Do Is Dream, Let It Be and, naturally, Here Comes The Sun. I don't think there could have been a more appropriate song!
Then came Friday night at The Maypole…
Wow.
Playing there once a month has become something I genuinely look forward to. The atmosphere has grown and grown, and there's now a real community around those evenings. One of the highlights was a young lad called Ellis jumping up with his electric guitar to play Seven Nation Army by The White Stripes. He absolutely blew everyone away.
By the end of the evening it felt like something straight out of Dirty Dancing. The dance floor was packed as we worked our way through songs like My Girl, Cry To Me, Dakota and finally Chasing Cars. Those are the nights you never really forget.
Then came Saturday, which turned into a bit of a marathon — three gigs in one day.
It started in the afternoon at the St Paul's School Fair, which was a really lovely afternoon. I got to catch up with a lot of good friends and familiar faces, which is always nice. After that I jetted off to Banstead to play a private function for Allison's sixtieth birthday. I played at her beautiful house, out in her beautiful garden, to all her close friends and family. Another really lovely afternoon.
As soon as I finished there I went straight to The Albion in Hampton Court to perform just before the football started, kicking off at seven thirty and running through to ten. It was a really fun gig. That didn't stop people from jumping up on the dance floor and having a little boogie, or from requesting everything from Daydream Believer by The Monkees all the way to Think Twice by Celine Dion. It was a lovely way to wrap up a physically demanding day. And afterwards, as it's not often these days that I get to go out out, I popped to the Lucky Rover to watch the football with my dad, which I suppose you could say was the cherry on the cake.
As you're reading this, I'll be over at WeBrew in Kingston hosting the open mic night, which is always exciting, especially at this slightly earlier time of four till six. With the weather being so glorious, people will often just pass by and get involved. Straight after that I'm heading over to Woking for the monthly open mic night. It was hosted early last month, so it feels like a really long time since I was last there, even though it's only really an extra week. I'm really looking forward to it. I've become well established there now, and I get to see everybody I've become friends with along the way.
One of the things I'm most grateful for in this job is that every month I get to see familiar faces again, catch up with people I haven't seen for years, and occasionally everything just clicks. There's no way to force it. Sometimes something changes in the room, every song lands perfectly, the audience gives back even more energy than they're receiving, and the whole evening grows naturally into something really special. Those nights remind me exactly why I chose music as a career.
Away from performing, progress is continuing with the projects I've been quietly building over the past couple of years.
Time has been limited recently, but with the summer holidays approaching I'm looking forward to clearing the studio, getting the cameras set up and finally recording a whole series of educational music videos to accompany the books I've been writing.
The biggest challenge now isn't creating the content — it's helping people discover it.
My goal is to build a YouTube channel that shares genuinely useful advice for musicians, while also guiding people towards the resources I've spent years putting together. Everything I've written comes from real-world experience: the mistakes I've made, the lessons I've learned and the techniques that have helped me make a living from music for nearly two decades.
Whether it's getting a better live sound, finding more gigs, improving performances or navigating the realities of being a working musician, I want to save others years of trial and error.
The really encouraging part is that the work I've been doing on search engine optimisation already seems to be paying off. I've started seeing people from across the UK and the United States downloading my free guides, which tells me things are beginning to move in the right direction.
Just to reassure anyone wondering — this isn't me stepping away from music.
Quite the opposite.
I'm simply expanding what I do so that alongside performing and teaching, I can hopefully help thousands more musicians around the world while building a more sustainable career as an independent musician.
It's an exciting chapter, and I'm looking forward to bringing you all along for the journey.
As always, thank you for your continued support.
Aaron
· · ·
See you out there, Aaron