About us

The story of KitchenJam, as told by founder Darryl Powis

Like many young, aspiring musicians, I moved to London with a band and shared a house in Leyton, but one problem stood in the way of making music and playing gigs: rent was expensive. I got a job, but it left me no time for the music I came to London to make. I felt my guitar skills were deteriorating, so I quit that job and started teaching guitar instead.

Some of the very first lessons I taught were in my kitchen in that house in Leyton. People were really into it — the lessons would spread across the house from the kitchen into the living room too, much to the joy of my housemates at the time. There were nights where tons of people would turn up.

One Wednesday night, twelve people came to jam some Foo Fighters, and I thought, “whoa, this is getting out of hand!” That’s when we started doing community events, and it became as much about us hanging out together, having fun with friends, and getting up to some silly antics, as it was about the guitar lessons themselves.

It all started in the kitchen

a new home in stratford

After a few years, our kitchen community moved to a home in Stratford. In December 2016, we signed the lease for a space on Penny Brookes Street, got the build done, and we were off. We opened the school the following January as Guitar Tuition East London, and suddenly we had a committed community forming around us with people coming in for lessons every day. 

I have memories of some brilliant open mics from back then, and one particularly wild Christmas party. It was the only one we ever did in that space, because it was absolutely heaving. It was bonkers; everyone stood up, inching around each other. We had fifty or sixty people in that room at the same time, and we tried to get everyone across the school to play songs together.

Aside from our growing community of amazing students, the KJ team grew, too. That spring, Dan joined us as a teacher, and a little later, in late summer, Carys joined too. Dan brought with him the full legitimacy of being an incredible guitar player, someone who could not only really shred on the guitar, but apply himself to any style. Carys trained as a teacher and taught adult beginners, and later, Barry, who'd joined us as a student taking lessons in my kitchen, also trained as a teacher and came on board.

Every day we'd come into the school early and practice our teaching, and then in the evenings we'd all teach, or greet students or parents in the reception, sit outside talking to people in the lobby and make tea; just having a great time. 

We had our monthly workshops and a gig every three months, just as we do now. We would pack out these tiny venues with about 150 people all crammed next to each other. What started as people playing bits of songs grew into a community where people turn up and play really quite complex pieces of music; we even had kids play them, too. These performances became a real event to look forward to in people's calendars.

coming back strong

after covid

The school kept growing into 2019, and that year, we had our first-ever big annual recital, the inaugural Big Gig, a proper show with session musicians. But then in 2020, obviously, we couldn't do it…

Like everyone else, we were thrown into the world of Zoom calls, and we spent two years teaching through on-and-off video classes, but it was incredible. 80% of the students who'd been with us before the lockdown stuck with us through the whole thing, and we came out of the whole ordeal relatively unscathed. By 2022, everyone was allowed back out of the house and full steam ahead with our community again, right through to 2023 and 2024. 

We revamped the school in every aspect — we repainted, gave everything a fresh look, reassessed how we taught lessons, and our annual recitals moved into bigger venues along the way. In 2019 they were held at the school itself, and 2021 through 2024 they were all at The Print House at Jim & Tonic East.

becoming kitchenjam

2025 marked the biggest changes in our journey thus far. We had our first gig with the incredible live music venue and restaurant, Soul Mama, and that same year we also changed our name from Guitar Tuition East London to KitchenJam, a celebration of what sets us apart from other guitar lessons and a nod to the place where it all began — those very first lessons that took place in my home, made special by jamming and playing together. 

And now, in 2026, we've opened our second location in Canary Wharf. It’s our first step out of Stratford, and ironically, it makes us a little more like Guitar Tuition East London than we ever had been. We're excited about what having two sites brings: the opportunities for students to move between them, holding gigs and events between the two spaces, and really blending those communities. Ultimately, we’re excited to create a space for people who just want to play music, get good at jamming, and become great musicians.