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A local drums teacher is hoping to bring big 'Beats' to Five Oaks by converting a former shop into a new studio for young islanders in need of a creative outlet.
Private tutor and former Chordz teacher Chris Morgan has put forward a planning application to change one of the ground floor commercial units at Bagetelle Parade from retail to educational use.
If approved, the former store will become a private private one-to-one music teaching room, with accompanying waiting area and desk space.
After teaching at Chordz Music School for the past 10 years, Mr Morgan recently set up his own drum and music production business called Beats.je.
Pictured: In his youth, Chris Morgan studied Popular Music Performance at Drumtech in London before touring with bands across the UK and Europe.
He currently teaches around 30 students each week from his home in Trinity, but hopes that this will increase once he has a dedicated location for his business.
He explained: "The location was a huge selling point for me. Five Oaks is obviously much nearer many of the St. Helier schools and Town offices, so hopefully it'll allow me to offer some lunchtime sessions and make it easier for students to get to their lessons after school."
Mr Morgan hopes to expand his offering to allow as many students as possible to access music lessons, which he says "does wonders" for the mental wellbeing of young people.
Pictured: The current (white) and proposed (blue) floor plans of the commercial unit.
He described drumming as a "kind of meditation", which serves as an "escape" for many people.
"Lessons always have a positive impact on the students and their well-being," said Mr Morgan. "They build confidence and encourage them to play in bands with their peers. We often put on events at local venues for these students to play in their bands and the feedback from both themselves and their parents is outstanding.
He added: "It is not uncommon for me to come across a student who has challenging mental wellbeing issues, and being there to provide them with a safe space to learn, practice, and talk is both a benefit to them and a comfort to their parents."
Pictured: The commercial unit was formerly used as beauty salon.
He added: "I've taught some students for eight or ten years so its been amazing to see their character growth and a privilege for me to play a part in building up their confidence and self-esteem."
As well as being passionate about the wellbeing aspect of music, Mr Morgan also has a 100% pass rate for all students he has entered into graded exams.
With UCAS points being available for grades six and above, several students have gone onto study drumming on the Popular Music Performance degree courses at both BIMM and ACM in the UK.
Mr Morgan is keen to stress to any concerned residents of the Bagatelle Parade area that he only ever teaches using electronic drum kits, which are considerably quieter than acoustic drum kits as they allow complete control over volume by using speakers to generate sound.
Pictured: Chris Morgan also DJs at functions and performs as a drummer in the popular local band, Roodmood.
He confirmed that soundproofing the property is an "absolute priority", to keep noise out as well as in.
"It works both ways," explained Mr Morgan. "Obviously we want to be respectful to neighbours and not disturb them with our sound, but equally we don't want any sounds from the outside world coming into the studio and ruining recordings."
The full planning application can be viewed online, and are expected to be decided on at the end of February.
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