Ash Thoms

It’s simpler to list the instruments that Ashley can’t play: anything that uses a bow.

A singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist since the late 80’s, Ashley Thoms has been teaching music since 1996, and joined the Jam School family in September of 2010. After her education in Recorded Music Production at Fanshawe College, and concurrent with her education in Political Science and History at Trent University, she spent the next ten years teaching, writing, producing, touring, and performing mainly as a solo blues artist across Ontario,and as far away as Minneapolis, Cleveland, Halifax, Montreal, and New York City.

Currently, Ashley plays bass, keys, and backup vocals for local Guelph band, Buzz Kings, having released their second album, Truth Lies, which contains a number of Ashley’s original songs.

Ashley’s main drive for music education is for her students to understand their playing on a deeper level than rote memorization and copying. Music theory is far more accessible than people generally think, and Ashley loves teaching students to teach themselves using simple-to-understand music concepts like harmony and song structure.

With a background in a wide spectrum of musical forms (including blues, jazz, classical, musical theatre, rock, swing/big band) and with a variety of musical instruments, Ashley excels at encouraging self-sufficiency in musicians, as well as developing a lifelong love of music in others.