New Percussion Instruments Complete the Sound new york city, ny – Thanks to your donations this week, Keeping The Blues Alive made a donation to Meyer Levin High School in Brooklyn! With such a small budget for the inaugural music program, Mr. Oberlin had his hands full trying to come up with ways to fund his classroom’s needs.  For a first-year band program, the most important materials required are instruments and music!  He was hard pressed to find either. Meyer Levin School of the Performing Arts has been around since 1954.  It encompasses three different distinct academies of students from sixth to eighth grade.  They are called Eagle, Falcon, and Phoenix Academy.  Emphasis is placed on the manageable class sizes and teacher to student ratios. Mr. Oberlin, the instrumental specialist at Eagle Academy needed a hand. He explains, “Unfortunately, we do not have much of a budget for instruments, and some of my students are left having to share with their peers. This makes it difficult to motivate them, as they are frequently switching on and off of their instruments, and aren’t able to fully participate in rehearsals. This is most apparent in our percussion section, where a lack of instruments has left them sharing a single snare drum amongst 6 percussionists, along with a single marching bass drum that is barely functional.” As a graduate of a percussion performance program, I understand his plight of connecting to the percussion section in the back of the classroom.  With limited instruments, it would be very difficult to keep their attention when there aren’t enough instruments to go around. “Even in the earliest stages of their musical careers, my students show an immense love for music, and they all deserve to participate at the same level as everybody else,” Oberlin says.  “In obtaining these instruments, my students will be able to use them in band rehearsals in order to participate with the rest of the group. With only one snare drum at our disposal, our percussion sections does not have the means to participate fully, and our band is sorely missing the pulse of a full rhythm section. In the few short weeks since they’ve begun to play, my students have shown a remarkable dedication to learning an instrument. I hope to be able to repay their efforts by providing them with instruments that will add great depth to our band.” Needless to say, we understood the need for more percussion instruments and supplies so we made sure to take care of Mr. Oberlin and his academy students, thanks to your help! Dear Keeping The Blues Alive Foundation, I cannot put into words how much your kindness and generosity will impact my band students. My percussionists have been making due with having to share beaten and broken instruments, and despite this they are some of my most passionate and dedicated students.Thank you so much for your generosity in completely funding my project. My students are going to be overjoyed when I share the great news with them tomorrow. The ability to play on their own instruments will help me in giving them a great start to their musical careers. Christmas has truly come early for my band this year. Foundations such as yours help to further the dreams and ambitions of students and ensure that they can discover a love of music. You have my most sincere thanks, and my students will cherish these instruments for years to come. With gratitude, Mr. Oberlin As our mission states, Keeping The Blues Alive is a non-profit charity dedicated to preserving blues heritage – yes.  However, we are unbiased when it comes to enriching the lives of students pursuing music education and the passionate, selfless teachers who dedicate their time and efforts into teaching them. Music is an efficient and tactical way of encouraging creativity but sustaining boundaries and rules when necessary.  If more of our education departments in this country realized the tremendous benefits of music education and arts a s a whole, we would be, once again, one of the most innovative countries around the world. If you would like to join us in our quest for music advocacy and save music education in schools, click here to donate and help us fund another project for a school in need.  We assure you that you won’t be disappointed in the results. Invest in our future, by investing in our children.  Invest in their creativity and invest in the activities that allow them to grow in precision but also leave room for interpretation and self discovery. Thank you for helping us keep music education in schools!

new york city, ny – Thanks to your donations, Keeping The Blues Alive donated to a wonderful project in New York City! For Mr. Anderson’s classroom, a typical day in might involve using different lengths of rope to symbolize audio waveforms and triggering drum samples by utilizing the conductive principles of fruit. Who does that?  What’s the point? For years, America has tried to empower the education system to promote higher learning and to encourage abstract thinking.  They want the smartest, brightest students to take the highest paying jobs and solve the world’s problems.  However, as a country we have failed to legitimately exercise the creative areas of children’s minds. If you have ever seen the movie Apollo 13 you will remember the scene where Tom Hanks is communicating to the base in Houston, while genius scientists are trying to figure out ways to preserve oxygen while they are in space.  I love this scene because you see a room full of scientists trying to be creative by thinking of ways to use science, math and technology to solve a very serious problem!  With music and arts, students can access and exercise that part of their brains on a weekly basis. So in that same vein, as a new class this year at Eleanor Roosevelt High School, the Audio Science students have become pioneers in a sense. “They are creative and reflective. They are scientists, but are more Frankenstein than Einstein, pushing the boundaries of their imaginations to understand more about themselves and their places in this world. Some are musicians, some are technologists, but all come together in the classroom to create strange and beautiful things with sound and science. Also, all are committed to learning via STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) as they know what it takes to be successful in the 21st century,” Mr Anderson describes. By utilizing the Makey Makey invention kits in class, students will find their own ways to interface the analog and digital realms. Makey Makey kits are creative apparatus’ used to trigger events and create music instruments!  Students will invent their own musical instruments, triggering sounds in various software via closing electric circuits with the Makey Makey. “Any conductive material will do: bananas, each other, electro-conductive paint, tin foil, old license plates, whatever. They will learn audio software mapping, principles of sampler technology, drafting and implementing planning resources and most importantly, they will have a lot of fun in the process.” Using the kits will: allow the students to work in groups to realize their inventions. improve their lives by exposing them to maker culture in the best possible way – a clearly defined objective with limitless possibilities. allow them to re-use the instruments over and over again throughout this year and for many years to come as students come up with different ways to utilize them. expand their perspective as to the definition of music and how it is realized. After funding the project, Mr. Anderson wrote us a note and students’ thank-you cared are en route! Dear Keeping The Blues Alive Foundation, I try to stress to my students that as audio scientists, we work individually on our creative projects, but we are also a part of a larger community – engineers, musicians, producers and technicians. We can tap into this valuable community as we collaborate, research, read articles and ask questions. I can’t wait to share with them that the community of supporters on DonorsChoose will be helping them realize their creative visions. This will help to further instill the importance of community in their creative lives and work. The tools you have funded will encourage high-level thinking in our class as we create musical instruments that have never been seen before. By tapping into “maker” culture, the students will acquire skills crucial to success in the 21st century. Thank you so much!! With gratitude, Mr. Anderson Music and arts are great ways to encourage creativity in the classroom and to help solve life’s greatest challenges.  Students must be able to “think outside the box” and music allows students to improvise and use rules, just to bend them and create something new.  We can all think of many ways where creativity is encouraged.  “How do we kill cancer cells without harming the good cells?  How do we protect our crops from global warming?  With what kind of material can we build a house, but be immune to tornadoes?  How can we sustain food without using harmful preservatives?” To solve these problems, we need creative thinkers and students who have experienced more than just the text books. If you would like to help us fund the next music and arts project, you know what to do!