KENNER, LA – Thanks to your donations, Keeping the Blues Alive Foundation donated brand new keyboards to the new K-8 music program at John James Audubon Elementary School.

Much to the pleasure of the school and the community, this will be J.J. Audubon’s first music program!

“Help me give my students keyboards to provide kinesthetic learning of rhythm, harmony, and melody for enhanced: coordination, memorization, discipline, pattern recognition, auditory skills, and academic skills,” Mr. Earle Brown asks.

“My students are extremely excited about having a music program at our school. They absolutely love the experience of doing new and different activities such as music because they love the challenges and being able to overcome those challenges of learning music.”

John James Audubon was formally an elementary school. Now, it host students K-8.

“Prior to this year, there had never been any type of music program offered at the school, so the lower grades, K-5 were never exposed to any type of music training,” Mr. Brown explains. “Some of the seventh and eighth graders had band in their previous school. Most of them did not have their own instruments when they arrived at my school and were not able to participate in band as they had done in the past.”

There were no musical instruments of any kind at the school. Mr. Brown graciously donated his own personal supply of recorders and rhythm sticks for the lower grades. “I [also] donated a tenor sax, three clarinets, and two flutes to my seventh and eighth-grade students.”

Mr. Brown’s level of commitment is stellar!

“My students are truly an incredible group, and I am so lucky and thankful to have a new group of learners that are excited and ready to learn music!”

Mr. Brown’s project will primarily focus on the middle school students. The keyboards will allow these students to physically engage rhythmic, melodic, harmonic, and music theory concepts.

“The students need exposure to meaningful educational experiences to discover and nourish their gifts and talents. In learning how to play the keyboards, students gain an understanding of how to read and write musical notation. Students will also learn how to create their own rhythmic patterns and musical compositions through the development of musical ideas on the keyboards. This project will help to gain coordination, memorization, discipline, pattern recognition, auditory skills, and academic skills.”

Thanks to Joe Bonamassa fans and music lovers like you, Mr. Brown’s project has been successfully funded and students will enjoy eight (8) new keyboards in the classroom.

Keeping the Blues Alive Foundation is a 501c3 organization that makes a donation to a school in need of music instruments, supplies, sheet music, and more every week! Your donations help us keep music in schools, while preserving blues heritage.

Without your support, we would not be able to reach as many students around the country. We are grateful for your generosity!

As a result, KTBA has reached over 66,000 students across America by sponsoring over 400 various music projects ranging from purchasing new instruments, field trips, guest clinicians, purchasing supplies, and updating music libraries.

If you would like to help us to continue to make an impact on music education in America, click here to make a donation! All donations are fully tax-deductible.

Thank you for supporting music education for the next generation!