FLAGSTAFF, AZ – Thanks to your donations, Keeping the Blues Alive Foundation donated a classroom set of ukuleles, percussion instruments, a guitar, and mandolin to the music students at Peak School in Flagstaff, AZ! “The students at our school need support from our community and are very eager to work hard to succeed!” says Mrs. Blickhahn, a first-year teacher at Peak School. “This will be my first year teaching 7th/8th grade and I will teach all subjects. The students have been very welcoming since I signed my contract at the end of the school year, and I can’t wait to get started. I am also a mother of four and I want to get a little support so I can afford all of these projects this year.” Much to our dismay, teachers like Mrs. Blickhahn are still paying out-of-pocket for the supplies they need in order to achieve the benchmark goals they have set for their music classrooms. “The students would benefit from having access to musical instruments in the general education classroom.” she explains. “They do not have music class everyday, and this would help them to build their skills and learn to play instruments and sing together. Teaching children to play instruments, sing, and to learn to read music is very important. It is slowly becoming less common in schools. I love to play instruments and would like to share this with my students. I am particularly fond of teaching middle school students to play ukulele and string instruments. I am a general subject middle school teacher, and I would love to bring as much art and music into the curriculum as possible. I would also like to begin leading a ukulele club.”  Thanks to the generosity of Joe Bonamassa fans and music lovers like you, Keeping the Blues Alive Foundation was able to successfully donate these instruments and provide a reliable foundation upon which to grow from.  Mrs. Blickhahn expresses her gratitude: Thank you from The PEAK School! Today was the first day of my very first teaching contract. I have been going to school, working part time as a substitute, and raising my four daughters. The news that my project was funded came today on my first day and I’m so excited I could cry! This a dream come true! I can only imagine the opportunities that this may open for these students. What a blessing this is for us all! Thank you very much from all of us at The PEAK School. 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 donation helps 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.  To date, KTBA has reached over 63,000 students by sponsoring over 400 various music projects! The journey has been incredible! If you would like to help us to continue to grow, click here to make a donation! All donations are fully tax-deductible! Thank you for keeping music education in schools!

KTBA Donates Acoustic Guitars to Gallego Intermediate Fine Arts School! School Name – Gallego Intermediate Fine Arts School Teacher Name: Mr. Hayashi TUCSON, AZ – Thanks to your donations, KTBA donated three (3) new acoustic guitar packages to the music program at Gallego Intermediate Fine Arts School! “My students are in a district with low income demographics,” Mr. Hayashi explains. Although I teach fourth through eighth grade at this school, the class for which I am hoping to receive funding is comprised of the middle school grades, six through eight.” “Although my students are generally from economically disadvantaged homes, their attitudes are certainly not disadvantaged; they have a healthy desire for learning and creativity. We are a music class that is part of an outreach program through the local university. This outreach program has 28 other classes just in this city alone. (There are other classes in three other states.) Our class progress is far ahead of any other class in the program curriculum and the program supervisors are quite impressed. My students enjoy learning and enjoy being a part of a creative outlet,” Hayashi adds. Their success in the music classroom translates to success in other classes as well. This correlation is crucial when attempting to receive funding for music projects. “My students are AMAZING. They, in spite of our need for better equipment and in spite of them living in sometimes trying circumstances, are leaders in their program. In the 28 similar programs under the auspices of our local university, our talented classical guitar class is far ahead of any class in the curriculum progress. They have done this with some guitars that are damaged, and some students play with guitars that are too small for them. We have been the grateful recipients of the limited funds from our school district, and from donors in our community. Three more new full sized guitars and protective bags will finally fulfill our needs for this year.” By funding this project, KTBA has empowered students who needed the proper tools to express their creativity, develop patience, develop the ability to reach long-term goals, and foster collaborative team work. “The students come to class every day, they learn to tune their guitars, play exercises together that develop technique, and learn repertoire that encompasses traditional folk songs to Mozart and Bach to multicultural pieces. It is more difficult to accomplish these things when the instrument is too small. This highly affects technique, which in classical guitar, is coordinating a bass or melody line with the thumb while playing the melody line or the harmony with the other fingers of the hand. Size of the guitars affects the detailed distances that affect coordination, posture, and arm and hand placement. A properly sized guitar would enhance their learning and progress.” Thanks to the generosity of Joe Bonamassa fans and music lovers like YOU, Keeping the Blues Alive Foundation was able to fund Mr. Hayashi’s music project. Mr. Hayashi expresses his gratitude: Dear Keeping The Blues Alive Foundation, Inc., THANK YOU!!!! THANK YOU!!!! THANK YOU!!!! Wow! We so appreciate your generous contribution that funded the whole project! I cannot wait to inform my students tomorrow. They will be so excited that the whole class will have proper instruments of the correct size on which to learn. There will no longer be a friendly competition race to the classroom to get a full size guitar! With gratitude, Mr. Hayashi 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 donation helps us to 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. To date, KTBA has reached over 60,000 students. If you would like to help us to continue to grow, click here to make a donation! All donations are fully tax-deductible! Thank you for keeping music education in schools!

Students Take Musical Journey Around the World Thanks to your donations this week, Keeping the Blues a Alive Foundation donated a slew of instruments in Chandler, Arizona! Most of the supplies included a Continents of the World photo book series, a world map, arts and crafts materials including pom poms, feathers, craft sticks, and glitter, in addition to a music around the world CD to make instruments from each of the seven continents of the world. Students will be taken on a journey to the seven continents of the world. While studying the culture of each continent students will create a model that resembles an instrument from each area. The goal of each model will be to produce a sound that is similar to the actual instrument. The school music teacher caters to 20 English language learners who are in the third grade. They are a self-contained class that has a lot of fun learning and playing together. School is a safe place for them to grow as new citizens of this country.  They learn cultural etiquette and social paradigms. They learn about collaboration and compromise. Additionally, students are very much challenged by their living conditions at home. Some students are from migrant families. These children are required to help their family make money after school and don’t have time to do anything else. Some students live in trailers with as many as three other families living with them at the same time. Last, most of the students’ parents don’t speak English at home, so they have a hard time helping with homework and school projects. The first social studies unit of the year will be studying the seven continents of the world. They will analyze music, dance, food, clothing and customs of each area. Then the students will bring the lessons to life by creating a model of a musical instrument from each continent. Music provides a unique identity for each continent. Over thousands of years each continent evolved its own unique musical instruments. Students will study the structure of the instruments then create a modern day model. In Europe the students will create bagpipes. In North America students will create maracas. The Cajon will represent South America. Everyone will then create clap sticks from Africa. Next the students will make didgeridoos from Australia. The Dizi flute will represent Asia. Finally skin drums will represent Antarctica. Appreciation of other cultures leads to ultimately understanding our world and the people who populate it. Music is the gateway to connecting and communicating with the world. Students will be changed for the better by understanding that there are dozens of musical styles and instruments to play it.  Beyond the music advantages, cultural differences are something to be celebrated. Once students understand this concept a better classroom climate will be created. Thanks to your donations, these students will get to enjoy those cultures and grow and become better citizens because of it. Click here to make a donation to our charity!  

TUCSON, AZ – This week’s donation story is from Tucson, Arizona where  Academy Of Math & Science Cs’s will receive a brand new Bb trumpet for their music program.  We received a notice from a concerned Mr. Guenthner who has been trying for the last year to get band instruments into the school.  He was extremely dedicated to his project, and even loaned the students some of his own instruments to get started.  However, the cost of repairs was burning a hole in his pocket, and with a limited budget for the young music program, he decided to ask for help. “My own finances have been strapped to the point where it is difficult for me to keep maintenance of my own instruments. I would love to start by getting an instrument that I can let a student rent for free, without having to lose sleep of my own personal instrument. This beginner instrument will be a foundation on how much effort and time they should put into their studies.” Although the school is successful in other areas of academia such as math and science, the students needed an outlet to get away from the daily grind, and learn a fun yet stimulating activity such as band, to foster their creativity and apply those methods to other subject areas in school, as well as life lessons overall. “I came to this school last year and was upset with the lack of resources given to the students. It feels as if I had more opportunities to excel than them. In a growing culture of technology and ideas, this needs to be reversed as students should be given ample resources to excel in academics as well as arts. With their own instrument, even one… That lucky student will first know that someone cares enough about them to help achieve their goal.” We agreed wholeheartedly with Mr. Guenthner and since our last donation ended up canceling their order (teacher moved to another school), we applied the released funds, and paid the difference for Mr. Guenthner to receive the new trumpet and the proper warranty replacement plan. If you missed your opportunity to donate to this week’s project, please take a moment to ask yourself, “will my $10 make a difference?” Because we will tell you that EVERY donation can either fund a project, or contribute to a partially funded project.  We make sure that funds go directly to schools in need and your donation is tax deducible!