MONROEVILLE, PA – Thanks to your donations, Keeping the Blues Alive Foundation donated a Diatonic Metallophone to the general music classroom at Ramsey Elementary in Monroeville, Pennsylvania! Gateway School Districts boasts some of the most diverse music curricula in western Pennsylvania. However, many of the students are unable to pay for music instrument rental costs, nor purchase fees. Music teacher, Mrs. Dayton, says “My students are enthusiastic about music and love to sing and play musical games and do activities. Most of them do not know how to play instruments when they come to school, and looking around the room at the various instruments just amazes them. Many cannot afford to rent or buy one at home, and music class is their only opportunity to get hands-on with music!” Currently, Mrs. Dayton has about 8 classroom instruments (Orff-style, with mallets), which means that kids are crowded in groups of 3 or 4 around each instrument. “Most of them are old and have bars missing or pieces breaking off,” she explains. “I would love to slowly increase my collection of instruments so that someday I have enough for each kid to have his own, or at least have only two [students] at each one! Some of the classes are large (groups of 30 or more) and it limits the amount of practice time that the students can receive.  Since Orff instruments are extremely resourceful and collaborative, they are a significant addition to any music program. Thanks to Joe Bonamassa fans, and music lovers like YOU, Keeping the Blues Alive was able to fund Mrs. Dayton’s music project! We look forward to more updates on this project! 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!

KTBA Funds Music Production Lab in Pittsburgh School Name – Pittsburgh Brashear High School Teacher Name: Mr. Lindey PITTSBURGH, PA – Thanks to your donations, KTBA donated music production equipment to the music program at Brashear High School! This included a Shure SM58-LC Cardiod Vocal Mic, stands, cables, and acoustic foam that are certain to take their music production courses to the next level! At Brashear High School, more than half of students come from low-income households. This makes it increasingly difficult for teachers to expect parents to pay for instrument rentals, repairs, or to contribute to classroom fundraisers. However, from a cultural standpoint, the melting pot of cultures and religions has been a huge motivator for classrooms to explore musical concepts that identify with the students’ heritages. Mr. Lindey, the music teacher at Brashear explains, “Our school is a high needs, inner city, public high school with a large immigrant and refugee population, many of whom speak little to no English. It is a dynamic, racially diverse school that boasts multiple opportunities for innovative creation, including digital photography, STEAM track, spring musical, fall play, band, African drumming, CTE programs, ceramics and now, music technology and TV production!” The combination of Music Technology and TV Production is a great way to expose students to modern trades, vocational opportunities, and creative outlets of expression. Thanks to the interactive and engaging programming at Brashear, students have become more and more excited to enroll. “The current electives classes were busting at the seams (thirty plus students per class), which is why music technology and TV production were recently added,” Lindey adds. “[However,] our traditional music technology lab has left students feeling a bit deflated and underwhelmed. Many of my students have been looking for increased opportunities to record their own music, and a recording studio in the classroom will do just that.” Now that the process of recording music has become easier, it made sense to help Brashear find its way “to the booth” and provide useful tools to let students record their own material. The microphone package and the sound dampening foam will provide opportunities for the students to practice, record, and engineer their own original songs. Thanks to the generosity of Joe Bonamassa fans and music lovers like YOU, Keeping the Blues Alive Foundation was able to fund Mr. Lindey’s project. The equipment will be delivered to the school within a week. Mr. Lindey expresses his gratitude: Dear Keeping The Blues Alive Foundation, Inc., Thanks so much for funding this project! You’ll see how much this is appreciated when I send you some photos and thank you letters from my students. This is my first funding request and I’m still a bit in shock over your generosity. My students will be shocked, too! With gratitude, Mr. Lindey 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. If you would like to help us fund next week’s project, click here to make a donation! All donations are fully tax-deductible! Thank you for keeping music education in schools! Shawn Hagood for Keeping the Blues Alive

I’d like to start by thanking all of you who contributed to and helped spread the word about the Keeping The Blues Alive (KTBA) pledge drive. Our goal was to raise $10,000 and we exceeded that. These funds were desperately needed and we’re already putting that money to work. Last Friday we donated a keyboard to Dubois Area High School in Pennsylvania (read the full story here) and next week, we’ll be announcing the winner of the Keeping The Blues Alive $3,000 Musician’s Institute Scholarship. KTBA prides itself on how efficiently we’re able to get your donations out to the schools and students who need them most, meaning your dollar goes further. Whether you donate $1 or $1,000, KTBA leverages your combined donations and channels them into the areas where we can make the greatest impact.  KTBA has been operating for seven months and has already funded music education programs, resources and scholarships in 10 institutions, reaching over 1100 students. In addition to the weekly donations we make to schools around the country and the scholarships we fund, we also produce Riffnotes “Edu-tainment” videos. These are hosted on SchoolTube.com and incorporated into the classroom. The first, featured Joe Bonamassa discussing the history of the Blues (watch it here) and with your support, we’re planning to release a series, where professional musicians demonstrate their instruments and explain theory to inspire and motivate young musicians. We’ve accomplished a great deal already and have even more in the works, but we need your help to continue our mission to give students access to music education in and out of schools. To help us fight government cuts to music education and be part of the solution, make a donation today by clicking here. With sincere thanks on behalf of Joe, J&R and myself for helping us Keep The Blues Alive