Blues in the Schools Program
by Mark Smith
In the fall of 2000 the West Michigan Blues Society kicked off its long awaited Blues In the Schools Program at Sherwood Park Elementary in southeast Grand Rapids. Funded by a contribution from the Blues Society with additional funding provided by the school, the program, which was presented by blues musicians Annette Taborn (vocals and harmonica), Willie Phipps (keyboards) and Jim Beebe (guitar), commenced in October with a full school assembly that featured a performance by the band of various blues classics to whet the student's appetite for the educational program to follow. With her down home style, Annette quickly grabbed the attention of an entire gymnasium full of restless elementary students and demonstrated the power of the blues through both her compelling vocals and theatrics on the harmonica. By the end of the hour long session, the whole school was moving to Sweet Home Chicago.
In the days after the whole school assembly, 5th and 6th grade students at Sherwood were able to sign up for the Blues In the Schools program as one of their Friday enrichment activities. The spots available in the program filled up quickly with twenty students. The program, which consisted of seven separate 90 minute sessions led by the musicians, mixed history with art and performance so that the students:
- Learned about the origins and evolution of blues music;
- Listened to examples of different blues styles;
- Learned about key figures in blues history;
- Learned about the 12 bar blues pattern;
- Wrote both the lyrics and music to a 12 bar blues song about the school;
- Learned about some of the early blues instruments and built a diddly bow (single string guitar);
- Learned to play the diddly bow with a slide;
- Learned basic harmonica skills.
At the conclusion of the classroom work, the fledgling musicians demonstrated their new found blues skills by performing their song, Sherwood Park Blues, to a gymnasium full of people gathered for the annual Sherwood Park Festival of Lights. Featuring lyrics about the trials and tribulations of making it to class everyday and the hassles of being young the song was a hit with parents and classmates alike.
Sherwood's principal, Judy Freeman, was very pleased with the program and noted "our students not only learned music appreciation and history, but were able to gain skills in english as a result of having to write lyrics and math from structuring a song around the 12 bar blues style. Not only did the children enjoy it, but we were able to see some real learning going on. One of our teachers was even able to learn the blues!" Asked whether the goals of the program had been accomplished, Ms. Freeman responded with a quick yes and noted that she would like to see the program offered again not only at Sherwood Park but at other schools in the Grand Rapids Public School system.
While the principal and teachers liked the program, the real measure of success came from the students who participated. Two of the students, Stuart Smith and Tyler Elmergreen thought "it was cool to make the diddley bows and play them with a slide like they used to do." They were also surprised to find that their favorite rap musicians have borrowed heavily from the blues and even played with blues musicians as evidenced by the duet they heard between B.B.King and Heavy D on Keep it Coming which appears on B.B. King's Deuces Wild disc.
The Blues in the School program at Sherwood Park marks an important step for the West Michigan Blues Society. Our By-laws make it clear that providing education about the blues is a vital part of our mission and this program was right on target. The task now is to keep the program going. While the Blues Society isn't in a position to regularly fund the $3000 plus spent on the Sherwood Park program it can play a vital role in organizing and promoting the program for other schools. In fact, the Arts Advocates Committee of the Greater Grand Rapids PTA council has taken an interest in rolling out the program in other Grand Rapids Public schools. We hope to partner with them in applying for grants for such programs and will be seeking local musicians to bring the costs down. While Annette, Willie and Jim did an absolutely fantastic job, the fact they had to travel from Chicago, Indiana and Kalamazoo to present the program added significantly to the costs. Let's hope that this was just the first of many Blues in the Schools programs in the West Michigan area.
The Blues Foundation has a nice information area about thisd program at www.blues.org/bluesed