Empowerment through Music: Get these Kids Rockin'!
My students need a school set of guitars for our guitar-based Music 1 courses.
$2,377 goal
Hooray! This project is fully funded
Hooray! This project is fully funded
Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month
This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because
it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.
I am an English and Music teacher at a San Diego charter school that will, starting this year, be offering guitar-based music courses. We have one problem though! We don't have a school set of guitars, and due to inadequate funding, we cannot currently afford to purchase them.
My guitar courses will be the only music courses at our school, and I am determined to make them happen with your help!
These courses will be focused on student learning, as opposed to strict curriculum, and will be geared toward practical improvement as guitarists instead of excessive emphasis on theoretics. In my courses, we will begin by focusing on the basics of finger positioning, strumming, chord progressions, and reading tablature. Then, over the course of the year, students will be working together in groups to learn songs of their choice (songs written by other artists or songs written by members of the groups). The instruction and assessments will be largely one-on-one so that I see how each student is progressing in his or her own way. In addition, we will be working on appreciating music from a musician's standpoint, and we will also be learning some basic music theory geared toward immediate application.
My Project
Our school is located in a low-income area of San Diego. The vast majority of my students do not have access to instruments at home and do not have the means to acquire them. In addition, there are many negative social influences within the community such as criminal activity, drugs, domestic issues, and gangs.
These guitar courses will offer students an invaluable opportunity to develop a creative passion that will benefit them at school through inspiring learning and outside of school, hopefully for the rest of their lives, through their ability to express themselves and entertain others with their musical abilities. Activities that are self-expressive and self-esteem-building like creating music have proven to be a valuable way to keep kids feeling connected and expressed, thus making things like drugs and gangs much less alluring. In addition, studies have shown that learning to play an instrument increases one's coordination, concentration, and capacity to retain information.
I myself grew up in a community with plenty of negative influences always within reach.
Many of my friends and acquaintances growing up fell into these easy traps, but something kept me glued to a more productive and positive route in life; that was my guitar. It was my passion, and I didn't want to do anything that could jeopardize that passion. These kids ought to have the same opportunity to build a passion for music that could keep them choosing positive, nourishing paths in life.
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