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 teach general music, guitar, and band at an elementary school in an urban district. Last year, thanks to the donations from a nearby community, we were able to begin a guitar program at our school. We never imagined the excitement this program would generate. To date we have had 7 guitars donated to our school and are not even close to meeting the interest of our students to get involved. In fact, the more they hear their friends playing guitar, the more they want to learn guitar. We truly have a guitar craze on our hands.
I currently have 12 students in my guitar classes. Seven are using the guitars donated to our school, and five were able to enroll because they had guitars of their own. The students with their own guitars have guitars of vary degrees of adequacy. Several are using guitars that barely pass as more than a toy. When I first saw the guitars I almost didn't let the students begin lessons, but they were so excited I couldn't disappoint them. I am glad I let them join, because playing on toy guitars has not in any affected these students' determination to work hard and learn to play. They were so proud of themselves when they performed at their first concert last spring.
Unfortunately their growth as young guitarists is very limited with the toy instruments they are using. The little guitars do not stay in tune (some of them won't even stay in tune for the 40 minute lesson) so when the students practice at home they can't hear the chords correctly and self correct when they are using the wrong fingerings. Since these guitars are so small these students are not developing the muscle memory and technique they will need to play a "real" guitar. Also, I know how envious they are of their peers using the electric guitars donated to our school. All of my students are great, and of course they let each other have a turn to play the electric guitar, but playing one for a few minutes in class is nothing like having the real thing to bring home to practice. You can support these young musicians by helping us build our guitar program one guitar at a time. My goal is to have all of my students playing on "real" guitars by the end of the year. Please help fund this one to get us started!
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Mrs. Purviance and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.