Chuck Berry's Music Like You've Never Heard it Before!

The Kids Like Blues Band has a new music video: Chuck Berry's classic song "Let it Rock!"

Give it a listen and see how we exceed the limits of blues, boogie, and rock and roll! How? Well, we don't just play the tune and look cool doing it. We dig deep into our souls and minds to weave reading, writing, speaking, technology, and the visual and performing arts into our blues band work. If you dig it as much as we think you will, please share it!

Then visit our website at Kids Like Blues.org and check out all the new videos and content. You'll be surprised at how much we're learning through the blues- and how awesome our band is! We actually have about 12 songs down tight and we are a real gigging band. We've been featured on TV several times, in many newspapers and websites, and we've played street fairs and even for the College of Education at Cal State San Marcos. Click here to read the articles and see us rock KPBS TV.

Check out the First Grade Blues Band in the Press!

The First Grade Blues Band and the Kids Like Blues Music Project has been featured in newspapers, TV, and educational websites. Please see the "In the News" section of our website kidslikeblues.org to check it all out. The kids and parents are very proud to share their work with others.

The First Grade Blues Band plays CSU San Marcos Wed. May 9!

First Graders going to college...how cool is that?

On May 9 from 4:00-6:00 pm, the First Grade Blues Band from Garrison Elementary School in Oceanside, CA will perform at Cal State University San Marcos. (Check out the room we'll be rocking in the above photo.)

Members of the CSU College of Education, CSU professors and teaching candidates, Oceanside Unified School District members, student families, and Garrison staff will be part of the audience. KPBS education reporter Kyla Calvert will be on hand with a film crew to document the special event for a feature KPBS is doing on our work. 

The event began when Dr. Leslie Mauerman, Associate Professor of Education at CSU, heard about how we were using music to engage students and address many areas of the curriculum. She thought our class's use of music could provide some inspiration to the people she's training to be teachers, and we began a dialogue which ended up in this special concert.

All 25 members of Mr. Schwartz's class are part of the band. We'll be playing at least 4 songs using various combinations of students. Our band is only 2 months old so you can bet that we're rehearsing really hard to be on top of our game!

The First Grade Blues Band is Making a CD and Learning Multitrack Digital Recording

We're laying down tracks for our upcoming CD using the multi track recording Apple Computer Program called "Garage Band". It's great because the kids get to work in groups and listen to their recordings, and then decide if they want to do retakes and change the way they are using intonation, diction, phrasing, and volume.

I got a pro drummer to lay down some drum and bass tracks and the rest of it is all us. Don't think for a second that it won't rock though; you will be plenty surprised at how awesome it sounds!

First Grade Blues Band Plays for hundreds of people at Street Fair!

Our first public gig in front of a large crowd was a major success! I'm just amazed how these 6 and 7 year old students completely ROCKED the house, considering the how the backing band had no idea who we were when we walked on stage! This was serious unscripted Rock and Roll, folks.

The Sunset Market is a street fair held weekly in Oceanside. The principal of our school (Garrison Elementary, Oceanside Unified School District) is Margie Oliver and for years she has had a booth at this street fair. The booth showcases the visual and performing arts that we focus on and she thought it would be a great idea to have us play at the fair.

We had just played two talent shows at our school and were ready to try bigger gigs, but this was no small affair. There were at least 500 people there and we'd never played for strangers before. In addition, we were playing on the main stage, and only 30 minutes before we played, the house band agreed to let us onto the main stage and back us for our signature song,"Sweet Home Chicago". They had no idea who we were!

Hopping onstage with a band of people you've never met before in an unfamiliar environment with no warmup can be a daunting task even for adult seasoned musicians. How these kids pulled it off is really beyond me.

Like I said, we never met the backing band until we got to the stage. As we were walking onstage, all I was able to mutter to the backing band was "It's a 1-4-5 blues shuffle in the key of E with stops at every turnaround" and then it was showtime. The girls could've totally panicked and a million things could have gone wrong, but the kids rose to the occasion and shredded (note to old-timers: that means they did an excellent job).

Fortunately we had practiced for weeks, to the point where we could do the number in our sleep. Even so, I never expected it to go this well. I used to play a lot of clubs as a musician when I was younger, and I know from experience that hopping onstage so spontaneously usually has mixed results. Did I say I was amazed?!!

Another thing to keep in mind, we have 11 first grade students in our band, but as this was after school and we had little notice, only 5 were able to make it.  Moreover, 2 of the 5 students that showed up spoke no English when they entered the class, and one of them joined us only three months ago, straight from Japan! How cool is it that they are belting out the blues in English in front of capacity crowds with confidence? (Answer: WAY COOL!)

To learn about the academic value and pedagogy behind our work, see samples of our performances, and learn how we weave music into the teaching of reading, writing, and speaking, please visit our website Kids Like Blues.org.

Also read below about our upcoming gig at a real college campus! Dr. Leslie Mauerman, Professor of Education at Cal State San Marcos, is so impressed with our work and how it exemplifies best teaching practices that she is arranging for our band to play for her teaching credential candidates and staff at CSU in a proper performing hall! Can anyone say ROAD TRIP?! 

Yahoo!!!

The First Grade Blues Band will play a gig at CSU San Marcos!!

We have been invited by a real-life Cal State San Marcos School of Education professor to perform in front of a live audience comprised of CSU college students and staff!

The 6 and 7 year olds that make up this First Grade Blues Band are on a roll and are ultra excited about it. This first road trip and gig will probably be in mid April. We will keep you posted, but don't hold your breath for tickets. This will probably be a closed show for CSU insiders and bigwigs, band members immediate families, the Garrison Elementary Road Crew, and higher ups in the world of Garrison Elementary.
Here is our roadie at our latest practice. You should see how he teaches other kids how to write during our cooperative learning centers in class!

Taking the band on the road has really "upped the ante" for our band. That means our work is even more important than before, and we know we have to rehearse twice as hard. Here is a video of us rehearsing during recess. 

We are a real live band and there's no lip syncing or backing tracks; the kids make up the moves and we go over them until we "run out of gas". For you beginning readers that means we do it until we're exhausted, and have no more energy. It's grueling, hard work, but hey, that's show business! We've got another talent show at school on Monday and need to be ready.

Until Next Show, 

The First Grade Blues Band

Our First Grade Blues Band is in the North County Times Newspaper!

There is a great article about our performing 1st grade blues band in the newspaper. Our class members are all super excited to see their work be recognized and appreciated- and be interviewed by the local press!

 We practiced our signature song "Sweet Home Chicago" for many weeks, to the point where we could feel confident playing in front of the 200 person audience at our talent show last Friday night. The girls rocked the house. Keep in mind, they are singing live with no backing vocal or music track other than the live guitar. This is old school, real music. No lip-syncing here!

Click HERE to read the article, and click HERE to watch the YouTube video of this band of 6 and 7 year old first grade students singing the blues in front of a sold out crowd at our very own Garrison Elementary School.

Also, please check out our website kidslikeblues.org. If you look over our site, you'll see that we're not just playing music; we are using music as a tool to teach the California State Language Arts and Performing Arts Standards. We also use our music to build a sense of belonging and community in our classroom. Many of the members of our band are very shy and learning English. By learning the songs, working with others, and performing in front of audiences, they are overcoming their fears about public speaking and becoming more fluent speakers, readers, and writers.