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.