Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by mike hardwick on March 6, 2011 at 4:13pm

this is a great discussion issue and something someone should take on.  I teach in middle school in mississippi, and recently i sent one of my cbguitars and some songs i recorded to my wifes 4th grade class, along with a aunthentic "mojo" bag and a quick fact sheet of blues, and primitive instruments - which apparently was a big hit as I have been asked to come back and play a cbguitar "live" for the class.

 

but it would be great for the "nation" to put together some photos of some of the different types of builds, some of the tools used to produce them, and of course some videos of people playing primitive instruments and singing some traditional songs.....a great idea!!!

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Permalink Reply by Skeesix on March 6, 2011 at 10:41pm

Yes, CBG's are a good fit with Blues in the Schools. We do a very simple "2x4 with 2 nails and a string" diddley bow and let the kids paint and decorate them however they see fit.

I have heard of some school systems freaking out because the cigar box is a tobacco product and they don't want to promote tobacco use in any way. In that case, you would have to go with 2x4's or cookie tins or something. Talk about being P.C.....

Which reminds me of an ancient memory I have of a guy who came to our school when I was about 9 years old. He brought a guitar and showed us how you would play a guitar. Then he said you could build your own guitar from a cigar box. The instructions were kind of vague (and not correct); something about thumb tacks and strings across the cigar box, no neck. I went home and attempted to build one and of course I was very disappointed that it didn't work. But I did become very interested in guitars at that point, and much later learned to play and build them for real.

So you never know what seeds you might be planting in their little minds - gotta grab them while they're young!

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Permalink Reply by Joker on March 6, 2011 at 11:25pm

Wade.  I was given the opportunity a few years back to do a "Blues in the Schools" program in Lima, Ohio.  Thanks to Skeesix, who recommended me to the Blues Committee in Lima.  The Blues Committee is a group of folks from the community up there who solicite donations from local business too put on a blues fest and the BITS program.

They have a different artist come in every year for the schools.   What I did was went up and taught a group of volunteers (one of them the art teacher from the school)  how to build a basic fretless 3 string acoustic cbg.  They then spent time in the art class with the kids making and decorating the cbg's. 

I then got to go up there and spend an hour or so a day for a week teaching them how to play and talking about the history of the cbg.

It was really alot of fun.  Here are a few pick of the students cbgs

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Permalink Reply by mark "mudcat" quigley on March 7, 2011 at 1:14am

joker

 

good to hear lima was interested.  i'm originally from that area me ottawa wife elida.  wish i could get something going here in covington ,IN wehere i live but no interest.  have worked with scouts and special needs kids and it has been a blast.

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Permalink Reply by Wade on March 7, 2011 at 10:49am

I remember that Joker. I got some advice from you a few years back and got some of my art students building. Just recently students started getting together to build some ukes- beats sitting around texting or playing video games all day!


Joker said:

Wade.  I was given the opportunity a few years back to do a "Blues in the Schools" program in Lima, Ohio.  Thanks to Skeesix, who recommended me to the Blues Committee in Lima.  The Blues Committee is a group of folks from the community up there who solicite donations from local business too put on a blues fest and the BITS program.

They have a different artist come in every year for the schools.   What I did was went up and taught a group of volunteers (one of them the art teacher from the school)  how to build a basic fretless 3 string acoustic cbg.  They then spent time in the art class with the kids making and decorating the cbg's. 

I then got to go up there and spend an hour or so a day for a week teaching them how to play and talking about the history of the cbg.

It was really alot of fun.  Here are a few pick of the students cbgs

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Permalink Reply by Josh Gayou (SmokehouseGuitars) on March 7, 2011 at 1:56pm

This is really cool but you should remove the dude's e-mail from the post.  Spammers use automated bots to churn through web site text to add any posted e-mails to their junk mail lists.  That's why you'll see some people post their address as "davejones - at sign - some provider - dot - com".  A human can read that and put two and two together but this will defeat many bots.

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Permalink Reply by Wade on March 7, 2011 at 6:46pm

 

 

Josh,

Thanks for that info. Did not know that.

 

Thanks again,

 

Wade

Josh Gayou (SmokehouseGuitars) said:

This is really cool but you should remove the dude's e-mail from the post.  Spammers use automated bots to churn through web site text to add any posted e-mails to their junk mail lists.  That's why you'll see some people post their address as "davejones - at sign - some provider - dot - com".  A human can read that and put two and two together but this will defeat many bots.

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Permalink Reply by Wichita Sam on March 8, 2011 at 12:55pm

beyond school art (and science and shop) classes there are summer programs.  This summer past I did a workshop at Wichita City Arts where we built and played one string blues strummers (pentetonic scale) and I was the music director of another class that built "cardboard" tenor guitars... guess what, they learned 12 bar blues and sang/played "Mary Had a Little Lamb" blues style.

 

If you really want to be involved with students, CBG and blues, you can find a way....

 

the best,

 

Wichita Sam

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