What We're Doing and Why We Need Help
Guitar Club started in a Brooklyn apartment to address a lack of music programs in the New York public school system. It evolved into a program that prepares students for success, by fostering respect through hands-on work, community, cooperation and self-reliance through peer-based teamwork that produces young leaders--and guitar enthusiasts.
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Guitar Club provides musical enrichment to K through 12 students. It works because it is fun and empowers students to take responsibility for their own music-based education while giving them ownership of their after school enrichment.
The history of how we got there is simple: one teacher for six kids was a stretch. Then it happened. That first "class" of six friends in the Brooklyn apartment reached a tipping point. Things were moving slowly. Frustrated, the children spontaneously broke off into one-on-one sessions between a child who had mastered a skill and a child who hadn't. The tone was collaborative and respectful. The teacher was then free to help that process. The class moved to a local middle school where it was opened up to one 7th grade class, with eight students. A year later, there were more than 40 students from grades six through eight.
The lack of resources turned a group dynamic into a unique solution: with only two teachers for all those kids, the more advanced students in the group began teaching their peers. The process was organic, and had great results. Kids shared guitars, and progress was made.
While it is great to watch the kids teach each other, increasing demand for the program points to the need for next steps. It is time to create online curriculum and hire teachers to expand the program and make it scalable so that schools can offer Guitar Club no matter where they are located.
Other schools are already expressing interest. We know this: When everyone teaches everyone, the children have fun and make a lot of progress.
We also know they need facilitators and a robust online curriculum. We can reach far more than the 40 children who have tapped into a new found passion for making music. Guitar Club is a place where children can make friends and learn a skill that will be with them their entire lives.
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Since many children can't afford guitars, we've been working on a need-based model so that not having an instrument isn't an obstacle for membership. So, we need money to purchase instruments, and we need to put together a web site where learning materials--including lessons produced by Guitar Club students--can be found.
- Guitar Club is scalable and easy to introduce to new schools.
- Music enrichment is crucial to child development
- A contribution of $150 buys a guitar.
- We want to make Guitar Club available widely.
Guitar Club is about community, sharing and camaraderie. Through mentoring each other, children learn citizenship that will help in every walk of life.
