Alabama Blues Project

Our program is in its 16th year of providing after-school and summer blues camps in Tuscaloosa. It gives local budding musicians aged 8 to 18 an opportunity to learn to play the blues. Each camp ends in a grand finale performance open to family, friends and the wider community featuring performances by the young students. We are seeking assistance to make the Summer Blues Camp available to young musicians that do not have the opportunity during the year. In previous years, our Summer Blues Camp has been very successful. It is amazing to see how much our students can achieve during our one week Summer Blues Camp.

 

The Summer Blues Camp teaches students to play the blues on their choice of guitar, bass guitar, harmonica, vocals, drums or keyboard and includes an integrated life-skills curriculum. Students also learn about blues history with a particular focus on Alabama and Alabama’s many outstanding blues musicians.

 

With over 70 young student musicians, our award-winning education programs target at-risk children in our community. In many cases, these children come from very underserved areas of Tuscaloosa with little or no access to arts education.

 

The positive social outcomes for the children through our blues camps are implemented by:

 

♪ teaching children life-skills by formal presentations and practically in group  

     interaction

♪ teaching children to use music as a positive way of expressing emotions

♪ building self-esteem through performance and skills acquisition

♪ building communication skills and empathy through group interaction

♪ increasing cultural pride through the study of Alabama’s rich blues heritage

♪ improving problem solving and academic ability through arts education