“We can learn from songs written about cultural issues that we still deal with today. We can expose students to notions of equity and justice. We can also turn them on to great music from the past and make it relevant to them today."

Morgan Mecaskey, Artistic Director, Roots of American Music Inc.

Irving Berlin, Lead Betty, Charlie Patton, Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Armstrong – these names are not typically familiar to young children. But through a program called Blues is the Backbone, K-3 students from Cleveland Metropolitan schools (CMSD) are being introduced to these musicians and learning how their work reflected what was happening in American society at the time.

Blues is the Backbone is the flagship program of Roots of American Music Inc. (ROAM). The non-profit organization provides arts programming to the community using traditional American music to connect with the past. With grant support from the Jennings Foundation, ROAM offers an 8-day residency experience for young CMSD students. The hands-on, developmentally appropriate curriculum aligns with Ohio learning standards for music and social/emotional well-being. ROAM artists work in tandem with the schools' classroom/music teachers to present the curriculum over the course of four weeks.

Through the eight lessons, students learn that Blues music was born in the Deep South in the early 1900s and has provided a foundation for most of the American music that followed, including jazz, country, rhythm and blues, rock, rap, and hip hop. With roots in African musical traditions, work songs, and spirituals, the Blues is a relevant lens through which to examine the culture from which it emerged.

"Music plays such a big role in how we've evolved as a culture and how we've changed, grown, and given more equity to people," explains Charlie Mosbrook, who has been a ROAM teaching artist for five years and recently worked with K-3 students at William Rainey Harper Elementary School. By the program's end, he hopes students get an idea of American history through its musical stages."     

Morgan Mecaskey, ROAM's artistic director, says much of the program's success lies within its simplicity. "You can take big ideas, like Charlie is describing, and simplify them," she explains. The teaching artists make [the content] practical and integrate it into the life experiences of five, six, seven, and eight-year-olds in Cleveland." 

Historically, the program begins with music dating back to 1850 and progresses through the 1920's. While teaching a kindergarten class, Mr. Mosbrook combines a PowerPoint presentation filled with black and white photos of Blues artists with audio recordings of their songs. He talks about the Underground Railroad, Irving Berlin's birth in 1888, and the Tin Pan Alley songwriters who used their talents to describe everyday life. He teaches students the lyrics to popular Blues songs and encourages them to get on their feet and move off and on throughout the lesson.

Mr. Mosbrook says he reaches the young learners best through storytelling. While quietly strumming his guitar, he uses call-and-response songs. He engages students in a question-and-answer dialogue, allowing them to relate their personal experiences to those of the singers and songwriters they are learning about. He says each class is unique and responds to the content differently: "I try to find different ways to make it simple, but at the same time, the children are clever, they’re smart, and they will take these concepts and explore them deeper and deeper. They surprise me all the time with their stories and ideas." 

Ms. Mecaskey says the teaching artists, like Mr. Mosbrook, are ROAM’s most valuable asset. "It takes incredible skill set to personalize and tailor this curriculum,” she remarks. “We're privileged to have a diverse array of professional musicians who either have studied music in college, have equivalent life experience, or a mixture of both. They have a knowledge of history and an understanding of humanity from an anthropological/sociological perspective."  

In addition to the musical/historical content, teaching artists embed music theory and literacy into every lesson. Students are introduced to the musical alphabet, count out rhythms, dance to different tempos, and learn new vocabulary. 

Social/emotional learning components are also a core part of the curriculum. "There's so much research done on how music education is helpful to children's development,”explains Ms. Mecaskey. “It joins the right and left hemispheres of the brain. You have the analytical and the creative sides knitting those together more closely."  

Because the word "Blues" insinuates a sad feeling, she continues, it helps students connect with their emotions: "A particular ideology we use is icon-based learning. That is selecting a smiley face, a sad face, a confused face, an emotive face. Even if students do not have language yet to express their feelings, they can visually identify a face and use that in response to a piece of music they hear."

Patrick Chase, William Rainey Harper's music teacher, believes the program gives students "a taste of the rich cultural tradition that is the Blues, which they will be able to connect to other content they learn throughout their time in school." He reviews lessons the ROAM artists teach in follow-up class sessions and he prepares students for upcoming visits. Pre- and post-test results over time reveal a clear increase in the children’s knowledge of the Blues artists, the songs they wrote, and the instruments they played.  

"What I think the students enjoy most is having two people in the room and a whole different source of material that is more grown up than they are used to," comments Mr. Chase. "A lot of the music they hear throughout their day is children's music, but with this program, they get a more 'grown up' source of material. It's interesting to them."

How much the students absorb, he continues, depends on their age. "The second and third graders understand most everything,” he remarks. “The kindergartners really enjoy the experience. They know what it means when you say 'the Blues', but what we are giving them is something to grab onto, something to enjoy, something different."

"I want students to learn that there is a foundation for everything that we love today musically," adds Ms. Mecaskey. "It's important to translate that to students so they don't lose track of where they came from or where they are heading. We can learn from songs written about cultural issues that we still deal with today. We can expose students to notions of equity and justice. We can also turn them on to great music from the past and make it relevant to them today."