Bay Area Tour Complete

In the last five days I went to six schools in the Sunnyvale/Cupertino area, played twelve sets totaling close to ten hours, ran fourteen writing workshops with kids ranging from kinder to fifth grade, played guitar until my fingers were about ready to fall off, and sang until my voice was just about ready to quit. I had a blast.

Highlights

feedback from teachers, parents, and students was very positive. Most of the schools have already asked when I can come back, which I guess is the most important kind of feedback for me. I made new friends and touched base with some old ones. The kids in the writing workshops cranked out some wonderful music about science, math, and grammar. The kindergartners created (I took dictation) a great silly song using the letter sounds they are working on. I made Kathy Mar (one of my musical heroes) cry with a new song about the history of cosmology.

Lessons Learned

I really need to insist on the full sixty minutes for a writing workshop; forty-five is just not enough. Best Western is fine for an overnight stay, but is pretty depressing after five days. Schools with high parent involvement rock. Being in a wealthy area certainly helps too. Victoria Chang would be a great music agent and the PTA is really lucky to have her.

Okay, back to real life in La Canada: trying to get the third CD off to the presses, getting the banking stuff for GriffinEd off the ground, writing songs for the FOURTH CD, meeting with other teachers to get this year’s mathletics program going, hosting GriffinEd’s first board meeting Thursday evening, and trying to get more shows closer to home. Why is it so much easier to get shows outside of Los Angeles county? I’m doing a show in Pasadena on Wednesday, maybe they’ll tell their friends.