Education

The Educational Objectives of the European Blues Association

To advance the education of the general public in the history and appreciation of African American music and culture by:

• the protection and preservation of an archive of material related to the music of peoples of African descent, including African American music and culture in general and Blues in particular; to make this accessible for the public benefit in a resource centre.
• the presentation of public recitals and lectures featuring African American music

The EBA has developed an educational programme for children, young people and adults that seeks to encourage participation and engage interest in all aspects of African American music and culture.

We believe that participation through performance can be one of the key factors in the development and maintenance of a life-long enthusiasm for music making. This in turn, can lead to the desire for deeper understanding of the cultural history and context that formed the music. To further our objectives we:

Run a well-established musical tuition programme of international quality 

Offer a teaching, lecture and seminar programme for schools, community groups, colleges and universities

Provide resource materials and packs for student use 

Work in partnership with the University of Gloucestershire to encourage and supervise academic research on relevant topics

Participation through performance

Blues Week

Since 2000, the EBA has promoted and organised an annual residential programme known as ‘Blues Week,’ initially held at the University of Exeter and for the past six years at the University of Northampton. Participants in this residential programmes (now over 1500) have been drawn from the United Kingdom, Eire, Holland, Belgium, Luxemburg, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Latvia, Australia, Eygpt, Israel and the USA.

Tuition offered covers all levels of fingerstyle and slide guitar, harmonica, vocals and keyboard and has been provided by over 50 internationally respected artists from the USA and Europe, including; from the USA: Tom Ball, Mike Baytop, Ethel Caffie–Austin, John Cephas, Rich DelGrosso, Grant Dermody, Mike Dowling, Keith Dunn, Ari Eisinger, Joe Filisko, Mary Flower, Rick Franklin, Paul Geremia, Stefan Grossman, Dennis Gruenling, Ernie Hawkins, John Jackson, Steve James, Orville Johnson, Lazy Lester, Johnny Mars, John Miller, Louisiana Red, Paul Rishell & Annie Raines, Michael Roach, Kenny Sultan and Phil Wiggins; and from Europe: Sonny Black, Ian Briggs, Dana Gillespie, Alan Glen, Bob Hall, Hillery Blythe, Michel Lelong, Homesick Mac, Eddie Martin, Michael Messer, Sam Mitchell, Little George Suref and Diz Watson.

Tuition Workshops and informal sessions

Half or full day workshops are regularly organised in our Resource and Activity Centre. We will also be hosting regular informal music-making sessions - watch the 'News & Events' pages.

The John Jackson Youth Scholarship Fund

Following John Jackson's personal funding of a young student at the first EBA Blues Week in 2000, the Blues Week Class of 2001 established a fund to enable young people to attend tuition events organised by the EBA. The scholarships were named after John Jackson as a mark of respect for a much-loved teacher.

Since 2002 this fund has enabled many young people to attend Blues Week for tuition in guitar, harmonica, keyboards and vocals and benefit from spending time with enthusiastic adult participants and internationally respected tutors and musicians. Many of our scholarship youngsters have gone on to be respected performers on the current British and European music scene.

For further details, please contact Michael Roach, the EBA Development Officer. Students need to be between 14 and 21 and have a real interest in the music. A parent or responsible adult must accompany all students 16 and under.

If you would like to make a contribution to the fund, send your donation to the address on our 'Contacts' page, clearly marked for the John Jackson Scholarship Fund (cheques payable to the European Blues Association).

 John Jackson, Blues Week 2000

Educational activities

Schools

From the beginning, the EBA has been engaged in educational activities with local primary and secondary schools within Gloucestershire, Berkshire, Hampshire and Herefordshire and in other areas of the UK. These have usually taken the form of seminar/workshops showing the African-American underpinnings of popular music since 1900. Led by performer Michael Roach, the programme have proved very popular with a wide range of pupils. While the presentations are currently designed to meet the requirements of the National Curriculum of England and Wales, they can be tailored to the individual institution’s needs.

Conferences

Since its inception, the EBA has organised and participated in a wide range of national and international conferences. The EBA presented a conference on 'Blues Media' as part of the 2002 Gloucester International Blues Festival and co-hosted the University of Gloucestershire School of Humanities successful 2004 international conference on the theme: 'Overseas blues - European Perspectives on Black Music’. The EBA co-hosted the 'Celebration of the Richard Wright Centennial' at the University of Gloucestershire in 2008 and participated in the conference 'Transatlantic Routes of American Roots' at the University of Worcester in 2009. Future participation at international conferences in Europe and the UK is planned.

Seminars

The EBA is involved in educational activities at various musical events, offering talks, panels and presentations, recently for example at the Upton Blues Festival and the Stamford Guitar Festival 2010. 

We have always sought to educate Blues Week participants on the cultural context of the music whilst teaching instrumental techniques. Paul Oliver has presented seminars on ‘Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of “Conversation with the Blues” (2000), ‘The Songster Tradition’ (2001), Blues Duos’ (2004), ‘African Retentions in the Blues’ (2005), Stringbands (2007), Harmonica Blues (2008), Banjo Blues Breakdown (2009) and Dr. John Cowley presented a seminar on ‘West Indies Blues’ in 2003. The transcripts of these talks will become available as downloadable files in the 'Members Only' area of the website.

EBA Seminar at Upton Blues Festival; Paul Jones, Michael Roach and Paul Oliver