Sharing a Love of Music, Thanks to John Lennon

If there was anything that would make the most recalcitrant music student excited about practicing, we think the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus would be it.

Children who visit the bus have an opportunity to write, compose, record and sound engineer original songs as well as shoot and edit an accompanying music video and documentary — all in one day! The bus houses more than $3 million in state-of-the art equipment and is staffed with engineers who are more than happy to educate students. Every song is posted on the tour bus’ website and we were particularly impressed with a group of kids from Milwaukee who seamlessly intertwined English and Spanish lyrics while others played the trumpet, violin, drums and more. It’s definitely worth watching!

As adults, we wish we could have access to the instruments, technology and knowledge that the tour bus provides. It makes us wish we were in grade school again!

The bus visits approximately 250,000 children a year and worked with Pomona elementary school children a few months ago. It doesn’t look like there will be another California stop for the remainder for 2014, but the tour bus accepts visit requests on its website.

The tour bus has been in existence since 1998 with the blessing of Yoko Ono, the widow of music legend and Beatle John Lennon.  CBS News interviewed Ono about the tour bus and we were struck by one part of the conversation:

“CBS asked Ono: ‘You probably get asked all the time to lend your support and your name and John’s name to all kinds of projects. Why did you decide to support this one?’

‘I think this is one of the most important ones, because the educational situation is not so good and all that,” said Ono. “So, we have to add something that’s really positive.’”

We agree.

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