The John Lennon Education Tour Bus

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Columbia Tribune - Driving imagination

Janese Heavin - Columbia Tribune


Lennon Bus at MU lets students create

Missouri senior Matt Rennie, left, plays the bass Tuesday inside the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus with sophomore Danielle Fenelon on Lowry Mall on the University of Missouri campus.

An educational bus dedicated to the memory of a music legend stopped at the University of Missouri this week to promote creativity and a message of peace.

Yesterday, the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus parked at Lowry Mall to let students peek inside. The sky-blue bus, decorated with the Lennon image that appeared on his “Imagine” album cover, is a mobile studio, complete with audio and video production equipment, drums, keyboards and guitars.

“It’s pretty cool they can pack all of that on a tour bus,” senior Matt Rennie said after playing around on the instruments yesterday afternoon. “It’s awesome.”

The Lennon bus is a not-for-profit facility — created 12 years ago with the permission of Lennon’s wife, Yoko Ono — that gives high school and college students free hands-on opportunities to learn about music and video production.

“Basically, our purpose is to foster a sense of creativity in students,” said Kevin Hoy, a producer and engineer on staff. “With a minimal amount of equipment, you can do recording. Basically, that’s what we’re trying to show here.”

On Monday, seven MU students got to try out the studio, writing a song called “Peace and Harmony” and creating a video that featured the musicians as well as students around campus giving peace signs.

Arthur White, director of jazz studies at MU’s School of Music, selected five of those students based on their musical talents and adaptability. Two journalism students also were chosen to help create the video.

White was impressed with the final product.

“I loved it,” he said. “It thought it was killer. … I thought it was really cool they crafted a tune based on Lennon’s philosophies. I think that was a nice tribute, in effect.”

The students’ video and clips from other stops on the tour are featured on the LennonBus.org Web site.

Jamon Kimbrough, a sophomore from Columbia, didn’t get a chance to perform with Monday’s group, but he did visit the bus and talk to the staff members about recording.

“I have a rigged recording studio in my room, but nothing like this,” he said. “It’s pretty neat.”

YouTube Video: The John Lennon Educational Tour Bus visits Mizzou

Tiger Lizzy and her Mizzou-Keepers sing "Peace and Harmony" on the tour bus during its visit to the University of Missouri campus

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Reach Janese Heavin at 573-815-1705 or e-mail (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

This article was published on page A16 of the Wednesday, October 21, 2009 edition of The Columbia Daily Tribune. Click here to Subscribe.

Original article online: http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2009/oct/21/driving-imagination/

Something like this should be parked outside of every school in America.

- Vernon Reid, Living Colour

The Headlines

  • Stanford University “Game Day”

    The Bus will lead its 2nd "Game Day" with Learning Games Network at Stanford University from Feb 11-13, bringing high school students together to develop an iOS app with Stanford undergrads and the JLETB engineers. The Bus will be open to the Stanford community from noon-4pm on Feb 13.

  • Live with Bootsy at NAMM

    Friday night at NAMM the Lennon Bus hosted an event to commemorate the launch of the 2012 tour, capped off with a funktastic performance by Bootsy Collins and Verdine White. The Bus produced a live webstream of the event using our new TriCaster 850 Extreme and TodoCast satellite connection; if you missed it live you can still catch it on the DVR here: lennonbus.org/live. Stay tuned for future live events, happening regularly!

  • JLETB’s 15th Year Anniversary

    The JLETB kicked-off its 15th year of bringing music education to students nationwide, with a special birthday party at the 2012 NAMM Show. The Bus unveiled a new arsenal of equipment for the 2012 year, including Avid® Pro Tools®|HDX, and live streaming capabilities made possible by NewTek and TodoCast that will allow the whole party to be seen live via www.lennonbus.org. Learn more here.

Video aboard the Bus

The increasing accessibility of digital technology has led to an amazing expansion of opportunity in the art of digital storytelling. The John Lennon Educational Tour Bus has been at the forefront of this new media explosion, having produced daily video projects with students since January of 2001. The Lennon Bus puts state-of-the-art digital video equipment into the hands of workshop participants and teaches the entire digital workflow from storyboarding to web publication and DVD burning. Students leave the experience having shot, chopped, scored, and (most importantly) finished an entire digital video production. Using the latest cameras and professional hardware/software solutions including Avid Media Composer and Pro Tools, participants are exposed to the exciting world of digital videography and learn hot techniques of the trade. The accessibility of professional-quality technology is making it possible for millions of new voices to be heard and the John Lennon Bus is putting these tools into the hands of tomorrow's great digital producers. Subscribe to our Youtube channel so you never miss any of the amazing videos produced on the Lennon Bus.