“What’s the silent beat called?” Music Teacher Susan Osborn asked a class of 23 third-grade students, all with fingers strategically placed on their recorders as they stared at the “rest” on their sheet music.
The recorder is the first instrument most of them have played. They only started a few months ago, but they already know how to play each note to form several songs, like “See You in Dixie.”
They’re preparing for their first concert on May 12, and with just 45 minutes every six school days to practice, every note is crucial.
March is the the National Association for Music Education’s Music in Our Schools Month.
Technically, students in the Appoquinimink School District don’t learn instruments in school until they reach fourth-grade, but Osborn is trying to give them a head start.
“The whole point of doing recorders at third-grade is we’re trying to build self confidence,” she said. “We want them to have a good experience with this $5 instrument so when they have that opportunity to play another instrument, they say, ‘Yes.’ ”
Osborn speaks from experience. She first became interested in music when she was given the chance to play the recorder as a third-grader.
“That was the turning point for me,” she said.
She then moved on to the piano.
“My mother didn’t let me give up,” Osborn said. “When I bugged her to let me quit, she said, ‘No.’ ”
Third-grader Jimmy Griffith said playing the recorder is fun.
“You get to play music,” he said. “When I’m older, I want to play electric guitar.”
Hearing things like that is music to a music teacher’s ears.
“How many of you want to play an instrument after you learned to play recorder?” Osborn asked her class.
Twenty-three hands shot into the air.
Barbara Euculano teaches band at Townsend Early Childhood Center and Silver Lake Elementary School. Every elementary school in the district has band for fourth- and fifth-graders.
She said she uses singing, instruments, games and movements to help kindergarten students at TECC build an appreciation for music.
Euculano said band is an outlet for elementary school children just like sports, dance, karate or other extracurricular activities.
“It really makes them come out of their shell,” she said. “They have to learn to read music and transfer what they’ve learned from Mrs. Osborn and put it into practice with band.”
Euculano said she enjoys when students run into her classroom asking to play.
“It’s rewarding to see them get so excited about it and really enjoy it,” she said. “It makes me think they’re having a good time and a positive experience.”
Greta Myers, string orchestra director for the district, said she starts from scratch teaching fifth-grade students violin, viola and cello, and culminates the year with a concert. She started the orchestra program in the district last year and it’s already one of the largest in the state.
“The first lesson they’re learning is how to take the instrument out of the case,” she said. “By the spring they’re performing. They know how to sit and act as professionals in an ensemble and the concert is always amazing. The parents are surprised at how much they learned in one year.”
Myers said students are excused from one class each week to play with sections of the orchestra, and they also forfeit some recess time to rehearse with the whole group.
“This is better than recess,” said Brick Mill Orchestra Musician Dianna King. “I get to be with my friends and learn new music.”
Alicia Collier said she also has fun playing in the orchestra.
“It’s easy, but you have to put a lot of practice into it,” she said.
Through learning to pluck strings to a beat or play notes on a piano as read on sheet music, students learn hand-eye coordination.
Music teachers say “practice makes perfect” for good reason – discipline.
Myers’ students practice six days a week for their once-a-week class.
Euculano said she wasn’t very good when she first started to play the flute in fourth-grade.
“I kept at it and worked hard,” she said. “It does make sense that when I practice, I get better.”
John Gordon, who directs middle and high school orchestras in the district, said he directs about 75 middle-schoolers, mostly sixth-graders from last year’s elementary orchestras, and a few high-schoolers.
He said the orchestras will grow each year as the students who started last year move through the grades.
“It’s a unique experience, especially in Delaware. There aren’t many string programs,” Gordon said. “We’re very fortunate to have the program in the district and have administrators back it up.”
He said having orchestra programs opens music up to a larger amount of students.
“For certain students, band instruments don’t quite suit their musical taste,” Gordon said. “It’s another opportunity for students to make music, and that’s what we’re here to teach.”
Myers said students can connect with themselves and others through music.
“It helps them be creative. It helps them to convey their emotions by using music,” she said. “It helps them connect to other people when they play in an ensemble.”
Euculano said she eventually branched out to other instruments, like piano, trumpet and trombone, and found music has many benefits.
“I went to high school and played in jazz band, pit orchestra and went on trips,” she said. “It opened up a whole new world of activity. You have so much fun doing it, how can you not want to do it?”
Kathleen McGrath, band instructor at Louis L. Redding Middle School, said the three middle schools in the district formed an Honor Band this year of hand-selected students to play in a concert March 25.
“We wanted to promote a higher standard of playing,” she said. “We thought this would be a great opportunity for them to play with other students who were striving for that higher level.”
McGrath said the band brought together musicians who had played together before they were separated with the new feeder patterns when Alfred G. Waters Middle School opened.
She said bringing students together from different schools helps prepare them for when they get to high school.
McGrath said music is another form of expressing oneself.
“Music is what we call a universal language,” McGrath said.
Euculano said playing an instrument isn’t just for fun. It enhances students’ ability in other areas, too.
“They make connections to all sorts of other subjects – science, social studies, reading, language fluency and phonics,” she said.
Osborn said she helps students make connections with math and social studies in almost every lesson.
She also teaches them about staffs, notes and beats. She uses a word wall, which is the same format used in English language arts classes, to teach her students music terminology like sustain, rhythm, treble clef, mezzo piano, mezzo forte, meter, measure, crescendo, decrescendo, improvisation, melody and timbre.
Myers said playing instrumental music engages both sides of the brain.
“Every subject is included in learning music,” she said. “There are studies that prove higher test scores and better grades in school go along with being in an instrumental music program.”
NAMM states that students in high quality music education programs score higher on standardized tests than those in deficient music education programs.
A 2006 poll of high school principals by Harris Interactive revealed 96 percent agreed that by participating in music, students are encouraged and motivated to stay in school.
NAMM is urging music education enthusiasts to contact their legislators and school administrators and stress the importance of music in schools.
NAMM states, “Anticipated budget cuts for schools across the country are causing concern about support for school music programs. More than half of the state and district-level music supervisors recently surveyed report that their schools are currently experiencing cutbacks now or expect them in the coming year, and more than half expect those cutbacks to impact the music programs specifically.”
Osborn said she frequently hears parents of her students express regret that they stopped practicing the instrument they played as a child.
Her profession is the perfect example of why musicians should stick it out through every practice, even if it’s grueling at times.
“Don’t give up,” Osborn said. “It could change your life.”
Middletown, Del. —
