Walking the halls of a traditional high school music suite, you’ll often hear the notes of Beethoven, Brahms or Mozart. It’s been a familiar sound in schools across the nation for decades - the bright yet warm tone of a bow working its way across a standup bass, the keys of a piano telling a story with each chord, and a flute’s melodic sound highlighting the chorus. While the classics will always have a place in music education, teachers at Maine-Endwell are taking an alternative and fun new approach to attract more students to the fine arts department.
Look no further than the high school orchestra room on Fridays during 10th period. Kurtis Parker leads the brand new “Rock Band Club,” which gives students of all musical abilities the chance to come together to work on their craft. From electric guitars to full drum kits, high schoolers have more opportunities than ever to learn in a more non-traditional music style.
“I wanted to offer a space for kids to come, even if they’ve never played a rock instrument, or played in that context before, a place where they can get together and learn. It definitely brought more kids to the music department that wouldn’t have come otherwise. The Rock Band club being added just brought more kids down our hallway,” said Parker.
Mr. Parker, who leads Rock Band Club, is also the high school Orchestra Director. He says it’s been a lot of fun to switch things up a bit, highlighting music that may be more familiar to students.
“A lot of times, in orchestra, they may not know by sound, or they don’t know the title, but they do end up liking it in the end. Here, right from the get go, if they’re playing a song that they know and they know how to sing it, they really connect with that music more and it makes the process more enjoyable for them,” said Parker.
Students, many whom also take part in traditional band and orchestra, agree.
“It’s just a good opportunity for everyone to work on bringing different things together from the different ensembles. It’s nice to work with everybody new and get to know everyone,” said Kay Forinash, a senior at Maine-Endwell.
But Rock Band Club isn’t the only way Maine-Endwell is re-thinking music education. Parker also teaches a brand-new guitar class, and a music production unit, which teaches students the ins and outs of creating their own songs from scratch. In a day and age where independent artists are more popular than ever, this gives kids a jumpstart on a potential career in the music industry, with much of the same equipment used by the professionals.
“This kind of gives kids the opportunity to work what’s behind the scenes at a recording studio. It gives them the opportunity to work on the music technology end of things. Kids get to go in, record a melody using a keyboard instrument, and then they can go in and add a beat to that, use loops, and then we learn all about how we can arrange that and program it and get it so it sounds like something that would be published.,” said Parker.
Just like Rock Band Club, our music production class is attracting more students to our fine arts department than ever before.
“The one thing I’m seeing, and the one thing I like teaching about is that it teaches kids to be more creative without caring if they’re playing a wrong note, or if they’re playing out of tune, or the rhythm is not quite right. Anybody can jump right in and hit something on the keyboard, and I can help them organize that idea and they can start making music right away,” said Parker.
Just ask Brandon Ellwanger, a junior at M-E who was excited to join the class.
“I like it a lot. I like the background stuff. I sing, but I like the behind the scenes, and not necessarily all the stuff that’s shown. I want to produce music, so music production sounds like it might help with that,” said Ellwanger.
For Parker, who first fell in love with music watching Charlie Daniels play the violin, it’s hard to not look back on his earliest days in music as he watches the joy in his students faces.
“I started playing the violin, and I was actually pretty good at it right away, and it made me feel like I had this special ability. It’s hard work, it’s practice, but I found like I had my thing, and I wanted to pursue that and expose kids to music and hopefully through music, they can find whatever their thing is to make them feel validated and good about themselves,” said Parker.
We’re excited to see our fine arts department only grow with more opportunities in the coming years.