Rental Night

There is something deeply satisfying about seeing someone do your job better than you did. And not just better, but extraordinarily better. This week, I went back to my old school district to help with instrument rentals which meant sizing kids for violins and violas, having them try plucking and even bowing the instruments, and explaining the program to children and parents. For two nights, for over two hours, the families just kept coming. Four of us were doing this and we didn’t stop. Similar try-outs were happening for band students in an adjoining area.

Later in the week, one of my former colleagues shared her beginner enrollment numbers along with the numbers of students still playing. It’s unbelievable. She has 291 students in grades four, five and six. She has lesson groups of 16 students at a time. And unless you’ve been in a room with 16 kids (of various levels of ability) handling instruments for the first time, you can’t appreciate what that’s like. There are another 300 in the band program at the same level so it’s not like one group overshadows the other. Move on to the middle school and there are 95 string players in two grades including a cadre of seventh grade girls all playing like strong women on big 15" violas. The high school now has 102 strings. When winds and brass come in for full orchestra, they have to move to the band room because they no longer fit in the orchestra room.

When my colleagues and I ran this program, (and it was a damn strong program then), we were thrilled with half those numbers. Now, despite Covid and staff cuts and if-it’s-not-being- assessed by-a-standardized-test-it-doesn’t-matter-attitudes, instrumental enrollment is exploding. Two strings teachers instruct 500 kids from grades 4-12. They are tireless, relentlessly dedicated, and pushed way beyond their capacity to effectively teach these young people, and yet somehow they manage to do it. The high school music staff has even developed an advanced curriculum for band, choir, and orchestra with more intense requirements that will qualify for AP or Honors weight in GPA’s.

This is not “music light.” The expectations are high, performances at all levels reflect those expectations, and I think that’s why there is so much growth and demand for these programs. Quality always shines through. Students learn to hold and play their instruments properly, read music, count, listen, and participate in ensembles performing good music, not junk. I am not a fan of this “woo-woo” idea of just play or sing whatever you want and don’t worry about annoying things like reading notes or understanding rhythm. There will be plenty of opportunity for developing your own style, improvising, etc., but let’s learn the basics first.

It felt good to be back watching children’s faces light up when they plucked a violin for the very first time. But it felt even better to discover the program that several of us developed over the last thirty-plus years has evolved into something beyond our wildest dreams. Seeing it taken to a whole new level despite overwhelming odds, including a pandemic where, God help us, lessons had to be taught through Zoom, is beyond rewarding. It touches my heart.

I know what it's like to get bogged down in the weeds--the parent emails, the student dramas, the frustration of begging for funding and support, and the utter exhaustion, but don't ever lose sight of the value of what you do. Keep the faith and keep fighting the good fight, because you are changing so many lives for the better, my friends. You are keeping beauty and art flourishing in a world that desperately needs it, even during those ghastly first lessons filled with sweaty, anxious children, overtightened bows, and dropped rosin smashed on the floor.