Jessica Carey, a sophomore vocal music education major at Millikin University, said she was able to learn so much in such little time during a Modern Band Methods Workshop held in Kirkland Fine Arts Center on Oct. 31.
Little Kids Rock, a national nonprofit organization, partnered with Millikin University to offer a special invitation-only, one day Modern Band Workshop for Millikin music education students and Decatur Public Schools music teachers. Throughout the Modern Band Workshop, students and teachers engaged in lessons on vocal pedagogy, guitar, keyboards, drum sets, bass and songwriting.
The sessions were led by Little Kids Rock Clinician Dr. Bryan Powell, director of programs for Amp Up NYC.
"Their focus and goal is to bring pop and rock music into public school music education," said Dr. Neal Smith, Millikin associate professor of music education. "Bryan gave a brief overview of how you get kids, K-12th grade students, to interact with music in a new and unusual way. Teaching pop music or music they are more familiar with gives the students a way for them to be more comfortable with it."
The Modern Band Workshop teaches the popular musical styles of the past 60 years, from rock to reggae to Latin and R&B, among other genres, with a heavy focus on improvisation and composition. It compliments existing programs such as jazz band, choral programs, concert band and orchestra.
"The Millikin students are ready to go out and teach in other schools, and they'll find that it's a challenge to reach and connect with students," Dr. Smith said. "The workshop gives them a chance to get more tools and help them make an impact on students that they'll teach."
Clinician Dr. Bryan Powell is a musician and music educator with elementary, secondary and college teaching experience. He is an adjunct professor of music and education who teaches at Hunter College and Bergen Community College, and also facilitates online Master and Doctoral level courses for Boston University.
"A lot of the teachers here might not identify as a guitar player or whatever, and we've given them an approach to how they might include it in the classroom, not to replace the thing they're doing, but in addition to that, to get more students into school music," Powell said.
Little Kids Rock partners with public school districts and provides free musical instruments, training, curricula and other resources to school teachers who have the opportunity to transform their students' lives through music education.
"I was nervous because I never played guitar or bass before," Jessica Carey said, from Morris, Ill. "It's interesting because there's such intensive instruction. Imagine what you could do in a classroom over the course of a semester if you can learn all of this in two hours."
Little Kids Rock is the only school-based, pop and rock instrumental music program in the U.S. The program currently serves nearly 200,000 disadvantaged students in nearly 1,500 schools in 30 cities nationwide. Since 2002, Little Kids Rock has donated more than 50,000 instruments and invested more than $12 million worth of resources into U.S. public schools.
Dr. Smith noted, "What I think is great about the workshop is the collaboration with Decatur Public Schools, Millikin music education and Little Kids Rock. I think there's a nice triangle we can develop and grow over time."