Tres Pinos students make their own tunes
The words
”
I can sing. I can write,
”
have echoed around the seventh- and eighth-grade classroom at
Tres Pinos Union Elementary School during the past two weeks. The
boys in the room, a small group, sang out strong and loud with no
self-consciousness. After the boys were seated, the girls gathered
at the front of the classroom, singing the words softer but with
more emphasis.
Tres Pinos students make their own tunes
The words “I can sing. I can write,” have echoed around the seventh- and eighth-grade classroom at Tres Pinos Union Elementary School during the past two weeks. The boys in the room, a small group, sang out strong and loud with no self-consciousness. After the boys were seated, the girls gathered at the front of the classroom, singing the words softer but with more emphasis.
Between math assignments and vocabulary tests, the upper-division students at the rural school a few miles south of Hollister received a special guest for four days.
Bob Reid, a local musician who lives in San Juan Bautista, started the students on a journey in song writing Oct. 12 that culminated in their recording their own music eight days later.
“I started working 30 years ago in rural schools,” Reid said, who first worked in Monterey County and now works with Santa Cruz’ Special Teaching Resources in the Arts program. “It’s kind of a homecoming. The kids [in rural schools] are always a little warmer.”
To bring the musician to the small school, Principal Lou Medeiros applied for a grant from the E Cubed Foundation, a San Benito nonprofit that provides money to rural schools for special programs. He had first heard of Reid’s work last year when Reid went into classes at Jefferson School in Paicines.
Reid’s program seemed like a good fit for Tres Pinos, Medeiros said because many of the students are involved in music or the San Benito Stage Co. outside of class.
One the first day with students, Reid talked to them about how songs can be used to focus people’s attention on important issues. The students then collaborated on a theme for the song they would write together.
“It was a little weird to come up with a topic,” said Grace Tobias, 13. “We picked freedom and we wrote the chorus and the first verse.”
Her friends Kayla Martin and Mayra Quezada, both 13, agreed coming up with lyrics that everyone agreed on was difficult.
Reid worked on the melody for the songs and put together the music that would hold the lyrics together for the students while the students finished writing the lyrics.
Each of the four upper division classes developed one song as a class and the themes included freedom, terrorism and war – Reid believed the themes came out of a recent visit students had from a military official.
“They came up with a multitude of topics, but that is what they chose,” Reid said.
By the last day with Reid, the students had rehearsed their songs for a week, some singing it around their homes.
While learning to write a song is part of the process, Reid wanted the kids to think about the commercial music they buy.
“They have the experience of participating rather than just being a consumer,” he said. “They might listen to a song and ask, ‘Why did this person write this song?’ Did they do it just to make money?”
Part of the experience for the kids is actually recording the song they’ve written and Reid created a makeshift recording studio in each classroom throughout the last day with students. The boys in Sharon Johnston’s middle school class gathered at the front of the classroom with headphones piping in Reid’s recorded voice. After recording the “I can sing, I can write” chorus the boys giggled and smiled as they heard their own voices played back.
The girls recorded the chorus and both groups took two turns recording the entire song with lyrics such as “I can be what I want to be,” to portray the important choices freedom allots.
The fourth- and fifth-grade class also focused on freedom while the sixth- and seventh-grade class wrote about war and the fifth- and sixth-grade class, focused on the fear that terrorism has created since Sept. 11. (See sidebar)
Reid made a final mix of the song with multiple voice tracks and musical instruments added in. The students would be surprised with the final product, he said, with the additional sound tracks. The final CD is not the end of the musical journey for the students and Reid mentioned a possible music video in the future, though they might need to shoot it at lunchtime instead of during class.
Reid’s musical passion is nearly always filtered into the classrooms he works with now.
“I do so much writing with classes that I’m not really hungry to do it on my own,” he said. “Seeing their faces when they hear the songs is great.”
During the four-day program, Medeiros dropped in all the classes and felt it had been a success.
“I just wanted some of the students who are into creative arts to have a way to express themselves,” he said. “If the [music] becomes the reason to show up today, that’s OK by me.”
Why?
Fifth and sixth grade class of Susan Carpenter, Tres Pinos School, 2006
Refrain:
So many sigh, suffer and cry;
I dry my eyes, and wonder why.
Chorus:
All the things that they do,
Make me wonder just what’s true;
And what’s a lie,
I wonder why.
(refrain)
Why do we have enemies?
Anybody tell me please;
I need to know,
Why this is so.
(refrain)
Every time I see a plane,
I remember all the pain;
That I went through,
And so did you.
(refrain)
Bridge:
Remember when life was simple,
Before that fateful day;
And sorrow dawned on everyone,
Let’s drive the fear away.
(refrain)
I don’t know what will happen next,
All that we can do is guess;
And take a stand,
We love our land.
(refrain)
Melissa Flores can be reached at
mf*****@pi**********.com
.
