This winter has been an exciting time for all the Neighborhood Strings students and families. The students spent the fall meeting several times a week to practice pre-instrument skills like singing, rhythm, solfège, and just enjoying spending time as a group. In December, the students got to choose which string instruments they would play, and conveniently it worked out with the numbers that every student received his or her first choice. After that, the big question everyone kept asking was, “when are we going to get our instruments?” In early January, the families came to our “Instrument-Giving Ceremony,” hosted by Clark University, right around the corner from Woodland Academy, where our lessons take place. We had built the occasion up into a celebration and responsibility, so the students knew it was a big deal to take home their own violins, violas and cellos. Every Neighborhood Strings family was there, along with Peter, Rohan, and Tracy from WCMS, several board members and friends of the organization, officials from Clark, and even five or six of the kids’ teachers from Woodland Academy. It was a wonderful community gathering for all of us. There were some musical performances: the students (a little shy on stage for the first time) showed off what they’d learned in the fall, including some songs, solfège, and a “rhythm machine.” Peter and Rohan played some duos, and the families and students were an appreciative audience. Finally, the students lined up and took mini-pledges to care for their instruments. We all celebrated with a potluck before the kids took their instruments home for the first time.
After that, the hard work began. Playing a string instrument for the first time is tough! There is a particular way to hold it to get a nice sound and feel relaxed; the students have to learn how to pluck the strings, to use the bow, to get a nice sound. It takes a lot of patience and willingness to try things over and over until they start to work. All the violinists and violists are learning from Peter and the cellists from me – both of us with wonderful & consistent assistance by college & high school mentors. The students have lessons every week, as well as assisted practice time with mentors and “All-Play Day” on Fridays that includes ensemble. Overall, the spirits seem quite high despite the challenging work. The students don’t seem too daunted by the journey in front of them. In fact, many of them still ask, “what is going to happen when I graduate from high school? Will I have to give back my violin?” Given that most of them have almost a decade before that comes to pass, we tell them we will figure it out. I see a lot of the kids, and some of the little moments in recent weeks are the most memorable: seeing an older student covertly show a younger student how he’s figured out how to use his left hand fingers to change the pitch; noticing that a hyper cellist has figured out how to create a nice open-string sound and asked his teacher to stop for a moment and listen; hearing the ensemble stay together through their first group pieces and finding the joy in it. It is a long journey, but hopefully the first steps of a lot of delight in music-making for these students.
~Ariana