Wolf Creek works to tune up music and band programs
WATERFORD – The dwindling numbers in the Wildcat Pride marching band alarmed Chase Myers when he arrived at Waterford High School two years ago. The band has grown from seven or eight students to 18, which includes several middle school students.
Now Myers is working toward the long-term health of the band and its backbone, the school music programs, by recruiting more music students in elementary grades and laying plans to replace outdated and worn equipment. Some of the band’s instruments date back to the 1970s.
On Monday afternoon, Myers directed band students as they worked on “Doppler Effect” by composer Sean O’Laughlin and a medley of songs by Queen arranged for band.
The band – four trumpets, a flute and a clarinet, a baritone sax and two alto saxophones, a trombone, a euphonium and five players in percussion – responded as he leapt through sections of the pieces that needed work with rhythm, crescendos and other dynamic devices, and unison These are students who have already reached technical proficiency on their instruments and are now learning the fine points of playing as an ensemble.
“We are going to start with B-flat in half-notes,” he said. “Ready?” The baton began to wave as his left hand indicated soft and loud, entrances and exits.
Before class, Myers talked about his ambitions for the band and the musical program in general.
“The first year I was here, in the competition we were given an overall three,” he said. “Last year we were given an overall two , with one and two in floor and two in sight reading. That’s a huge improvement.”
Building up the number of band students was his initial objective.
“When I came to the high school, we had maybe seven or eight kids in the class, this year it’s up to 18,” he said, adding that a few of the band members were recruited from the ranks of middle school. “We’re slowly working that number up.”
Myers said this year the total number of music students in the Wolf Creek system is 80, ranging from grades 5-12. Part of his long-term strategy, he said, is getting younger grades interested in music, in part so the high school isn’t facing a struggle to recruit enough students for band in future years.
Another part of his goal for the band is replacing aging instruments. Although some – such as trumpets and saxophones – can be purchased by the student or families, others are part of the school’s band equipage.
“I’m really focusing on the percussion equipment,” he said. “If we have an outdated trumpet, the kid can buy one and take it after graduation, but a marimba or a xylophone is a different story.”
Most people, he said, have little idea how much the instruments cost.
“We’re looking at a new tympani, and that will run $12,000. A marimba or xylophone, those are about $4,000,” he said.
And although they have a long life, even cymbals eventually wear out.
“Who would think that?” he said. “But at one of our competitions last year, a judge said we ought to get new cymbals.”
New high school instruments, he said, would allow the school to move its old equipment to the elementary school, giving those students more frequent access to them while saving the need to move expensive and sensitive instruments between schools.
The students Monday were band enthusiasts.
“I do this because I like music in general, and it builds character,” said Stephanie Saunders, a senior trumpet player. “It adds to your knowledge, and I just love playing.”
Alexis Sheets, a senior percussion player, said she enjoys the environment and sense of purpose.
“It provides a safe space to have creative experiences, and you’re surrounded by kids with the same interests and goals,” she said.
Hayley Gorrell, a junior and alto saxophonist, said she’s been playing sax for four years.
“I’m just a music freak, I love this kind of learning,” she said. “In the band family we’re free to be ourselves.”
Dwight Trader, whose son plays euphonium and sousaphone, is president of the band booster club for the Wildcats.
“We’re a booster club and we’re here to support the director,” he said. “We’re fortunate to have a long line of past boosters who have put on some pretty good fundraisers – we have a concession trailer at the fair, at football games we sell baked potatoes, ice cream and dumplings, we have peanut butter eggs at Easter, we have some well-established precedents in the community.”
Trader said the booster club has a budget of $14,000 to $15,000 a year. It most recently bought a trailer for transporting instruments to replace a 1970s vintage van, he said.
Waterford band and music program
•Old, outdated instruments.
•Low student participation.
•Plans to replace large, expensive instruments.
•Recruiting more music students at elementary level to eventually raise participation in upper grades.
•Wildcat band booster club contact: Dwight Trader – dwighttrader@gmail.com
Source: Chase Myers, Dwight Trader.