Bluegrass is a genre of music many kids today just aren't into, but Sally Stuart, music teacher at Mayflower Elementary School, has been working hard for the past two years to change that.
Stuart started an after-school bluegrass program for students in the third- through eighth-grade two years ago to teach kids the history of bluegrass and actually get the instruments in their hands.
"I started the program because I am a big bluegrass fan and when I go to the bluegrass parks, I don't hardly ever see any people under the age of 60," Stuart said Thursday. "And then the International Bluegrass Music Association out of Nashville came out with a DVD called 'Discover Bluegrass' and it is for teaching the history of bluegrass and to help students gain an interest in it."
Stuart said she took one of the DVDs home and created a lesson plan for a bluegrass unit and introduced it to the kindergarten through third-grade students in her music class. She said they were very receptive to it.
"Because the younger kids liked it so much, I thought this could be a program I could do after school for those who wanted to learn more about it," Stuart said. "And the first year I had 17 kids and I've had a few of those who have stuck with it through this year."
The students practice after school every Thursday and this past week although she was missing a fiddler, a bass player and a mandolin player, Stuart had three guitar players, eighth-grader Sabrina Morgan, fifth-grader Kennedi Whillock and sixth-grader Drake Brown, a dobro player, fifth-grader Devin Mathis, and a banjo player, fifth-grader Chase Lute.
Morgan is one of the students who has been involved with the program from the beginning and although she will be a ninth-grader next year, Stuart said she wants to continue with the program and help with the new students.
"And Sabrina has written a couple of the songs, actually," Stuart said. "She writes poetry and she came to me and asked if I thought she could write a song and I told her of course she could. So she came up with the words for a few songs and we put the chords to it."
Morgan said she has been so involved in the program because of her love for music.
"I think it is a good after school program for kids my age because it gives us something positive and fun to do after school and it's a way to express yourself freely through music," Morgan said Thursday.
Morgan's interest in the bluegrass program came from watching her stepdad play guitar.
"He loves to play the guitar and I would just watch the way he played so fast and it just amazed me," Morgan said.
Although her dad is in a band and very proficient on the guitar, Morgan said he just wasn't the type of person to teach guitar, so she jumped at the opportunity to learn after school.
She also said although the guitar was a little challenging at first, once she got the hang of it and learned the main chords, she had it down.
Lute said his dad was big influence for him picking up the banjo and joining Stuart's after-school bluegrass program.
"I picked it because my dad told me it would be the easiest instrument in the world to play and that if you know how to play the banjo, you can probably play any string instrument," Lute said. "But it is not the easiest in the world, but I'm getting better. I think the easiest would probably be the triangle."
Lute said he has been having fun with the other students in the program and he loves all the different sounds he can make with the banjo.
Stuart said the kids have been working on several two- and three-chord songs and they have mainly been practicing chord changes to get ready for the big bluegrass concert to be held April 26 at the park in Mayflower. She said her students will perform on stage, along with a few other local groups, and a portion of the money raised goes toward purchasing instruments for the program.
(Staff writer Jessica Bauer can be reached by e-mail at jessica.bauer@thecabin.net or by phone at 505-1236. To comment on this and other stories in the Log Cabin, log on to www.thecabin.net. Send us your news at www.thecabin.net/submit)
