Laying a Musical Foundation One Note at a Time

Western music is not new to anyone in this community, but most of the people here have never seen a clarinet nor knew a saxophone existed. Many of them have heard these instruments played in the music they listen to, but had no idea they could make those sounds some day. The most exciting part of my experience, so far, has been to watch these students discover new things about music and themselves.

Teaching is a challenge and teaching music is no exception. For the past four years that I studied at The Curtis Institute of Music, I became comfortable with preparing a concert each week. It was common for us to sightread a rehearsal perfectly, discuss some musical ideas and put the music away only to see it next in concert.

Moses Marete, the principal at BLISS high school, welcomed the music program after having a short meeting with Larry Dittmar and I. He told each student in the 9th and 10th grades that if they were interested in learning music, to show up at our meeting. Everyone showed up. I performed a few pieces for them and talked about what we hoped to accomplish in the music program. That evening, the principal came to my apartment with a list of 114 students that wanted to learn music: 54 of them wanted to learn trumpet.

We have been working for the past two weeks with these students to get them to develop a characteristic sound, become comfortable with holding their instruments and introducing them to basic musical concepts of rhythm and pitch. You would think these would be the noisiest kids just by the way they enter the room: They are always busy chatting, figuring out who to sit next to and playfully pulling jokes on each other. Once I enter the room, they straighten up and soak in every word that I say. Each hour of instruction feels like twenty minutes to me, but the students accomplish much more than I expect. They listen, adjust and do not give up.

One example is a kid named Samuel Mutuiri who was the worst trumpet player of all 54. I literally thought that he should be switched to a different instrument to put me out of my misery! He came to me after our first class and said, "I really want to learn to make one note sound as nice as yours". It took me no more than five minutes to adjust his embouchure and he produced the nicest sound that I have heard so far. By this time, a group of 20 kids from the primary school was in the same room, quietly listening and watching me teach Samuel. I didn't think anything about our lesson and after he made that sound, I packed up the instruments and headed home. The next day, Samuel came to me again and tells me that he wants to learn how to make each note on the trumpet just as good as the day before. I taught him for a half hour and permanently helped him correct his embouchure. I sent him home with a mouthpiece and a homework assignment and each day he would return mastering what I gave him and requesting the next assignment. Today, Sunday, I received a knock at my door and there was Samuel, who walked almost ten miles from home. He told me, "Mr. Stanford, I want to become a professional trumpet player."

The work is hard, but I am convinced that lives are being changed each day through music. More than any other musical experience I have had, this experience has humbled me beyond measure. Of all of the students I work with, only a dozen want to become professional musicians, but my work here is not about that. I believe my work is helping these students realize what confidence and self-esteem really is, especially when they are always reminded of what they don't have. No amount of money or resources can vindicate through the spirit of their human condition and raise up their dignity; music and the arts can.