Published: September 24, 2009 11:05 pm      

Deer Creek students take to strings

EDMOND — Tiny eyes lit up around the room Tuesday evening at Deer Creek Middle School as second- and third-grade students were being introduced for the first time to small scale violins, cellos, bass and violas.

With instruments provided by Inter-City Violin Studios, the students listened to a 10-year-old cello player and a 5-year-old violinist as they accompanied Dr. Beth Sievers, a professional strings player, master teacher and the director of the new strings program that had its first practice Thursday after school in the Deer Creek Middle School Chorus room.

It was part of the introduction to a strings program being started by the parents in the Deer Creek School System.

Parents M.J. Means and Paula McKinney are coordinators for the orchestra, although neither has a child who is interested in taking the class at this time.

Both parents served on the Curriculum Task Force started by the school board, and part of the job of the committee was to help plan the curriculum direction for the next 10 years.

“When a long-range planning survey was sent to district parents the results showed there was great support for a strings program,” Means said. “I grew up in Edmond in the late ’70s, and Edmond started their orchestra program when they were about the size (in population) we are now.”

The desire is to take the district to a 6-A level in the future, and in doing so the parents want to make sure arts of all kinds are included in the curriculum.

“I think it is important for the children to have exposure to the arts if we want to help develop a well-rounded child,” Means said. “In the past funds have not been available.”

While researching how to start a program in the district, the parents realized funds would be necessary for instrument rental and a teacher would have to be hired.

Over the summer parent Paula McKinney ran into Sievers, from the University of Oklahoma.

“In visiting with her I found out she was the director of the strings project at OU, and when she heard what percentage of our parents were interested in a strings program she was really excited,” McKinney said. “Dr. Sievers has experience teaching little children to college-aged students. She is very knowledgeable, and we are very excited.

“We talked to her about grant money but she said we had to have a program started first.”

Although resources will be available with the passage of an upcoming bond issue, the parents saw the need to begin preparation now.

“When the new middle school is built we will be able to start a full orchestra program,” Means said. “We knew we had to start somewhere, so we started with second- and third-graders because they will be in the first group that will be at the new middle school.”

At this time with 15 students signed up, the ladies are looking at a class of second- and third-graders with first-graders possibly being added and perhaps a second class of fourth- and fifth-graders depending on the interest.

In addition to teaching college-level students, Sievers plays professionally with the Philharmonic Orchestra, is the orchestra teacher and director at Harding Fine Arts Charter School, and teaches more than 70 students in a program at Norman. She is also director of the Sooner Strings Project, with the goal of the organization to have strings classes in area schools that are interested in starting a program.

With a shortage of strings teachers, McKinney said the district was fortunate to get a master teacher and instructor for the students.

Sievers is donating her time and the parents will be paying the cost of transportation from Norman out of a $1,000 grant Sievers applied for and received for the district. She said if there is anything she can do to help expose children to strings, she will try.

“The effect of learning to play a musical instrument shows it affects the brain in such a way that it helps them in other classes,” Sievers said. “Test results also show students do better on standardized tests as they learn how to pay attention while learning to play a stringed instrument. They also learn rhythm games and motion activities.”

Parents will be able to rent instruments for their children.

“It is a good thing to rent instruments for younger children,” McKinney said. “As they grow they will also move up to larger instruments.

When asked what stringed instrument they wanted to play at the beginning of the program Tuesday afternoon, all the children raised their hands and said they wanted to play the violin.

By the end of the program, the children had picked a variety of stringed instruments that they wanted to learn to play, Sievers said, laughing.