Marimba Magic
An African music tradition fills after-school hours with rhythm—and learning—at a Willamette Valley school
Salem, Oregon—Crystal, a fifth-grader at Bush Elementary School, stands over the bass marimba, all of her energy focused on executing a complicated new part. Two, three, four times she makes a mistake and starts over.
"That's OK," says the director, Martin Sobelman. "That's what rehearsal is all about."
The 13 other students in the band sit patiently, focused on Crystal's playing, nodding their heads or tapping their feet in time with her rhythm. No one laughs when she makes a mistake; no one squirms with impatience.
"There you go," says Sobelman, as Crystal begins to lock into the part. "All right now!" He turns to face the rest of the band. "Are you ready to join her?" he asks with enthusiasm, as Crystal continues to lay down the complicated pattern behind him, her brow still furrowed but a smile showing at the corners of her mouth. Crystal stops playing, and her bandmates give her a quick round of applause. Then Sobelman counts out the time and the full band begins. The room is suddenly alive with rich, full chords and a fabulously syncopated rhythm. Pure marimba magic.
A few bars later the sound collapses in a train wreck of missed parts and embarrassed laughter from the whole group. But it doesn't matter —the moment was wonderful and they can feel it. A little more practice and they'll have it.
The Bush Elementary Marimba Band is part of an after-school learning program run by the Salem-Keizer School District. Partly funded by a federal 21st Century Community Learning Center (CCLC) grant, it has been a runaway success. Two groups, one for fourth-graders and one for fifth-graders, meet weekly after school and during one lunch break.
"To build a successful project," says Gaelen McAllister, a parent volunteer at the school and the co-writer of the grant, "you have to start with someone's passion."
Teri Urban, who directs 21st CCLC projects for Salem-Keizer, agrees. "You have to have someone who goes out in the community and finds volunteers or teachers with specific interests. You find out what they're good at and design a project around that, rather than telling them what to do."
Sobelman, the school's music teacher, was the genesis of the marimba project. "The main elements of marimba music are found in every culture," says Sobelman, "It's something that appeals to people from many different backgrounds."
It seemed like a perfect fit for Bush Elementary, a high-needs, bilingual school where nearly half the students come from Spanish-speaking homes. While marimba music originated in Africa, it spread to the Caribbean and from there to Latin America and beyond.
A major program goal is to connect it with the larger curriculum. "We wanted to tie it to academics in a very concrete way," says McAllister. A rigorous, "no excuses" policy requires band members to maintain a high level of attendance and academic achievement. And instruction is cross-curricular, tied explicitly to an array of subjects. Practices are spiced with details about the cultural background of each composition, the mathematical patterns underlying the music, the social-historical context, the technology and craft involved in instrument design, and the similarities with other art forms and styles of music.
"Kids who hear a lot of music are better at math," says Sobelman, pointing out that marimba, with its complex rhythms and interweaving of patterns, is particularly easy to relate to the larger math curriculum.
The program includes an afternoon snack and buses to take students home. "When you eliminate barriers —food, driving—your chances for success are much greater," says Rita Glass, the school's outreach coordinator. "Just providing transportation has increased the program by half."
The band has given parents a greater identification with the school, helping to reduce mobility. "Parents are saying, 'It's worth keeping my kids at this school,' " says Urban.
And it has also increased community outreach. The band has performed at the state capitol, the local World Beat Festival, the Oregon fiesta, among other events, to great acclaim. "People see these kids performing really complex music at a very high level—they get a different view of what Bush Elementary is," says McAllister.
Probably the greatest result of the project, however, has been its effect on the kids. The beaming smiles and obvious pride they take in the band are testament to it.
"We all have fun," says Whitney, a fifth-grade band member. "It's fun to play an instrument and to know you can do things, accomplish things."
Her bandmate, Ana, puts the success of the project in succinct, fifth-grade terms: "It makes everybody jealous that we're in the band," she says with a huge smile.
