Bush Elementary School

Location
Bush Elementary School
755 University Street, S.E.
Salem, OR 97301

Contact
David Bertholf, Principal
Phone: 503-399-3134
E-mail: BERTHOLF_DAVE@salkeiz.k12.or.us
Web site: www.salkeiz.k12.or.us/Schools/Bush.htm

Marimba Magic: An African Music Tradition Fills After-School Hours With Rhythm—and Learning—at a Willamette Valley School

—By Bracken Reed

Crystal, a fifth-grade student 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 or yells out that they could do better.

"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 obvious 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. This is serious fun.

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. The project consists of two different groups, one for fourth-graders and one for fifth-graders, each meeting once a week from 3 to 5 p.m., 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."

It’s the same with the other projects in the after-school program, says Teri Urban, who directs 21st CCLC projects for Salem-Keizer. "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 project around that, rather than telling them what to do."

Sobelman, the school’s music teacher, was the genesis of the marimba project. A fellow music teacher in the region first told him about a similar marimba band project. It seemed like a perfect fit for his school. Bush Elementary ranks among the 10 highest-needs schools in the state. A Title I Schoolwide school with more than 80 percent of the students on free or reduced-price lunch, it is also a bilingual school with nearly 50 percent of the students coming from Spanish-speaking homes. While marimba music originated in Africa, it spread to the Caribbean and from there to Latin America and beyond.

"The main elements of marimba music are found in every culture," says Sobelman, "It’s something that appeals to people from many different backgrounds."

One of the main goals that Sobelman and the grant writers set for the program was to connect it with the larger curriculum. "We wanted to tie it to academics in a very concrete way," says McAllister. This has been done in two different ways. First, the students must maintain a high level of attendance and academic achievement to be a member of the touring band. This is a rigorous, "no excuses" policy. Yet, as Sobelman points out, the program has had "very, very few" students who have been unable to meet these requirements.

Second, Sobelman makes every attempt to teach marimba music in a cross-curricular manner, tying it to a wide variety of subjects as explicitly as possible. 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 the design of the instruments, 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 marimba band has also tied in with several of the school’s other goals. "It’s one more way to get parents involved," says Rita Glass, the school’s community school outreach coordinator. All the after-school programs include an afternoon snack and buses that arrive at 5:30 p.m. to take the students home. "When you eliminate barriers—food, driving—your chances for success are much greater," says Glass. "Just providing transportation has increased the program by half."

The marimba band and other after-school projects have given parents a much greater identification with the school, which has helped reduce a traditionally high mobility rate. "Parents are saying, ’It’s worth keeping my kids at this school,’ " says Urban. "Because of all the good programs we have in place and the effort we make to be bilingual, if they do have to leave for a while, they make an effort to come back here."

One further effect of the Marimba Band has been to increase community outreach. The band has performed at the state capitol, the local World Beat Festival, the Oregon fiesta, and several 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. "Our philosophy has been to build a program, teach the kids, and take it to the community. The response has been very positive."

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 the success of the project.

"We all have fun," says Whitney, one of the fifth-grade band members. "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.