Two Renton High School music teachers hope to engage students musically through new guitar and keyboard classes at the school this fall. They are set to begin in September but still in need of more instruments to help support a music program that has been chronically underfunded district-wide.
In the past teachers have taught students keyboard using papers on their desks for them to “play.”
“We’ve been functioning on nothing to the point where I’ve been teaching – I’m going to cry – I’ve been teaching on garbage cans…” said Lizabeth Diaz, breaking down.
Diaz is the choir and keyboard director at Renton High School and in charge of the new keyboard class. Teaching students beats on buckets is a typical thing to do, she said, in elementary school, but the use of garbage cans in high school is a desperate measure.
The class is in need of eight to 10 more keyboards and accessories but will make do with the old and often out-of-tune pianos that they currently have until they get more.
Darlene Rose is the school’s orchestra director and chair of the Creative and Performing Arts Department. She’s in need of 32 full-sized guitars, steel or classical nylon-stringed, for the school’s first guitar class.
Renton High School received a grant from the Friends of Renton Schools, which allowed the department to get four keyboards, a Congo drum and a Latin drum called a Cojon. Music retailer Kennelly Keys also gave them some donations including eight keyboard pedals.
Rose and Diaz hope to teach students the basic fundamentals of music and let students guide them to what musical genres they’d like to explore.
“Some kids are really, really interested in classical music,” said Diaz.
Others like the jazzy pop songs and still others just want to create on their own, she said.
The teachers hope that the two new courses spark students’ interest further so they continue with the department and take the school’s International Baccalaureate music classes. At the very least, they hope to capture the students who didn’t enter the music program in middle school, but who would like to still gain the skills.
About 32 students will get a surprise this fall when they discover the music tech class they were enrolled in is actually a guitar class. It was decided that the elective class would be a guitar class after school got out last year.
“A lot of our students play string instruments or many of my students come and they are so excited to learn how to play the piano and it serves so many needs for them that choir and band and orchestra just don’t meet,” said Diaz.
To make a donation to these programs, checks can be made out to Renton High School and mailed in care of Principal Giovanna San Martin to 400 S 2nd St, Renton, WA 98057.
