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Riverfield Country Day School develops its own version of the "School of Rock."
Maxwell Musick, an eighth-grader at Riverfield Country Day School, writes his own songs, several of which he performed at the 2010 Riverfield Rocks Street Party April 30.
The band members step into their places and prepare to begin rehearsal. The tune: the White Stripes’ “Blue Orchid 1.” The band: Brenna Maxey (vocals), Braxton Gore (guitar), Bret Anderson (bass), Tollie Pugh (drums) and Hank Williams (guitar). The setting: a trailer in south Tulsa where the walls are covered with concert posters and a whiteboard is dotted with sketches of musical chords.
As they begin to rehearse, Maxey belts out the words with confidence, stepping back during a musical interlude to bob her head to the beat. Pugh keeps time as the guitarists pluck their strings, looking down often to ensure their fingers are in the correct positions.
To a listener’s ears only, the band could be made up of adults with years of musical training under their belts. And while they do have the years of training, this band is not made up of adults but rather — as Williams’ T-shirt proclaims — “Rock ’n’ Roll Kids.”
These fourth-graders represent just five of the 60-70 students participating in Tulsa’s own version of “The School of Rock.” At Riverfield Country Day School, students in the fourth through 12th grades gather two times each week to rehearse as rock bands. They sing and play guitar, drums and keyboard. They have homework and schedule additional practices before live performances (Café Night in the fall and Street Party in the spring). They also take and teach private lessons, with older students teaching children as young as 5.
Beginning in third grade, students participate in a variety of summer camps: an Introduction to Rock camp for third- through fifth-graders, a recording camp for middle and high school students and a band camp for all students in late summer once the ensembles for each grade have been assigned.
Instructor Paul Knight, who is classically trained in jazz and has a bachelor’s in music composition from The University of Tulsa, created Riverfield’s band program five years ago to supplement a longstanding primary music program. Knight says the program is like traditional school band programs in many ways, with students learning music theory, music history and aspects of classical and jazz styles, but “it uses music that kids are more emotionally connected with,” he says. “It helps it sync quicker.”
And a wide range of music it is. Students perform everything from Radiohead to Muse to Phoenix to The Black Eyed Peas. They have also met some of their musical idols, thanks to parent Shaun Edwardes, a native of England, who developed high-profile contacts while working in the music recording and touring business there. Riverfield students traveled to the BOK Center for meet-and-greets with Roger Daltry (touring with Eric Clapton) and AC/DC.
Knight says that for a private school such as Riverfield, the rock-band approach to music education is ideal. It is more affordable than traditional band and orchestra programs and engaging students has been relatively easy.
“This can help save music education in small schools,” Knight says.
In addition to developing their musical abilities, the program encourages other qualities as well, such as confidence, creativity and teamwork.
“There’s a lot of accountability that they expect from everyone (in their band) and I expect from them,” Knight says. “I’m their biggest coach and biggest critic.”
Eighth-grader Maxwell Musick and seventh-grader Olivia Edwardes are two of Knight’s star students. Musick is a guitarist and vocalist who also pens his own songs — he performed several original compositions at the 2010 Riverfield Rocks Street Party. Classically trained in opera, Edwardes also plays piano and guitar and enjoyed her “Beyoncé moment” singing “Single Ladies” at Street Party.
“I love it,” Olivia Edwardes says of performing. “It’s like all my dreams have come true when I’m up there.”
Musick says his favorite part of performing is “the feeling whenever you go up there and you get done with a song and it goes really, really well.”
Both students plan to continue their participation in the band program through high school. As for the future, Musick says he would love to record an album someday, and Edwardes says of a music career: “I can’t see myself doing anything else.”
Knight has the same reaction.
“I have the coolest job in the world,” he says.
