A Story Written By The Greatkids Branch of Tamm Communications:
THE MUSIC MAN
It all started four years ago, when Eric was a seventh
grader attending Jane Latrop Stanford Middle School; in Palo Alto, CA. He applied to be a tutor for
the Ravenswood program, which was designed to
teach music to fourth and fifth graders whose
schools couldn’t afford music programs. Eric
explains: “They got students from two middle
schools here, and once a week we would go over
there and tutor the students in different instruments.
So we would be the music department that they
didn’t have.”
Every week, Eric and the other
Ravenswood tutors loaded their
instruments onto school buses
and then worked one-on-one
with the younger kids. The
fourth and fifth graders also
practiced as a group when the
tutors weren’t there, and
eventually gave concerts at their
own school and at Eric’s middle
school. Eric participated in the Ravenswood program
both as a seventh and eighth grader.
But for Eric, it all really started back in 1987, when
he learned to play the piano, and first started to read
and understand music. In fifth grade, he was
required to play one instrument for school. He chose
the trumpet, and has excelled in brass instruments
ever since.
In the middle school band, he started out with the
trumpet. But he soon grew bored with the low part
he had to play, and a mere month before the concert,
he switched to the baritone. And even that wasn’t
the end of it--a week before the concert, Eric
abandoned the baritone for the tuba!
But surprisingly enough, Eric has yet to tire of the
tuba: “You get to play as loud as you want,” he
grins. “I’ve got the hugest instrument in our entire
band.” However, he only plays the tuba for his high
school’s symphonic band. He also participates in two
other bands--he used to play the trumpet in concert
band, but then switched to percussion; for jazz band,
he’s learning to play the trombone.
All that switching around
sounds pretty confusing,
but Eric says it comes
easily: “I already know
how to play brass
instruments, so I just need
to get used to the different
size of the mouthpiece and stuff like that. I can
pretty much pick up any brass instrument and get the
basic parts of it in maybe fifteen minutes.” That’s an
amazing musical talent!
And Eric hasn’t stopped sharing that talent, even
though he’s no longer part of the Ravenswood
program. He helps out the concert band in his spare
time, tutoring any musicians who are having trouble
with their parts. He’s also helping a friend to learn
the piano, as well as playing in a trumpet quartet with
his friends. In fact, Eric spends so much time in the
band room at school that other students joke that he
lives there!
But teaching is important to him as a musician.
Because he has such a strong ability, Eric usually
doesn’t have to think about how he plays any of his
instruments; he just picks them up and plays. But
when he teaches someone else, he’s forced to figure
out exactly how to produce each particular sound.
“While you’re explaining to people, you actually
learn how to play your instrument better,” he says.
He also finds it very valuable to listen to the other
members of a musical ensemble, in order to improve
his own skills and work better with the band as a
whole.
It’s not surprising that someone who plays so many
instruments would also like all different varieties of
music. Eric says he’ll listen to almost anything: pop,
rock, jazz, classical (Louis Armstrong, Michael
Jackson, Mozart, and Hanson are some of his
favorites). But his life isn’t entirely made of notes
and instruments, either--he plays roller hockey,
baseball, and football for fun, and also works on cars
(he wants to become an auto mechanic). Still, it’s
plain to see that music has always been a very
important part of Eric’s life; and there’s no doubt
that all of the kids he’s tutored are grateful that he
shared some of his immense talent with them.
