Sheridan school receives array of musical devices

Rusty Rae/News-Register##Faulconer-Chapman third-grader Kaleb Myatt joins music teacher Jon Sherwood as he plays guitar during a lesson Tuesday. Students at the Sheridan school have numerous new instruments for learning musical concepts, thanks to a donation from the Snowman Foundation’s Play It Forward program.

Submitted photo##The nonprofit Snowman Foundation provided glockenspiels, cowbells, sleigh bells, boomwhackers, rhythm sticks and other instruments to Faulconer Chapman School in Sheridan. They will be useful for making music as well as teaching musical concepts, teachers said.

Children at Sheridan’s Faulconer-Chapman School are learning rhythms, dynamics and other musical skills using new instruments donated by the Snowman Foundation.

The collection of instruments was introduced last week by Travis Johnson, a music teacher from Portland who works with Snowman’s ”Play It Forward” program. The visiting teacher also provided some lessons in using the cowbells, sleigh bells, glockenspiels and other musical devices.

The nonprofit foundation was founded by well-known musician Michael Allen Harrison and his wife, Marietta Harrison, to provide musical opportunities to young people.

Snowman previously provided Faulconer-Chapman with a piano, said Jon Sherwood, who teaches music for those in the lower grades at the school. Derek Evers also will use the instruments with his fifth- through eighth-grade music students there.

Sherwood contacted Laurie Heinz of the foundation this year asking for help with getting more instruments into the hands of students.

Snowman responded by giving the instruments, including a large number of rhythm sticks. The sticks, which look like stubby drumsticks, are great for teaching how to count notes, use dynamics and practice other concepts, the teacher said.

In a recent class for third-graders, Sherwood handed out several new instruments called “boomwhackers.”

The colorful plastic tubes sound different notes when they are whacked on the floor. The longer the tube, the lower the note – in this case, a really long tube created middle C, and shorter ones made A and D.

Students whacked the tubes as the teacher pointed to notes written on a staff on the white board at the front of the classroom. They sang along, as well.

“Are you sleeping, are you sleeping …” — the opening of the familiar French tune, “Frere Jacques.”

After spring break, the music students will use additional boomwhackers to play the rest of the song, in addition to exploring the many things they can do with the other new instruments.