Student musicians strike chord at wind contest
Print Edition
A Shanghai school wind music contest was held in Yangpu District recently, organized by the district government.
Students from Neijiang Road Elementary School shone as some of the brightest stars in the contest, in which a total of 22 bands from Shanghai elementary and high schools participated.
During their performance, the school’s marching band impressed the judges and crowds alike with their adept playing abilities and skillful formations. At the end of the day, the band went home with the gold award in the elementary school group.
“We formed the band not just to achieve results in contests,” said Tian Yong, headmaster of the school. “We expect the children to learn to appreciate the charms of wind music.”
The school said the band, formed mainly of children of migrant workers, was founded in February last year. Three professional teachers are in charge of the band and all lectures and practices are free of charge.
“Because of their families’ economic situations, the children were not able to take part in many cultural activities, let alone study music,” said Tian. “So we thought we could provide them with an opportunity.”
Now the band has 47 members, including 30 percussion band members and 17 marching band members. The members are all Grade 3 and Grade 4 students.
As the school belongs to the Yangpu Elementary School Group, coordination within the group helped solve many challenges when the band first started, such as sourcing musical instrument and recruiting instructors.
Yang Shuang is the main instructor for the band. Yang has many years of experience working with school wind music bands. Her method for helping students improve their musical abilities includes filming their performances and then reviewing these videos later on.
“The videos were not only for improving their skills, but also to let them know how much progress they have made,” said Yang. “Witnessing their own growth is the best encouragement.”
Yang is good at discovering the hidden talents of children. She said one of the band members wanted to play drums at first, but had difficulty finding the right hand positions. Yang also noticed his potential for playing cymbals. After taking up this instrument, he became one of the band’s star members.
“Yang is a very strict teacher, but we know she cares about us a lot,” said a student who asked to remain anonymous. “And we’re grateful that, under her instruction, we’ve managed to grow a lot within a rather short period of time.”
Originally the band planned to rehearse for 20 class hours per semester. The practice schedule has increased gradually and now the band rehearses 40 class hours per semester.
Meanwhile, teachers at the school have gotten involved with the band as well. Science teacher Zou Beijun and English teacher Huang Xiaoyan are both enthusiastic supports of the student musicians. Zou himself eventually became their conductor.
“In fact I knew nothing about wind music before joining the band,” said Zou. “I had to devote a lot of free time, but it was totally worth it. It was actually very fun.”
The band will have an opportunity to watch professional performers during the upcoming Shanghai Spring International Wind Music Festival. Organizers will invite overseas bands to perform at the school during the festival.
“The children are all very talented and I believe with proper training they will achieve something in the field of wind music,” said Yang.
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