The theory behind the modern band movement is pretty simple: Teach kids the music they like and they will like -- and learn -- the music you teach.
This summer, almost 400 music educators from around the country traveled to Fort Collins to find out more about the concept and the organization spearheading it.
is a nonprofit that provides training and instruments to teachers so that they can offer music classes that are relevant to them, said the program鈥檚 CEO and founder David Wish during a break at the Modern Band Rock Fest conference.
鈥淢odern band is a student-centered, student empowering form of music education that puts children in the driver鈥檚 seat of their own learning,鈥� Wish said.
However, the modern band movement is realizing that kids like to drive pretty fast.
鈥淎s a -- let鈥檚 just say -- older gentleman, I鈥檝e found that youth move much more quickly than we do,鈥� Wish said. 鈥淪o, it only makes sense that youth music moves very quickly. What鈥檚 modern today, may well not be modern five years from now.鈥�
Getting up to speed requires teachers to acquaint themselves with new technologies as well as a variety of musical styles.
Students now are just as interested in learning the music production software program GarageBand, as they are in playing in an actual garage band, said Chicago elementary music teacher Branden Lancaster-Williams.
鈥淭hey definitely want to (DJ), like, 鈥楲et鈥檚 get up and mix some sets, some background tracks; let鈥檚 do some beats,鈥欌€� Lancaster-Williams said.
For him, the idea of using a computer to create music isn鈥檛 odd. But, he said, a lot of teachers are apprehensive about incorporating computers and synthesizers into a classroom where guitars and drums have long been king.
鈥淚n those cases, the best thing that you can do is talk to your students, because most of them have already been trying to dabble in it,鈥� Lancaster-Williams said. 鈥淎 lot of the ideas that I鈥檝e gotten for using things that I have no idea about, I鈥檝e gotten from students.鈥�
That doesn鈥檛 mean schools should start tossing out their traditional instruments.
At home, 11-year-old Julia Kirkwood from Laporte, Colo. writes and rehearses her own songs using a launchpad. It鈥檚 like a keyboardless synthesizer that can be programmed to create music, loops and samples with the touch of a button.
But when she鈥檚 performing with her school鈥檚 Little Kids Rock program, the sixth grader said she鈥檇 rather play an actual guitar, even if the artist she鈥檚 covering doesn鈥檛.
鈥淢ost of the music now ... they use all electronic stuff and loops and launchpads, and they never do anything just the old-fashioned way,鈥� Kirkwood said.
Bridging the gap requires these music teachers to keep up to date not only on the latest educational and technology trends but different musical styles as well.
In his Little Kids Rock session, 鈥淩ap for Good,鈥� trainer Kenrick Wagner showed teachers easy ways to bring rap and hip-hop into their classrooms. In one game, Wagner used music from Michael Jackson -- an artist that both teachers and their students are likely to be familiar with -- to ease the teachers into more contemporary rap and hip-hop artists.
鈥淲e feel like we want to walk into a classroom and be Eminem,鈥� he told the class. 鈥淐alm down, OK? It took him a lifetime to get where he is, OK? Chances are, it鈥檚 going to take you a lifetime, and you ain鈥檛 got time like that.鈥�
After the class, Wagner said he got through to the teachers that they can include the hip-hop culture and still avoid the lyrical minefields that accompany some of today鈥檚 music.
鈥淭here鈥檚 a lot of negative press that (hip hop) gets and I鈥檓 hoping that I showed them tools to introduce it in a positive way to the classroom,鈥� he said.
Teacher Cathryn Deering attended the conference hoping to learn more about creating her own Little Kids Rock after-school program.
Deering鈥檚 school, Florence Griffith Joyner Elementary, is in the Watts neighborhood in Los Angeles, and is part of former first lady Michelle Obama鈥檚 Turnaround Arts initiative. The national program aims to help low-performing schools by incorporating the arts.
Deering鈥檚 students are interested in reggaet贸n, rap and hip hop. The genres have proved a learning curve for her.
鈥淚鈥檓 classically trained, so for me, I鈥檝e really had to push out of that comfort zone,鈥� she said. 鈥淏ecause classical, very structured music education -- very formal, traditional quote-unquote European music education -- is how I was raised and what I studied in college.鈥�
According to Little Kids Rock鈥檚 David Wish, the fact that teachers like Deering are pushing their comfort zone is promising because in music education rock is just as important as Bach.
鈥淚t鈥檚 very important to preserve our rich cultural heritage, but it鈥檚 also equally important to be prepared for our rich cultural future,鈥� Wish said.
