Let the music play

Transcript: Alexander Harris, school music teacher and professional musician 

So at the school I work at, I teach instrument and music through the day, the school hours. But before school and after school on one particular day, I run rehearsals. So the instruments that I teach are the more contemporary style of instruments such as guitar, bass guitar, drums and singing. So it fits perfectly for me to run a contemporary rock band. So for the really young kids, we’re doing just things like really basic rock ‘n’ roll songs, and they get a real buzz out of that. But we also might, you know, put in a little bit of pop — classic songs that people recognize, and that the kids can be exposed to at a young age that make them want to keep playing and keep learning. 

Whereas [with] the kids at the senior campus after school, I’m very fortunate to have some very talented kids at this school that I teach. We do more mature music. So we’ll do lots of 80s classics such as Prince songs, Bon Jovi, Pat Benatar, we do a little bit of Michael Jackson. We do a really good version of “Billie Jean”. So yeah, we have a full band set up for that, so we have drums, we have bass guitars, guitars, singing. The lead singer we have is a girl who’s only 13. She’s very small, but she sings very, very powerfully. She’s a fantastic person to have at the front at that style of band. So I get a real buzz out of seeing the kids grow musically and as human beings. That’s probably one of the best parts of my job. In particular, when they do performances at the school or out of school. Sometimes we play at out-of-school events. So seeing the kids really enjoy it is definitely one of the best parts of my day in my job.