by Cathryn Creno

Photo by Pat Shannahan

The Arizona Republic

January 24, 2009

PHOTO: Mikayla Douglas (right), 8, shares a guitar with Manuel Sotelo, 8, during an after-school music program at Shaw Elementary School in Phoenix. The program is run by teens who teach guitar, piano, drums, and art to central Phoenix kids.

PHOENIX - At the beginning of the school year, 7-year-old Conrad Varela was happy just to know how to strum a few chords on his father's old guitar.

But by December, the student at Shaw Elementary School near downtown Phoenix had his own instrument and was playing songs.

"I like rock and roll, you know, the hard stuff," the second-grader said. "My parents are really surprised I am learning so fast."

Conrad can thank five Tempe and Ahwatukee teenagers who teach music once a week to about 60 participants in Shaw's after-school program. They have named their volunteer group "Sounds of the Community."

"We weren't sure what the outcome would be," said Mountain Pointe High School senior Christian Appleby, who teaches guitar.

"Some of the kids who had never played an instrument before asked for guitars for Christmas. For me, that has been the coolest part."

Sounds of the Community has been so successful that Janel White-Taylor, an Arizona State University assistant professor of educational technology, assisted the teens in getting a $1,000 grant to purchase additional instruments and to pay gas costs for the group to commute to the central Phoenix school.

White-Taylor, who directs a program called Project eXcellence, also is urging the teens to recruit and train replacement volunteers to keep the music going next year.

Sounds of the Community is the brainchild of Appleby and Corona del Sol High School senior Molly Yang, who teaches piano to Shaw students.

The two volunteered as art instructors in the Dominican Republic last summer through a program called Sister Island Project. When they returned home, they decided to continue their efforts at a school in a low-income part of the Valley.

Appleby and Yang rounded up three friends from Mountain Pointe - Nicole Ortiz to teach art, Ben Backhaus to teach guitar and Rodney Mitchell to teach drums - and approached Shaw officials with the idea.

Lisa Norwood, Shaw's learning invention specialist and after-school program coordinator, said her school had never received a volunteer offer from teens - let alone teens that are a 30-minute drive away.

"When I got the call I was like, 'Really?' " Norwood said. "And then when I found out where they were from, it was an even bigger surprise. But it was clear these were smart kids who had done their homework and knew what they were doing."

Norwood said Sounds of the Community was an immediate hit with more than half of the 100 children who attend the after-school program.

"You can just see the excitement when Friday comes because it is music day," she said. "They line up to take turns playing the instruments."

Briana Durant, 10, had never picked up any instrument before joining Sounds of the Community's guitar class. Now, the fourth-grader can play a few chords and enjoys writing lyrics, too.

Yang, who has studied piano for 12 years, said she wants to foster the children's appreciation for music and art.

"Ultimately, this is about helping them find a passion for whatever type of art appeals to them," Yang said.

Sandra Stauffer, a music-education professor at Arizona State University's Herberger College of the Arts, was not surprised that the Shaw students have progressed quickly. She suspects the volunteer work also is helping the teens become better musicians.

"We know that peer tutoring is good for both the tutor and the student," she said. "Both get something out of it."

Yang said she thinks her piano playing has improved.

"I thought I could just go in and say, 'Put your hands like this and play like this,' " she said. "It didn't work that way. Instead, I have had to stretch my own boundaries to think of ways to teach them."

White-Taylor, whose Project eXcellence is an effort to boost after-school learning at low-income schools like Shaw, sees so much benefit from Sounds of the Community that she is urging the current volunteers to find replacements for when they leave to go to college next year.

"This group is kind of amazing," she said. "With most high-school students, you have to give them direction."

Last fall, White-Taylor suggested the volunteers apply for a grant from Ashoka's Youth Venture.

The organization, which helps youths start businesses and volunteer programs for social change, awarded Sounds of the Community the $1,000 grant.

"In many parts of the Valley, kids can afford their own instruments and private music lessons after school," White-Taylor said. "But that doesn't happen in low-income districts. This program can close the gap."

Reach the reporter at 602-444-7968 or cathryn.creno@arizonarepublic.com.