Junior Jack Barton started a guitar club this year. Meeting days will be on Wednesdays from 3:20 p.m. to 4:20 p.m. in the choir room. He started this club because he wanted to build a community for musicians and others to share experiences, meet new people and create chances for new players to learn how to play. What gave him the idea was that he realized he founded all the people in the school who played guitar and since he already knew the community, he decided to make an official club.
Furthermore, the club will offer many types of resources for students to develop their guitar skills and gain an encouraging community. From being around and connecting with experienced guitarists who have performed on stage or just on a high skill level, to learning about all the aspects of guitar, discovering themselves means trying new things and seeing what clicks with them.
“I hope that students can gain, one, a community, two, resources. Resources that bring in the club, you can learn how to play if you’re brand new. You can learn from other people’s experiences, if you haven’t done battle the bands before. I know a lot of the guitarists from the bands who’ve done it previously are going to be there, and that is a really good resource if you’ve never played on stage. Or if you want to know how that is, you’ll also learn, to play the actual instrument. We’ll go on in depth lessons over things. A lot of teachers kind of skip over a little bit like in depth on how vibrato works, certain players, attitudes towards guitar, different philosophies. I think you’ll really gain a community and a real sense of playing,” Barton said.
In addition, the club is going to be the place for students to be able to express themselves musically to others and share interests with each other. Everybody deserves to have friends that they can learn from, laugh with, feel comfortable around and show free association with. With this club, it will be easier for students to do so.
“We live in a place where sometimes creativity can struggle to find a foothold in our world. This is a place where kids can come and they can be themselves. It can be creative. They can express themselves using an instrument, and meet other people who likewise do that. And musicianship is very much networking. It’s very much community orientation. People have to make music together. It’s tough to do it by yourself. So all those things I think are going to come together. They’re going to help kids feel connected to other musicians. They’re going to help kids feel connected to a community, to the school, and hopefully together, they’re going to create beautiful things and they’re going to be able to do what art does, which is at every last breath, save us and make us kind of give us a life worth living,” English teacher Paul Wieland said.
As a result, the club could also benefit students by leaving emotional impacts after joining. A lot of people tend to feel nervous and afraid to show their skills to others, especially something as personal as music. But in this club, students can build capability and growth without stressing or having to feel like they are going to be judged for something they like.
Sophomore Sheldon Farley said that many people might be shy about playing because they might be very scared of judgment. Especially nowadays, but finding that many people play the same instrument or are at the same skill level can be very helpful for certain people. Everyone can help support one another and improve their skills so they can be confident in what they play.
Notably, guitar for most players is a method to calm down, relieve stress and stay sharp. Because what calms people down is not just soft music, but the act of being themselves and clearing their minds, even if they are jamming to heavy metal or rock.
“Me personally, guitar genuinely does help with stress, because it can just kind of be a point where you can just settle down, calm down, almost and just slow down when everything else is moving. It’s often a very tranquil and peaceful thing. You can use it as almost like a stress tool, which is nice,” Farley said.
Whenever someone plays an instrument or stand in front of others, they will feel a lot of pressure and anxiety. But that is normal and that is what is going to make them stronger and feel much more confident by doing it better the next time around.
Wieland believes that, “anytime you play in front of somebody, you sharpen your skills, anytime you perform, anytime you are listening to someone else and attempting to do something different musically, you’re going to get better. It’s going to work along those lines to just help kids get better. Music is an expressive art. It’s something that requires performance, and hopefully this encourages performance and it encourages confidence with one another, vulnerability, all of which is really a part of being a performer when you’re making your own music or when you’re playing.”
Barton hopes that students who join, “can build a community that’s not necessarily just practicing with each other. It’s not about necessarily becoming the best player, but learning from each other. Because everyone’s going to learn a piece. They’re going to have homework. It’s more, of ‘oh, I found out about the instrument here, let me show you.’ I want a space where people can just talk about the instrument and really, anything rock. I think that’s what this is going to be. I don’t think it’s just going to be a place where everyone’s sitting down practicing frigid, dominant scales.”
