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Graduate helps out

MSU freshmen raise money for Glenburn ukuleles

Submitted Photo Ben Eder, the student music teacher, worked with several different classes at Glenburn Public School and taught the students how to play their new ukuleles.

Minot State University freshman Kyanne Derr and her fellow first-year-experience classmates raised enough money to buy 24 ukuleles for the music department of Glenburn Public School in late 2019.

To raise the funds for the instruments, Derr and her class of about 20 people held a silent auction and a bake sale at the Minot High School band winter concert. The items in the auction varied. The Minotauros hockey team donated a couple of tickets. Bowls and different types of dishes, a portrait done by a Glenburn photographer and art supplies from Artmain were also donated to be sold. The item that Derr was not expecting to be donated was a ukulele from Eckroth Music.

“The kids got to see what we were working toward,” said Derr.

They thought of the bake sale because “little siblings walk in and see all the sweets.” There were some leftovers, but not very many.

For those who did not want to participate in the silent auction but still donate to the cause, Derr’s class had a donation bucket situated near the door.

Derr knows what it’s like to be passionate about music. She played the saxophone in high school and now plays with the Minot State University band. She also said she occasionally plays with the Minot Symphony Orchestra when it is in need of a saxophonist.

As the other half of the project, she and her class went to Glenburn to play for the school. Everyone in the building was invited to attend. “There were quite a few high schoolers and almost all of the elementary,” Derr recalled.

All had to play a piece. Some of the college students did solo pieces, some duets and other ensembles. The class sang Christmas carols as a whole, as it was around Christmas time, and they invited the kids to join in with them.

“The kids got to see some instruments they had never seen before, being in a small school, and hear things they had never heard or experienced,” Derr explained. She also mentioned that a lot of the high schoolers didn’t know that they could go to college for music, so giving them that information “really opened their eyes to that.” Derr was a declared music major, but she is now an elementary education major at MSU. Despite not being a music major, she still enjoys playing her saxophone beyond her high school years.

Derr is also a Glenburn High School graduate of 2019. During her time in band with John Spitzer, she heard him mention wanting to get enough ukuleles for everyone in the classes to play together. The only time a student could learn to play the ukulele was if someone brought in their own and let others try it out. Now that Glenburn’s music department has enough for everyone, they can do entire pieces together during concerts.

One plus side to acquiring the ukuleles is their size. They are small enough that the elementary students can learn to play them, too. In addition, they are easy to transport for concerts.

If they really enjoy playing the ukulele, they may want to eventually learn to play the guitar or bass guitar when they reach high school. Spitzer said that some students already play the electric guitar and electric bass guitar, occasionally picking up the acoustic guitar.

Upon acquiring the desired string instruments, Spitzer had a student teacher, Ben Eder, teach them to play. Up until Christmas break, they worked with the ukuleles in different classes.

Spitzer said an underlying motivation to get the ukuleles was for his students to perhaps one day “sit around a campfire and play campfire songs” and share their skill. He is a great advocate for getting students involved with music, and one of the best ways to do that is exposing them to something new, teach them how to play it and perhaps that first instrument will be the one they are meant to play. If that first one isn’t it, they can try something else until they find their destined instrument.

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