Pa rum pum pum pum. Modesto music, special ed students perform holiday drumline show
About 70 special education and music students at Johansen High School in Modesto performed a holiday drumline show Friday morning as part of the school’s first collaboration between those programs.
For about 20 minutes, students played exercises and songs they’ve been practicing throughout the fall, instrumental music teacher Brad Hart said. Modesto City Schools called the show a “Differently-Abled Drumline Celebration.” About 30 people watched.
Music and special education teachers had talked about collaborating before the pandemic shuttered schools. This fall, the project began.
Hart has taught special education students for about a half-hour every Friday since September, special education teacher Tony Heintz said.
The third or fourth week, Hart said he noticed students practicing rhythms before he started leading them. He laughed to himself, impressed by how quickly they caught on. That’s when he realized they’d be able to perform.
“They’re not just going through the motions,” he said.
Hart raised drumsticks in the air before starting and finishing each song, and the students followed. They started with an exercise called the “count up”: they pounded their buckets once, paused, then twice, paused, and continued up to 10. They played the “Viking Chant,” a school spirit song to the tune of “We will rock you.”
People held up signs with sheet music in front of the stage. One red sign said “stop,” like signs Young uses for nonverbal students in her class.
Teachers experimented with adaptions to make sure all students could perform. They got taller buckets for students in wheelchairs. At one point, Young said she cut and taped a bit of swimming pool noodle to a drumstick to create a larger surface to grip. Some students used wrist straps with a mallet attached.
“There was a lot of trial and error,” Young said.
Students with sensitivities to sound used headphones or earplugs onstage, Young said. Others stood in the wings.
After each song, Hart led the band to clap their drumsticks together in applause. He said he hopes the performance will become an annual event.
The collaboration between music and special education students will expand in the spring. Band students will mentor special education students in whatever instrument they choose. A mentor might show a mentee how to read sheet music or physically place hands on an instrument, Hart said.
The band ended by “jamming” to “Happy” — how they usually end their Friday morning sessions, Hart said.
When the band finished, Hart thanked the audience and turned to the students, arms out wide.
“Thank you for being such great young musicians,” he said.
