Photo By Sgt. Uriah Walker | 11-year-old Elora Hancock, a student at the Washington State School for the Blind in...... read more read more
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VANCOUVER, Wash. – The I Corps Band traveled to Vancouver, Wash., Thursday, to perform several musical numbers and conduct workshops for visually impaired students at the Washington State School for the Blind.
The emotional effect of music could be seen as the band started its performance. Huge smiles spread across the students’ faces, feet began tapping, and bodies swayed with the music.
Team Leader Sgt. 1st Class Phillip Andrew has personal experience playing music in this venue. His mother, an academic and music teacher for 12 years, worked with visually impaired students when he was young - transcribing lessons and music to brail.
“I got some advice from her on what we should and shouldn’t do about how to work with the students here today,” Andrews said. “It’s very similar to how you would work with anybody else. Rather than pointing to say ‘it’s your turn to play,’ we counted together.”
During the performance, five students were invited to play a musical round with the Band. Each student was given a boom whacker, a type of pitched instrument, and an assigned number to play it on. Members of the Band stood behind the students counting with them by tapping their shoulders.
Jennifer Langley, the Washington School for the Blind Director of Curriculum Instruction and Assessment, and a music teacher of 17 years, explained her observation of the students’ extraordinary gift of memory.
“They love music,” Langley said. “A lot of the music they play is more popular based. They can listen to it or memorize it, and then they’re reinforced with the braille or large print version.”
Langley talked about the students’ ability to compete and win in local music competitions.
It is the one thing they can compete in where their physical differences don’t matter, she said.
“It’s extremely important for the Army Band to do activities like this,” Andrew said. “It gives a face to Soldiers and military personnel.”
“Any time the local community reaches out to our students it makes them feel more empowered, more special, and that they’re worthy,” Langley continued. “Already hearing the students playing right now [during the workshops with the Band] I know the impact will be that the bar has been raised. They now know what it sounds like to be a band and it was right here on their stage.”
| Date Taken: | 09.29.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 09.30.2016 16:23 |
| Story ID: | 211057 |
| Location: | VANCOUVER, WA, US |
| Web Views: | 89 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, I Corps Band inspires students through music, by SGT Uriah Walker, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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