As students returned to Columbia High School, many found something new in the music department, a piano lab.
Earlier this year, on a recommendation from Superintendent Jason Harris, the Columbia School District Board of Trustees approved the venture. Choral instructor Kim Walley is the teacher for the piano class, which began this week when school started. The lab has 12 electronic Yamaha student pianos. Walley said she asked Harris about the possibility last year. The lab is one of only three in the state and should last 25 years.
“This is actually something that I have wanted to do for quite a while myself,” Harris said. “It’s something I really wanted to do at Tupelo High School when I was there, but never accomplished. It’s a pricey endeavor. When you purchase this, you’ve made a serious commitment to the arts. It was about $16,000.”
Harris said the arts are just one component of a well-rounded school.
“One of the things, especially in high school, is you try to create the best most diversified curriculum you can,” Harris said. “With only three in the state having it, that speaks to that. This is a commitment to our community and to our school, but really to our students. There aren’t many students who will have the chance to be exposed to the piano and piano lessons, and I think it’s a great way to infuse the arts. We’re giving our students in Columbia a fantastic opportunity to be in for this exposure.”
Walley said the piano lessons can impact other studies.
“The differentiated instruction that’s going on is going to directly transfer into their learning in the other classrooms they go into because it’s a process,” she said. “It’s not instantaneous. They’ve got to work at it, and they have to learn how to use all of the different learning languages, skills and styles. It can’t just be oral, it can’t just be kinesthetic, it’s all of them tied together.”
Harris said there was already a waiting list for the class as students found out about it.
“We would love to have more, but you really can’t teach more than 12 students and give them the individualized instruction that they need in a class period,” he said.
Via special headphones, Walley will be able to listen to each player and interact with them. Because each student hears the piano through the headphones, they can all play the lessons at the same time.
“There are group lessons, but then there are times for individualized instruction. When you walk in, you’re not going to hear any sound in the room except for the clicking of their fingers on the keys,” she said. “The goal is by the end of the class is to be able to all play together. One person might be on lesson 12 and another on lesson six, but we can all go back to lesson five and play together. It just reinforces tempo, rhythm, sense of ensemble and tuning of the inner ear.”
Harris describes the process as “effective teaching.”
“You need a certain amount of group instruction, and you need a certain amount of individual instruction and this enables both,” he said. “If we had just 12 pianos in here everybody would be playing them, and you wouldn’t be able to decipher what is going on. Now with the technology we have, you’re listening and you are able to differentiate. It allows everyone to progress at their own rate.”
Walley said the pianos are also helping the students help one another.
“I have four kids that have immediately hit the ground running, and it’s clicking and I see them get up from their keyboard and go over and help other kids get their hands where they need to be on the keyboards and help them out,” she said. “They reinforce the lesson, make sure their fellow student has got it and then they move back to their own lesson and continue. That transfer of knowledge and sense of need for the community is exactly what we try to instill in the kids so they are useful adults.”
Principal Braxton Stowe said the lab is a valuable addition to Columbia High School.
“The students love it,” he said. “I actually played yesterday. I told Mrs. Walley I would be in here some to learn. It’s something I’ve regretted over the years. I started to learn with piano lessons as a child and I quit. It’s a great opportunity for our students. We want to be the best high school in Mississippi and one of the top high schools in the country. The way to do that is to have strong academics and strong extracurricular activities for our kids. We’re heading in the right direction.”
Pictured Above: Kennedy Newson, left, Olivia Carney, teacher Kim Walley, Jason Ball, Jori Neal and Alexis May check out the lab. | Photo by Mark Rogers
