Right in tune: Austin nonprofit helps get kids off the streets and into music

Grounded in Music begins what the group hopes will be a lifelong appreciation for music

By Patrick Beach
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Saturday, December 06, 2008

David Beeson, who plays guitar in Broken Teeth, looks like a rock star - a lot of black, chunky silver rings on his fingers, brazenly asymmetrical hair, the whole package.

But he isn't acting like one. He's giving a small group of kids at the Boys & Girls Club in East Austin a crash course in guitar. And the admitted "nerd for guitar teaching" is loving it.

"Now, each of these strings has a name - E, A, D, G, B, E - from the big one to the skinny one," he says, holding a black Ibanez electric.

He offers a mnemonic: "Eddie Ate Dynamite -Good-Bye Eddie." After a few minutes learning the basics of reading guitar tablature, as opposed to the more complicated standard musical notation, the kids sit down, put on headphones plugged into practice amps on the floor, and, improbably, rock out.

"When you're first learning guitar, I consider just holding the guitar practice," Beeson says. "You could just be watching TV or something. At first it feels like you're holding a big old surfboard or something, but after a couple of days it becomes a part of you."

This is Grounded in Music in action. The program, co-founded in 2005 by Austin music attorney Joe Stallone and four others, is aimed at giving children in fourth through 12th grades an introduction to musical instruments - and to keep them off the streets.

But the program is more than just an addition to the Boys & Girls Club's offerings. It's also a response to funding cuts music and arts programs have endured in schools across the country in recent years.

Austin Independent School District has bucked that trend. "(Funding) has remained consistent," says Greg Goodman, director of fine arts for the district. "In fact at the elementary level, we exceed most districts in the state."

The school board requires elementary schools to offer music, art and P.E. on an every-third-day rotation.

Stallone says even though the Austin school district has done a good job of keeping funding there, he understands there's pressure to cut music funding every time the budget comes around. And until the Grounded in Music program began, there wasn't anything like it at the Boys & Girls Club.

The goal is to expose children early, to let them get their hands on instruments, let them explore, let them realize that playing an instrument doesn't have to be daunting to the point of untenable.

One kid with headphones plugged into an amp, Dennis Johnson, picks at two notes high on the fret board over and over, just enjoying the tactile pleasure of the string pinned between his finger and the guitar's neck.

"My motto is what can't be done can be," Dennis says. "And my other motto is what you don't learn, you can learn from others."

Another kid, Anthony, plays the intro to Metallica's "One" and is thrilled. A girl requests "Barracuda" by Heart, which she knows from "Guitar Hero."

Heart? Really old Metallica? True. As parents of PlayStation 3-aged children know, games like "Guitar Hero" and "Rock Star" have revived an ancient catalog of songs and made Beeson's job easier. These kids know Foghat's "Slow Ride" better than you do.

"Now, thanks to `Guitar Hero,' kids want to learn `Smoke on the Water,'" he says.

It's not just guitar. One day is piano, one is drums, another vocals and hip-hop lyric writing. Sessions last for an hour, but by the time the kids are settled in the period of instruction is more like 45 minutes. By this point, many if not most of the participants are repeat customers.

"It's definitely made a difference for some of the kids, not a doubt in my mind," says Stallone. "Some kids have written their own songs and performed them at community events. I know that it's caused a few kids to start practicing at home on whatever instruments they have. The kids come back every time. They can't wait for the next lesson. The mission is to inspire kids to turn to music and it's working. There are definitely kids that have grabbed onto it."

About to begin its third year, the program for the most part was Stallone's idea.

"I was meeting with clients and friends over breakfast and we were talking about music education and how important it was and decided to do something about it," Stallone recalls. "We were particularly interested in those kids who don't have the access to music if they don't get it through public schools. It started out as, `Why don't we use our contacts to get into Boys & Girls Clubs and perform and talk about music?' And it snowballed into this. The resvponse has been great. It's been, `How can I help?' "

Others helping Stallone, a New Jersey native who practices law at Bracewell & Giuliani downtown, are Zach Baker of the Jiles Agency (formerly and still sometimes of the Austin band Vallejo); Jeff Kreinik, sales and marketing director for Front Gate Tickets; Michael McKinley, head of Made Creative Management; and Philadelphia attorney Matt Hoffman. They aim to expand the program to other places around town and to other cities, but for now it's just at the club in East Austin.

This is the board that raises money for the program's expenses - around $50,000 for the past fiscal year - and recruits instructors.

The money pays for teachers - although Stallone points out they're paid something less than market rate. Guitar makers Gibson, Ibanez and First Act donated a bunch of new, extremely ready-to-rock solid-body electric guitars. (Gibson has also donated space for the group's annual fundraising events.) That corporate commitment - not to mention the cool equipment - makes a statement to the kids.

"This is the Boys & Girls Club," says Brian Beaulieu, the area clubs' assistant director of program services and volunteer coordinator. "We're used to soccer balls three or four years old. You walk in with six brand-new guitars and there's an immediate attraction."

And from the club's location on Thompson Street, across the street from where a man was beaten to death a couple of summers ago, the Live Music Capital of the World can seem a considerable distance away.

"To say to them that Austin is a music town, they wouldn't have any idea," Beaulieu says. "We were in awe that this program could fall in our lap. `Guitar Hero' is the beginning and end of their musical instruction. One kid said, `I got to meet somebody famous. I got to meet MC Overlord.' "

Indeed, Grounded in Music has attracted the attention and support of a number of notable musicians, including Patty Griffin, Ray Wylie Hubbard and Cory Morrow. On Thursday of this week, the Dallas band Jonathan Tyler and the Northern Lights will perform at the club and meet with the students in the Grounded program afterward.

Rap = rhythm + poetry

On an afternoon in mid-November, the writer, filmmaker and hip-hop artist who goes by the name SaulPaul is schooling 11 kids in hip-hop.

With a laptop, a couple of speakers, a guitar and paper for the kids to write on, he asks what every parent asks as soon as their kid comes home most every day: "What did y'all do in school today?"

One boy says he broke an old plastic window. Another says "boring work."

SaulPaul says he's going to kick it freestyle and asks for a word.

One kid: "Potato salad!"

Another: "Hydraulic!"

SaulPaul: "Hydraulic? Like switches?"

SaulPaul starts a recorded beat coming from his laptop. Let the record show he finds a rhyme for "hydraulic."

Then a 10-year-old boy, whose name we should probably not reveal because of an arguably insensitive comment about his teacher, starts rhyming about his life, which is what SaulPaul always says is the way to go:

"My life is good/My cousin says he so hood/My mother like chicken/My sis keep snitchin/My friends get in lots of trouble/My mom sleep all day/My teacher like Fat Albert, hey, hey, hey/I'm not mad/In fact I'm glad."

"Yeah," SaulPaul says approvingly. "That's the superstar right there."

Beats continue to fill the old cafeteria where the sessions are held. As SaulPaul helps most of the kids with their composing, a couple go around and start messing with his laptop. The next song, rhythmically out of nowhere, is Jimmy Buffett's "Margaritaville," to SaulPaul's seeming surprise.

They've got the beat

"I'm gonna show you the easiest beat in the world," says drummer Alex Vallejo, of the band of the same name.

Boom, boom, CHA. Boom, boom, CHA: The beat to Queen's "We Will Rock You."

The little girl in red gets it immediately. Vallejo, grinning, starts singing into a microphone hooked up to a small PA: "We will, we will rock you."

Vallejo: "All right, who's next?"

At least four kids simultaneously holler: "MEEEEEEEEEE."

Vallejo's obviously having as good a time as the children and enjoys watching musical gifts, perhaps heretofore undiscovered, come to the fore.

"The talented ones come to the top a little bit," he says. "All these guys should be on MTV."

A skinny 11-year-old girl named Burgandie Henderson, wearing a magenta top and a denim overall-dress thing, eats mini marshmallows while waiting her turn on Vallejo's trap set.

"I like the drums," she says sweetly. Then she hits the kick drum pedal with her foot and BAM, it sounds like the mortar will separate from the bricks in the walls.

Things are getting a little loud and out of control. One older kid is flipping the light switch off and on again. Vallejo says, "OK, I need some order from you guys for this to work."

But not like your mean junior varsity football coach. He's still laughing.

Not-so-silent night

Mid-November. "Turning Japanese" and "Sweet Home Alabama" have given way to more seasonal offerings.

"Here's the plan," Beeson tells four kids here for the session. "I've got a couple of Christmas songs today, `Jingle Bells' and `Silent Night.'"

There are new Epiphones, at least five more, 10-watt Epoch practice amps and sets of headphones for each player. The class learned early on that only one amp at a time not hooked up to earphones or the room sounds like the Glenn Branca multiguitar orchestra is warming up in here.

Looking at music in both tablature and notation, 12-year-old Dennis Johnson picks out `Silent Night,' the "silent night, holy night" four-note phrase that's repeated twice.

"Now," he tells Beeson, "show me the rest."

"Maybe you and I can play a duet," Beeson says. "I'll play the chords and you can play the melody. My part will be easier, though."

Dennis: "That's all right."

Don't get confused," Beeson says. "Remember - it's the big string here and the skinny string here."

And off they go, a little tentative and halting at first, then into the most gloriously imperfect two-guitar arrangement of "Silent Night" you ever heard.

pbeach@statesman.com

Grounded in Music fundraiser

Patty Griffin headlines the annual VIP fundraiser for Grounded In Music from 6:30-9:30 p.m. Jan. 22 at the Gibson Guitar Showroom, 3601 S. Congress Ave., Suite G400. Tickets are $100 and available through frontgatetickets.com or by calling 389-0315. Proceeds for the event will be used to purchase instruments and provide instruction. For information on how to get involved in the program e-mail info@groundedinmusic.org.