The Tuned In Academy

The Story of Sounds in the Streets

Bundy BargainThis trumpet is fun to play. It plays relatively in tune in most of the horn and it will get the job done. Some people think it looks ugly because of the way that the lacquer was stripped off, but I rather dig it. My folks found me this horn when I was in high school. It was probably late sophomore or early junior year, I can’t recall. But I remember why they got it for me and how. A color guard member of our marching band had brought her flag crashing down over my other marching horn and so I needed a replacement. I think they found this at either a garage sale or swap meet, for around $50. What a bargain! It is no professional model horn (it is a bargain Bundy), but you know what? It served me quite well for marching band. In fact, the AHS Marching Band was a force to be reckoned with at the time and I think we won at least a few competitions with me blowing lead on this horn. I’ve also played this horn on multiple occasions for outdoor professional gigs believe it or not. This horn belonged to someone, and if it was sold for $50 chances are they didn’t play the horn in years and didn’t really care that much about the money either.

Recently I blogged about Living Bread and their gift of music to the poor, and I must confess in some ways this was a set up. At the academy, we want to do more than just provide music education to those who will enroll and pay tuition. We want to provide music education to anyone and everyone that wants it, whether they can afford it or not, especially the poor and homeless.

We want to serve the poor of the Olympia area through music education and caring for their basic needs. And we hope that others would do this in their communities as well. Our hope is not just to feed the homeless, but to teach them to fish (sort of). We don’t actually want to teach them to fish. But we want to teach them to play music. Just as giving someone a fishing pole will feed them longer and more than giving them a fish, we believe that teaching music to the poor will open up far more than just an opportunity to provide for their basic needs, but we believe it can do that too. And we do hope to be able to feed the poor when they come for a class as well.[1]

We can’t do this alone. The last thing we want to do is pass off extra or more costs to our students and families. We want music education accessible for everyone. So we need help. There are numerous ways to help, but today I thought I would share one simple way. You’ve heard it said before one man’s trash is another man’s treasure? Well we want your trash that might become the treasure of some student at the academy. We want your musical instruments that may be sitting around in your garage, under a pile of junk somewhere, perhaps that they could be mistaken as trash. Musical instruments are far from trash, and we aren’t here to judge, but we all know somebody who has an instrument or two lying around the house or in the garage that nobody plays. We promise you that if you have an instrument that is in playable condition or could be with just a little repair, or even if you find one in a garage sale somewhere—that we will find someone and teach them to play it.[2]

If you have an instrument to donate or perhaps you are willing to look for some bargain instruments to purchase for such a need, would you drop us a line?

What are we looking for? Primarily band/wind instruments:

Trumpet

Trombone

Saxophone

Clarinet

Flute

French horn

Euphonium/Baritone

 

If you have connections or experience with the homeless in the Olympia community we would love to speak with you about this endeavor, and we would love to hear your thoughts. We hope to bring some hope and joy to the homeless through music, and to soon hear the sweet sounds of music in the streets.


[1] There is a kitchen on site at The Commons, which we can arrange to rent out in addition to our class space, but we would need help from those that would wish to help provide food and those that wish to serve. We will certainly participate ourselves and we hope and expect that many of our students and families will as well.

 

[2] We do have a plan to make these instruments available on a play to own plan. We won’t rent to own them to a scholarship student or a member of our Sounds in the Streets class, because that would defeat the purpose of providing and making them available. But we will require a steady discipline of effort, attendance, and demonstration that the instruments would serve their purpose and the community and not be sold. If you have questions about this, just drop us a line.

One Response

  1. We’ve had some encouraging response so far on the Sounds in the Streets project! Thanks so much to those who have responded thus far! Goal is 10-15 per class for Sound in the Streets. We hope to launch first class no later than late Spring or Summer.

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