By Felix Dowsley, Boys Program Director
When I stepped on stage at the Orange Peel with Staff Rock as a first year FBRA teacher, I was keenly aware that I was treading in the footsteps of legends. Ms. Lauren Hill had stood behind these very curtains! Bob Dylan had mused on this same backstage couch! This only added to my jitters as I tested the kick and snare. I’d never played before an (attentive) audience this large and on such hallowed ground. So I did what we do every single morning at FBRA: I took some deep breaths, made friends with the nerves, and centered down on the physical sensation of being in that exact moment. I eased into the creaky drum stool, the warm stage lights, and the familiar kick and high hat pedals. I looked around at my bandmates and colleagues, all looking a little nervous and very excited. Hey, it’s pretty fun to play rockstar for a moment. We eased into an acapella “Seven Bridges Road” and then a very ripping take on “The Story” with Elise Harvey on guest vocals. As always, I made mistakes. As always, I centered down into the moment and listened to my bandmates to slide back into the groove.
Courage & Confidence
These are the moments I highlight for our students when I talk about our music program and my experience as a lifelong musician. I tell them to be compassionate with themselves and their bandmates when they make mistakes. I talk about the practice regimens of great artists like Sonny Rollins (up to sixteen hours a day during his “Bridge” period) and Questlove to get at the determination it takes to become excellent. I ask them to listen to their bandmates with a curious ear, to be ready to follow the lead singer and never leave them hanging, even if they skipped the second verse and sang the chorus twice. And I implore them to relish the excitement of stepping on stage as a way to practice courage while feeding their teenage need to take risks.
I’m under no illusions: our middle schoolers probably put in the hours to become great musicians simply because it’s fun and it feels good to rock. But as with so much of what we do at FBRA, we’re using this fun, challenging thing to build character and integrity. How will you show up for your bandmates? Did you take the time out of your weekend or evening to learn your part? Are you going to help your buddy out when they come in on the wrong beat? These are the micro moments that serve our mission.
Making Music is Teamwork
I taught 7th and 8th grade bands for six years before becoming Program Director, and I quickly realized that my main job was to teach these students to work as a team. Though I could offer some fine points on a chord transition, the pentatonic scale, or an iconic drum fill, my bands’ success hinged on their ability to transform the cacophonous beginnings of a song into a coherent four minutes of artistic performance. This breaks down into simple things: counting to four at the same speed, over and over again, and being able to listen for the piano riff over the sound of your own playing. Great musicians are as good of listeners as they are players. For a middle schooler, paying as much attention to your teammate as you are to yourself is a huge achievement in developing one’s character for a lifetime of leadership.
We are so excited for the Winterfest concerts this December. Those of us in the audience will clap along on the two and four and cheer like it’s Beyonce on stage as these kids perform. I’m hoping to see some dance moves to rival Gray Martin’s legendary “Can’t Touch This” of 2019. And beyond the lights and sound, know that every bar on every song took hours of practice, discussion, revision, and more practice, and that Boys Program singers may have had to shift their melody down an octave sometime between September and December. Each one of these tunes is a gem, no doubt funky and strange in the most awesome way possible, a compressed result of the lifelong process of building character and integrity.
