On this week's show, Bob Gifford is joined by Amy Holmes. She is the K-12 music teacher in the Oak Ridge R-IV Schools.
Gifford: You are listening to Strike Up the Band on KRCU Public Radio. It is a distinct pleasure to have as our guest on this week's show, Ms. Amy Holmes, who is the K12 music teacher in the Oak Ridge R-VI schools.
It's a pleasure to have you here. I'm excited about this opportunity for us to visit, talk about, especially with an area band director and about the program at your school here in southeast Missouri.
And so, and we were just talking before we came on air that Amy and I were together at Southeast from, I think, 2000 to 2004. I didn't think she was that old.
But anyway, um, so I, my comment was I retired here in 2004, so I said we graduated together, uh, I guess. And went our separate ways at that point.
So, Amy, let's start out with, and I know you went to Jackson High School, or at least I'm pretty sure you did.
Holmes: Yes.
Gifford: How did you get started in music originally?
Holmes: Well, I started out playing piano when I was a kid. I played a lot by ear and I took some piano lessons, but, um, it kind of runs in my mom's side of the family.
So, I picked up piano pretty quick and then started, uh, band when I was in 7th grade as percussionist and continued band all through high school, was in choir, and decided to pursue music as my career. So I got some performance degrees.
And then after I finished my master's in music, I did a teaching certification program called "Transition to Teaching," which got me my teaching license.
Gifford: And I always have to ask this question, what caused you to become a drummer? What catastrophe on Earth caused this?
Holmes: Well, I remember that, the directors at the time, I think it was Pat Schwent, who said, I really wish you would play a brass instrument because you have such a good ear. And I didn't want to play a brass instrument because I just didn't want to. I wanted to play percussion and I don't really know why. I guess I think I like the variety of it. There's a lot of different things you can play.
Plus, my sister played a brass instrument and I didn't want to be like her. So I wanted to play something different.
Gifford: Well, and listeners will notice that we're kind of going back and forth between drummer and percussion. And I used to tell in the wind ensemble, some of my students, if I call you a drummer, I'm really upset. But otherwise, you're a percussionist, 'cause you're legitimate. Which is not true, but it, it's interesting to say, anyway.
So, where have you taught besides, well, what's your teaching career? So where have you been?
Holmes: I started out teaching in Indiana because we lived there after I finished my master's at IU. I taught at St. Lawrence Catholic School. I taught at Mooresville School District, and I taught at Our Lady of Grace Catholic School.
Gifford: Okay, yeah, so you have already have a number of years under your belt. Which is great for the kids, the students, and the school in Oak Ridge.
So we've already established with Amy that we sort of have a common background together. But, and we talked about your very interesting background before you got to Oak Ridge. Can you tell me a little bit about the history of the music program, and especially the band program, in the Oak Ridge School?
Holmes: The most that I know about it is that, um, I know that Judy Sharp was the band director there for many, many years. I want to say 30, maybe 25 to 30 years. She was teaching there. And after she retired in 2012, well, she had, you know, quite the rich history going with the music program there.
K through 12 and with band, and after she retired, um, another band director stepped in. I think there was, Adam Carter was there for a while and then, there was another gal, I think her name was Miss Wade, and then me.
So, before Mrs. Sharp, though, I'm not certain what, the, you know, what the history is before her, but I do know that everybody talks about her and about how she really built the program up.
Gifford: Yes, and Judy, I mean, I've worked with her and observed her a number of times. She loved the children. She loved the experience that they were having together. And I don't know if you're aware, but she just passed away. That's so unfortunate, it's sad for music programs in Southeast Missouri. And I think she had actually taught 42 years. I think when I came to university in 1981, she was actually at Meadow Heights. And then, as you said, and somewhere, I read that she was two years ago Oak Ridge, then somewhere else, and then came back, total of 32 years at Oak Ridge, which is quite a record.
What are going to be, or what have been, so far, highlights of your time in the Oak Ridge schools?
Holmes: Well, when I first started, I've been trying to build it back up because it's kind of, uh, especially after COVID, it kind of took a hit where the numbers of students who were participating in band had gone down.
So, year by year, it's been getting a little bigger and bigger, but I've just been trying to focus on the quality rather than the quantity of kids because that's what we had to work with. And so that's what we did. Trying to, uh, kids were learning different skills that you wouldn't learn as much, maybe in a bigger band because they would be the only one on their part. You know, rather than have a whole section worth of trumpets or whatever.
And so I thought that that was kind of neat, that they got to, you know, learn a different ensemble type of skill, then they may not have gotten to do that in a bigger band. And then one year, I think uh, all I had were percussionists in the high school. So one year we just did drumline and percussion ensemble all year long.
Gifford: Great idea. Yeah. So you're a problem solver. You walk in and see the problem, and jump in.
Our special guest this week is Amy Holmes, who is music teacher and director of bands in the Oak Ridge, Missouri School.
So, Amy, what have been some things your students, in the time you've been there, have accomplished? What are you most proud of what they've been able to do?
Holmes: I think just, mostly building confidence that they can, you know, achieve these things that they may not have thought before that they could ever learn, you know. I guess, for example, you know, performing and just being able to not I mean, stage fright, like kind of get over some stage fright and have the confidence that they do know how to play, and they do know how to read the music, and sometimes they just need a little bit of a push to get them there.
Gifford: Yeah, at what age did you start the kids in the band program?
Holmes: I start them at sixth grade. So they're 11?
Gifford: Good.
Holmes: It was 7th grade when I first got there, but I pushed for them to push it back to 6th so that I could have a junior high band that would be 7th and 8th grade. And then a high school band separately.
Gifford: Good for you. That works extremely well.
If I were a parent coming to you and I'm sort of throwing this off the wall, I said, why should my kid be in the band? What are they gonna benefit? How's it gonna help them in their later life?
Holmes: Because band is good for everything. It helps you learn, how to be a member of a bigger group and contribute to that group. It helps you build confidence. Learning how to read music and play an instrument is extremely good for your brain. And that, in turn helps the kids learn other subjects as well.
Gifford: Yeah, and certainly social skills too, I would guess.
Holmes Absolutely.
Gifford: Because you've got to be, you're a part of a big family, but yet you have to get along with the rest of the family so that our conductor is happy. This is what that's their goal in life, right? To keep us happy.
Holmes: Right.
Gifford: One of Ms. Holmes' favorite composers of band music is British composer Ray Von Williams. Let's listen now to one of his pieces that is fun to play, conduct, and listen to. This is "Sea Songs," as performed by the United States Air Force band.
Gifford: So, Amy, "Sea Songs." Why do you like that so much?
Holmes: I just like the folk songs. I just, I like the arrangements of those and I think they're really tuneful. And they're just fun to listen to.
Gifford: Well, of course, immediate reaction of somebody since you're a percussionist, uh, I guess there'd be 2 approaches. You miss the melody of a lot of, a lot of times, although they're the mallet instruments. And I think I'm sort of the same way, the melody, that attracts me. Probably more than anything. You know, if you can go away from a concert singing the melody, and there are some pieces that you absolutely couldn't. You just can't figure out what it is and so forth. And of course, it's got different goals in mind, but, but yes, okay, so I hope you enjoy, have enjoyed hearing that again.
Gifford: Our guest on this week's show is Ms. Amy Holmes, music teacher, and Band Director, in the Oak Ridge schools.
So, Amy, I understand that we were together, and when we did a couple of pieces, one by Frank Zappa, which is kind of an interesting experience, that piece was called "Dog Breath Variation." So why does that piece come to your mind?
Holmes: I just remember it being so odd. And thinking, well, this is pretty cool that we're doing a piece by Frank Zappa in Wind Ensemble, you know, and it has all these mixed meters anf it was difficult. Like, it was difficult to count, but it was fun because it had a whole lot of interesting sounds in it.
Gifford: Yeah, well, you know, I talked about the Japanese composer and contacting his wife. The same was here. I had to contact Mrs. Zappa, and he had passed away. And I forget, and they had their kids, had the weirdest names, which I can't remember, and so forth. It was an interesting family. And so I had to talk to her, and once again, get the music through her, which we had to send back right away.
Another piece we talked about was, the piece that we played in 2004 at the Missouri Music Educators Conference, entitled "Aurora." So what do you remember about that piece?
Holmes: I just remember the parts that we had that were singing. Is we don't get to do that very often. We're usually playing instruments. So getting to sing also was kind of neat experience.
Gifford: Yeah, certainly, you don't expect bands to sing, uh, compared, uh, to to normal.
Holmes: Right.
Gifford: And I, when you mentioned Frank Zappa, I remember that the students made t-shirts. I don't know if you got one of these, and it said, And we had played "Lord of the Rings," from, uh, not from the movie, actually, just predated the movie. But, um, on the t-shirt, I still have mine, it says, Lord of the Zappa on it, and they have this picture of Gandalf on the front. Yeah, it's really... you will have to dig that out now. We'll meet somewhere for dinner, and you can wear that. That sounds like a, sounds like a deal.