Dr. Mark Turner has a vision for the music space of the newly constructed SFA charter school.
He sees it as a place of beauty in which students connect to the space and the objects in it.
Michele Marcotte/The Daily Sentinel |
SFA music professor and avid woodworker Max Morley poses with the cajon he made for the music space of the newly constructed SFA charter school. Morley, along with several other members of the Woodworkers Club of East Texas agreed to make the instruments for the school.
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"I want it to be a place where children behave like mathematicians, poets, musicians and not just students," he said on recent afternoon from a shady bench in front of the SFA music building.
In order to create this unique ambience, Turner, an assistant professor of music who has developed various curricula for early childhood music specialists and classroom professionals, turned to local professors and artisans to help create instruments, decor and learning tools for the space. He said he felt it was important to have everything well-made, and to have the students understand where each item came from. So, that's why, when he decided to include cajons — a type of wooden drum box played by slapping ones hands on the front — as part of the music space, Turner called on fellow music faculty member Dr. Max Morley.
Morley, a member of the Woodworkers Club of East Texas, has dabbled in woodworking for more than 30 years, and said he was eager to help out his colleague when approached about the project.
Using plans he said were available online, Morley spent roughly a week — a few hours here or there each day — cutting, gluing and carving various pieces of wood to create the musical instrument, and then showcased it to other members of the Woodworkers Club of East Texas during a monthly meeting. He encouraged the other members to try their hand at making one of their own, and several agreed.
"Everyone who builds one will put their name on the bottom of it, and it will be something that is brought to the attention of the students whenever they go to play it," he said. "That sort of makes it a connection to the community."
Connecting students to the community was another reason Turner said he wanted Morley and the other members of the woodworkers club to build the instruments. He said in the end, "all of the instruments in the studio will be hand-made by area artisans and craftsman."
Turner said he felt it was important to have the students be able to touch things that were made by someone in the community, giving them, in the case of the cajon, a kind of informal education on wood.
The cajon, which originated in Peru, is a instrument that doubles as a seat. To play the instrument, a budding percussionist will sit on the top of the box-shaped drum and slap the front. A series of strings, located inside the box, near the side with the circular opening, vibrate to give the slap a unique sound.
"The string on the inside gives it a little bit of a buzz as you tap on it, which is more than just a banging noise," Morley explained.
Turner estimates it will take about a year to get all the cajons into the music space.
The newly constructed charter school is located in the SFA Education Research and Development Center, and a dedication ceremony is scheduled for July 17, with the campus opening for the fall semester.
