Musician gives back to the next generation
Aaron Walker-Loud is a professional musician, and today, he's giving back to the next generation.
"I feel like a lot of people 'play' instruments," Walker-Loud said. "But when you have the right type of teacher behind you, then you can become a musician."
He is working with the students through a program called Musician Corps. It's under the umbrella of Seattle's Arts Corps, and it places professional music artists in schools where the kids wouldn't otherwise have this kind of opportunity.
"I think music is a really good way to express yourself," says Cole, an 8th grader at Washington Middle School. "The same way some people write, and some people sing, I play drums just to be able to make something of my own."
13 year-old David, also in 8th grade, enjoys making music for similar reasons.
"I like it because people recognize you for it," he says with a grin, pointing out he also enjoys playing the tuba, and when fellow students point him out and say, "Hey Tuba Man!"
Weekly, the students in this Musician Corps drum line practice their music. They stay long after regular class is over.
Meet 11 year-old Az'Jion. Before Musician Corps, he hadn't really taken music seriously. Today, in addition to drums, he plays piano and a couple of other instruments. And when life gets difficult, he uses music to escape and cope.
"When I get mad or something like that," Az'Jion says, "I just go home and play my drums, and then it feels like nothing happened. Like it's all gone."
"The more people in the community listen to what it's (Musician Corps) doing for these young people, the more they're understanding why it's important," says Walker-Loud.
Musician Corps is a short-term, government funded program that not only gives kids access to music, it has the potential to teach some important life lessons.
"And for some of them, it (Musician Corps) may be a little bit of a pit stop and they may end-up doing something else with their life," Walker-Loud says. "But if it gave them a chance to make a little step in something positive, and being in something after school when they could have been doing who knows what…then that's a good thing."
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