SEASON FOR SHARING
Helping kids hit the right notes
The bespectacled girl wearing a butterfly headband struggles to place her fingers properly on the fret of the acoustic guitar balanced across her right thigh. A baffled expression crosses her face.
Karen Martinez knows the look well. She sees it a lot in the beginning guitar class she mentors every Friday afternoon at Rosie’s House, a music academy that provides free afterschool music lessons for children from low-income families.
Martinez, 17, leans her willowy frame gracefully over the student, takes her left hand and gently positions two fingers in the appropriate spots.
Briefly, Martinez guides the girl’s right hand over the strings and advises her on strumming. The young lady with the butterfly headband nods and con-
tinues to keep hands and fingers where Martinez placed them.
“I can see when they don’t get it,” says Martinez, a guitar veteran of seven years. “They get this look. I know it because I make the same face,” the soft-spoken high school senior said with a laugh.
Then she sets her sights on the girl’s neighbor: A boy with curly hair held barely in check by the sunglasses on his head. Again, the left hand is the issue, so Martinez takes his left hand and positions his fingers. After about a minute, Gerry Maxwell, the instructor, starts to speak. All music stops.
The boy is distracted and starts looking off to the side, the ceiling fan and the floor. Martinez leans in and points to Maxwell, mouthing: “Pay attention.” Immediately, he obeys.
Every week after her private guitar lesson, Martinez offers guidance to students ages 9 and 10 at the music academy. Classes are held in afternoons, in evenings and all day Saturday.
For one hour, Martinez monitors students while Maxwell leads the class of 15 through various pieces. On this day, they include the childhood French favorite “Clair de Lune” and Beethoven’s festive “Ode to Joy.”
A good deal of knowing what chords to play and how to play them is memorization, Martinez said, so she walks behind each student, one by one, to try to spot those who are guessing. Occasionally, one will catch her eye from across the room, and she’ll head over.
“Sometimes, they stare at the pages but they don’t know what (chords) they are hitting,” she says.
Martinez speaks from experience. Since she was 6, the Phoenix teenager has received music lessons at Rosie’s House. She started with piano, then moved to guitar at 10. Now, she is part of the choir and mariachi programs in addition to continuing her guitar lessons with Maxwell, the instructor for whom she started mentoring this year.
“It’s so much fun getting to see people do what I had done. I picture myself again as one of them,” she says. “But I have the opportunity to help out in their learning process, and I love it.”
Finding success
Rosie’s House occupies 10 classrooms on the sprawling campus of Central United Methodist Church, steps away from the Phoenix Art Museum and the light-rail line. It’s a far cry from the tiny house in an impoverished Phoenix neighborhood where the school got its start in 1996.
Over the last 20 years, the school has grown from serving 45 students to more than 400 and has become one of the largest free after-school music programs in the country. The six courses also include strings and wood instruments. Every year, 12,000 free music lessons are given by 21 paid instructors for students ages 5-18, says Executive Director Becky Ballard.
Last year, the Season for Sharing campaign supported the choir program, which grew from 17 students to more than 100.
“It is absolutely essential. We’d never be able to do it without Season for Sharing, and the choir program is one of the biggest and most popular in the community,” Ballard says. “It’s crucial to be able to have that support.”
Rosie’s House is not just about hitting the right notes on sheet music. Its College Path program helps students with college applications, financial aid and the scholarship process. Each student in the program creates a college entry plan with a mentor, and monthly workshops help cover all the bases.
Here, most students don’t have a family member who went to college. Navigating the system can be overwhelming for parents and children, but the program aims to eliminate frustration that can lead students to give up on the whole process. Over the past five years, 96 percent of graduating seniors at Rosie’s House went to college. Rosie’s House students are twice as likely to attend college as their peers who aren’t in the program, Ballard says.
And the other benefits from the dedication required to take formal music lessons, practice and perform tend to stick with students long after they take their last class. Ballard has witnessed it since she joined the organization in 2008.
“That perseverance is something students translate into their lives. They also gain confidence. That’s something that helps them be successful academically and just personally,” she says.
Feeling their joy
Martinez has applied to Arizona State University, Northern Arizona University and a few schools in Texas. She wants to become a doctor. She is a straight-A student at St. Mary’s High School, which she attends on a full scholarship. Martinez will be the first in her family to go to college.
“It’s exciting. But I’m kind of nervous about it because I want to set a good example for others in my family,” she says.
Martinez’s younger brother, 13, is also in the mariachi and choir programs at Rosie’s House.
A half-hour before Martinez dons her mentoring cap, she begins her own guitar lesson with Maxwell, her teacher for the past two years. She politely protests his suggestion on how she should play a set of chords that she’s been struggling with.
“I’m not 100 percent convinced,” she slowly says, as if afraid to hurt Maxwell’s feelings. After a few more attempts, she changes her mind and smiles. “OK, you’ve convinced me.”
After her lesson, Martinez plays a classical guitar song while singing the Spanish lyrics. In song, her voice becomes surprisingly deep and full, echoing through the campus courtyard.
A few years ago, however, this scene would not have taken place.
“I’m a bit of a shy person. A couple of years ago, I did not want to perform in front of anyone. I said, ‘It’s not going to happen,’” Martinez says.
The confidence she gained by performing for an audience as part of a group and then solo has transformed her. She said schoolwork has been easier since she got involved with music. Her organizational skills have also become razor-sharp.
“Rosie’s House is definitely a big part of who I am. All of these little things make a big difference,” she says.
And she wants to pass that on to the next generation of students. Mentoring allows Martinez to give back by doing something she loves. There are few things as rewarding as when she sees students enjoying what she does.
“When they get that look in their eyes, when it clicks and you know they get it ... I love seeing that joy in their face, because I have the same joy when I play,” she says.
The corners of her mouth rise in a smile that pushes up her cheekbones and spreads to her entire face.
“If I can help them have that same feeling,” she adds, “then, wow!” hundred percent of your donations and the matching funds go directly to non-profit agencies in the state. All overhead and fundraising costs are paid by The Republic/azcentral.
How your dollars help
The Gannett Foundation and our community partners, the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust and the Arizona Community Foundation, will multiply your generosity by matching your gives 50 cents on the dollar until donations reach $450,000.
Who makes this possible?
The Republic/azcentral and the Gannett Foundation. Season for Sharing is a donor-advised fund of the Arizona Community Foundation. To donate, go to sharing.azcentral.com, or use the coupon on Page 4A of The Republic and mail your donations to P.O. Box 29250, Phoenix, AZ 85038-9250.