Free program turns kids into musicians
Guitars Not Guns reemerges after pandemic but still needs volunteers
The sound of silence is no more. Youths are learning to finger chords and pluck out simple tunes again through the Guitars Not Guns free music program in Contra Costa County.
The nonprofit's guitar classes for youths went silent early on during the COVID-19 pandemic three years ago, but this winter the Contra Costa chapter resurrected lessons with students learning the basics of playing music from a small group of volunteers. New classes will begin in Concord next week as the revived program rotates around the county, depending on available volunteers.
“We need this, especially after COVID,” Barbara Gorin, president of the nonprofit's Contra Costa County chapter, said in an interview. “Everybody needs a little music in their lives.”
On Wednesday night, the first batch of graduating music students got a chance to strut their stuff during a short performance for family and friends at the Family Justice Center in Antioch
where the weekly classes had been held.
“COVID impacted us, but we're really, really happy to be back,” Gorin told the crowd gathered. “This is our first graduating class (since 2019), so we're happy to be back doing this.”
The music nonprofit was started after a San Jose couple with foster children, Ray and Louise Nelson, discovered that playing the guitar could boost the youths' confidence and self-esteem and steer them in a positive direction. It since has expanded to include budding musicians from all over who otherwise would not get a chance to take guitar lessons, which can be prohibitively expensive.
A formal nonprofit since 2000, its name was inspired by the fatal shooting of 13 people at a Columbine, Colorado, high school, and the nonprofit