String Players Supply Sound Education

About 500 children cheered and clapped to the sounds of string instruments at Tierra Linda School in Camarillo on Thursday as a group of five classically trained musicians played for them.

During the one-hour performance, the first- through third-grade students learned about the violin, cello, bass and viola.

“You may think a viola looks a lot like a violin, but it produces very different sounds,” said Neal Laite, who played the violin.

The musicians, called the String Family Players, are from the Los Angeles Music Center’s Education Division and travel to schools throughout Southern California.

“Our goal is to teach kids about string instruments and the different styles of music, particularly classical music,” Laite said. “Sometimes people put classical music on a pedestal and it becomes something that you can’t touch. So we want to teach kids that all kinds of music can touch them.”

Laura Elkins, who heads a parents committee that organized the event, said members chose the group because “we need to keep children in touch with music, particularly when schools can no longer offer music [classes].”

To teach the youngsters how to distinguish the sounds of the four instruments, Laite asked then to cover their eyes while one of the musicians played “Three Blind Mice.”

Then he asked them which instrument played the song.

The youngsters joined the musicians in chorus when they played “Beauty and the Beast” from the popular Walt Disney movie.

And although the students cheered to the sounds of a Mozart concerto, it was the sound of “Pizza Catto Polka” that had them swinging.

“I like the polka,” said Vanessa Sargent, 9, “because it makes you feel like dancing.”