Project strings college, elementary students together

MU's string project is the second-oldest in the country and the only one in Missouri.

By Allie Blood

Published Sept. 14, 2007

For many students who played "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" during the Missouri String Project open house on Tuesday, it was the first time they had ever held a string instrument.

The two-year program allows college-level students to teach small groups of third- and fourth-graders to play the violin, viola or cello.

The School of Music invited interested students to find out more about the program at the open house.

Missouri String Project Director Leslie Perna began the open house with a brief introduction to the program and its seven student teachers. Instructors then waited in classrooms and helped prospective students hold and try out the instruments.

As grade-schoolers held the instruments, instructors helped them play "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" or "Mary Had a Little Lamb."

Those taking lessons meet twice a week for 50 minutes, Perna said.

Two instructors teach a group of five to eight students once a week, and, on Fridays, students learn in an orchestra setting.

"This program helps fill the need for string teachers and helps university students learn to be teachers," Perna said.

Perna selects the instructors, many of whom are students majoring in string instrument performance, and guides them by holding classes on how to teach string instruments.

Perna also provides the classrooms in which they practice.

Advantages for the grade-school students are smaller class sizes and lower costs for lessons as compared to a studio, Perna said.

Students also begin to learn their string instrument two years before the Columbia Public Schools district begins its string program.

"I really wish we would have had an opportunity like this when we were younger," sophomore instructor Michael Wilson said.

Each year, about 80 third-graders enroll in the program, but by second semester, about half drop out, senior instructor Dustin Frieda said.

He said about 30 students will continue with a second year. Because it is a two-year program, students might not join when they are in fourth grade.

The program charges $150 for the semester of lessons. If the student wishes to rent an instrument, he or she must pay an additional fee, which varies by instrument.

The lessons begin with the basics of holding the instrument, then students graduate to clapping rhythms and looking over sheet music for basic songs. No previous experience is necessary to join the program.

"After about three months, they can put it all together," Frieda said.

At the end of the semester, a concert is held in which all of the students perform together as an orchestra.

"I come back to teach every year because it's fun to see how much kids can learn in just a few months," Frieda said.

The program began in 1973 and is the second-oldest string project in the nation, Perna said.

The American String Teachers Association has funded several other string projects in the country, but MU is the only school in Missouri to offer a string project.