WATERVILLE — High school music classes don’t usually feature hit songs by Van Halen and Adele and a room full of guitars, but that’s exactly the kind of lesson that was on display at Waterville Senior High School during a teaching workshop on Wednesday.

The workshop was part of a pilot program in Maine called Maine Kids Rock! Ten schools across the state were given $5,000 to buy instruments for teaching modern popular music in the hope they would reach more students and expand musical offerings. All told, the program made a $50,000 investment in Maine. But that didn’t stop 29 other schools who did not receive funds from sending music teachers to the workshop.

“For teachers it’s a revolutionary approach,” said Scott Burstein, director of training at Little Kids Rock. It gets the teachers comfortable playing music they normally don’t play, but that students enjoy listening to, he said. “Most teachers get zero instruction on teaching popular music.”

The goal is to attract students who might otherwise not be interested in joining more traditional band classes, like jazz or chorus, he said. In a regular school population, about 20 percent of students want to join a music class, he said, but every student listens to music in some capacity.

Teaching modern music can benefit kids who struggle socially or academically, as it puts something they are passionate about into a classroom setting, he said.

“This helps build kids to be successful and pull them into a school setting,” he said.

The program is a partnership between the Maine Department of Education and Little Kids Rock, a national nonprofit whose mission is to ensure that all public school children have the opportunity to unlock their inner music makers. It is the first time a state department of education has approached Little Kids Rock and then partnered with them, Burstein said. Usually his organization raises funds and designates a place to spend it. Little Kids Rock funded the Maine pilot.

Beth Lambert, visual and performing arts specialist at the Maine DOE, said 10 schools in Maine each received $5,000 to purchase instruments. Waterville Senior High School was one of those schools and played host to the conference on Wednesday. In addition, 29 other schools, ranging across the state from Portland to Fort Fairfield, sent a teacher to participate in the all-day workshop, which Lambert said indicates that the Little Kids Rock program is something all teachers and students can benefit from.

Lambert said schools eligible for the pilot had to have enrollments in which at least 50 percent or more of the students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, and they must agree to offer modern band during the 2017-2018 school year, taught by certified music teachers. Teachers from primary, middle and secondary levels of education attended the workshop, she said, including teachers from Winslow High School and Lawrence Junior High School.

Burstein said the turnout shows how passionate the teachers are. They came from all over the state to learn to play, improvise on and compose with modern band instruments — guitar, bass, drums, keyboards and vocals — in order to teach them in a classroom. They weren’t getting paid to be there, he said, and the majority didn’t get free instruments.

Sue Barre, the band and music director at Waterville Senior High School, said teaching modern pop music will help reach students who otherwise wouldn’t have participated in traditional music classes.

“It allows more access to music,” said Barre, who participated in the workshop on Wednesday.

Barre said the school already does a good job with its current music offerings, but this will allow the school to expand its reach and continue helping students to learn. The program will be instituted this year in Waterville, and Barre said she sees a lot of ways modern music can be used to get students more engaged in a classroom setting.

“Music really does use every aspect of the brain,” she said.

Burstein said the Little Kids Rock organization is international, but most of its work is done in the United States. The organization currently runs trainings in 37 states, and Burstein said that Lambert had seen one of the trainings and approached Little Kids Rock to come to Maine.

The philosophy of the company, he said, was that it didn’t matter if they were teaching music or any other subject, it’s the approach that matters more. That approach is to inspire kids to be confident, he said, and also to use things they’re interested in to increase their interests in learning.

“We’re just trying to help kids. Music is the tool we use for that,” he said.

Colin Ellis — 861-9253

cellis@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @colinoellis

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