Author: Tammy Lane • First Posted: Tuesday, October 05, 2010

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A grant is enabling dozens of FCPS students to take private lessons at the Central Music Academy.

Thanks to a grant to Fayette County Public Schools, more than 100 students have taken private lessons at the Central Music Academy in the past year.  

“It is added instruction for the kids, which enhances what they’re able to do in the classroom,” said Lois Wiggins, band director at Edythe J. Hayes Middle School. “It’s generating a great deal of excitement in my band room. They talk about their private lessons and how much better they’re getting and encourage other kids to apply.”

Wiggins is grant manager for the nearly $100,000 award from the W. Paul and Lucille Caudill Little Foundation, given for the school district’s 2020 Vision music project. The two-year grant, which was announced last fall, has so far covered about 130 lessons a month.

Wiggins, who has received nearly four dozen more student applications since August, knows firsthand the value of such individual attention.

“I got to take private lessons starting very young. It was a financial strain on my parents, but I remember how I loved going down to the music store every Saturday morning and how hard I practiced,” she said.

For FCPS students, the grant covers the cost of music and vocal lessons, method books, solo books and some instruments for kids who don’t have their own, including violins and trumpets. At the academy, they also have access to computers with music theory software. Most of the private lessons are 30 minutes a week, though some advanced students sign on for a full hour.

Lauranne Rose, a seventh-grader at Bryan Station Middle School who enjoys freestyle drumming, studies piano along with two younger siblings. Their lessons are scheduled back to back so the family makes only one trip a week to the downtown music studio.

“Some of the songs are hard, but over the weeks, they get easier,” Lauranne said, adding, “There are a lot of friendly teachers here.”

For sixth-grader Anna Smiley, the grant program offered a chance for free lessons as she learns a new instrument. While she originally played alto sax, her band director at SCAPA Bluegrass asked her to pick up the bass clarinet. Now Anna works closely with a music education major from the University of Kentucky.

“It’s an amazing place, and the people here know what they’re doing,” she said.

The academy instructors are mostly students at UK and Transylvania University. Director Erin Walker Bliss said in addition to the music expertise, the mentoring aspect benefits the youngsters.  

“It can be motivating when you’re getting every question answered,” she said. “One on one, it’s so much easier to focus on the things you particularly need to work on.”

Wiggins agreed. “They can really get into depth with details on how to hold or play an instrument,” she said.

The non-profit academy had to double its staff to 26 instructors to handle the influx made possible by the Little Foundation grant, but Bliss doesn’t mind.

“It’s really boosted the sense of community around here to have such large groups,” she said, noting how the kids hang out in the common area, talking about music.

“Almost every kid that comes through really wants to do something with their musical skills,” she added, citing their enthusiasm.

The academy welcomes all ages and all instruments, from voice, strings and brass to percussion and piano. Some kids are beginners; others have several years of experience and might aspire to join the Central Kentucky Youth Orchestras.

Whatever the students’ circumstances, Bliss said private lessons provide “that extra push that so many of them need to really make things click.”

To find out more …

FCPS music teachers hand out applications for the Central Music Academy program. The application includes a student essay and requires the teacher’s recommendation. For more information, contact the student’s music teacher at school or Lois Wiggins at (859) 381-4195.