BEAVERTON — The English verb for the act of making musical sounds is play. Yet too often, parents and musical professionals approach it as something else — as work, or showbiz, or obligation, or eat-your-peas self-improvement. Instead of being something you do for your own enjoyment, making music becomes something you do for others, because you’re supposed to, not because you want to. It’s a great way to discourage kids from learning music.

That’s not what I saw on a late summer Saturday morning at Musical Playground, an interactive event for families with children ages 10 and under, sponsored and hosted by Beaverton’s Patricia Reser Center for the Arts. At Musical Playground, kids were free to explore a variety of musical instruments, and their sounds, on their own. At a series of music stations arrayed throughout the Reser concert hall, lobby, and environs, I witnessed children eagerly strumming (and sometimes shredding) on ukuleles and guitars, banging drums, and getting hands on with pianos, cellos, violins, and more rarely seen (hereabouts anyway) instruments from cultures around the world, all supported by trained instructors. ArtsWatch photographer Joe Cantrell’s photos of the annual event reveal what we experienced: the joy of kids discovering the wonder of making music — because they wanted to.

Building a Playscape

That easy approachability is the key feature that Reser Center Education and Community Programs Manager Aaron Nigel Smith created for Musical Playground when the program debuted two years ago. “It’s a dream I’ve had for many years prior to coming to the Reser,” he told ArtsWatch. “The real intention was to give children and families a chance to explore musical instruments without having musical knowledge or skill, or the pressure of a traditional music lesson.”

By contrast, Musical Playground’s “openness and lack of structure is the magic sauce,” Smith explains. “I’m a classroom guy, so I’m all about structure, but that can be intimidating for some populations. Here, we let there be the freedom to let them pull towards any instrument they like in a low stakes, low pressure, free flowing environment. They guide their experience. They can get up there and sound amazing or horrible or interesting, without judgment.”

The affable Smith has developed his expertise in education over the past two decades. In 2002, he founded FUNdamentals of Music & Movement, a fun approach to music classes for preschool children, which, according to his website, grew into a national program. With his wife Diedre, Smith formed the non-profit 1 World Chorus to promote peace and empower youth internationally through the arts, which his website says has reached more than 10,000 youth in Portland, Los Angeles, New York, Kenya, and Jamaica. Before arriving at the Reser three years ago, Smith, as an award-winning teaching artist (with Young Audiences, the Right Brain Initiative and Arts for Learning) and performer in the Portland area for the past 15 years, had built a network of colleagues who shared his educational philosophy and knew how to engage kids coming from various backgrounds. 

This year, Smith also enlisted the local music stores Remo Drums and Guitar Center to generously provide free or discounted instruments for giveaways at the event, which also included a 10-week session of classes with Music Together Resonate and tickets to a Reser Presents family show for the lucky winners. 

It seems to be working. Smith says attendance at Musical Playground increased from 600 in its debut year to 875 this year.

Sponsor

Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop

In the main concert hall, parents and kids lined up for the chance to run bows across cellos and violins. “You got it!” the cellist guide exclaimed when they produced a solid sound. Of course, with most western orchestral instruments and even guitars and keyboards, there’s only so much fun a kiddo can have on a first encounter. Many cultures, such as Indonesia, and some Western methods, such as the one developed by composer Carl Orff, emphasize percussion instruments as more approachable gateways to more sophisticated musical pleasures. The drum kit proved a popular station in the Reser lobby. 

That’s also why my favorite places at the three hour, drop-in-and-out event, were those requiring the least previous training or skill. Outside, Lewis & Clark College professor Alex Addy demonstrated Ghanaian drumming. Upstairs, an instrument petting zoo allowed kids to affix eyes and hands to gorgeous and unusual instruments from across the globe. Nearby, guided by volunteers, kids could actually make their own harps from cheap materials. 

In an adjacent conference room, the Fundamentals of DJing station, expertly facilitated by official Portland Trail Blazers DJ O.G.ONE, showed three teens at a time how to create some basic effects like crossfading, superimposing melodies, moving sounds around the space, and varying tempos and volume over pre-recorded vocal and electronic samples on this quintessentially 21^st century musical set up — turntable, controller, and laptop. I treasured the magical moments when they made the connection between pressing certain buttons or twisting knobs or pushing faders, and hearing the resulting surge of layered sounds and emergent beats. When DJ O.G.ONE suddenly unleashed a scratching effect, kids at the DJ table and in the audience (along with some adults) cackled with surprised delight. Even some kids who weren’t pushing the controls were dancing in the aisle.

“With one of these for $150 and a laptop like you use in school, you could be making music at parties,” O.G.ONE told the kids and their parents. 

Next door, with sensitive and enthusiastic support from singer/guitarist/songwriter Mo Phillips, the open mike room provided a pressure-free vibe that allowed one kid to unspool an extensive rap from Hamilton, another to make up her own song, and another with slight speech impediment to be, for a few glorious minutes, Taylor Swift. The look of happy surprise on their faces as they realized just how much everyone else — including family members — was enjoying their music-making, likely presaged further musical explorations and adventures. They won’t be shy about doing it again in front of others — like Taylor sings, “can’t stop, won’t stop.”

Community Learning Center

Musical Playground is just one example of a panoply of Reser programs designed to build community not just through entertainment and events, but also through arts education and community involvement. Smith cites as an example the family Musical Passport program, which exposes participants to ukulele, taiko, and Persian instruments and music. Next year, Smith hopes to add a kids-only Musical Passport class.

Such family friendly programming, Smith says, draws children from throughout the region, sometimes abetted by free TriMet passes to make it easy to bring kids directly to the Reser, which is steps away from Max Blue and Red Line stops and several bus lines. The Reser also brings an average of 2,000 kids a year to its free (for K-12 school-age children) Family Concerts. Its Kids New Year’s Eve Show (which actually happens at midday to accommodate bedtimes) sells out all 500 seats every year. Its Arts for Healing program provides music therapy, storytelling, collage, movement, and yoga to help with recovery from physical and other challenges.

Sponsor

More is happening this fall. In October, the Reser will premiere Smith’s new original folk opera, York the Explorer, which includes a curriculum for educators and other surrounding educational programming. Stay tuned for more about that on Oregon ArtsWatch. And in this year’s new Rhythm, Rhyme & Revolution: The Art And History Of Hip-Hop Lyricism, which starts in November, esteemed Portland cultural activist, emcee, poet, writer, and media producer Mic Crenshaw teaches students of all ages “to utilize the time and space of a beat, rhythm, our voices, words, and language to say something powerful, original, memorable, and transformative.”

These and other programs reflect the Reser’s community based approach to programming, says Executive Director Chris Ayzoukian. “The old school approach was that these are sacred arts, this is a sacred space,” he says. “We’re up on a hill, looking down at you,” a condescending posture that’s been criticized in urban performing arts complexes like Los Angeles’s hilltop Getty Center and Music Center (where Ayzoukian previously worked at Walt Disney Concert Hall) or New York City’s Lincoln Center, which literally turned its back and gazed down on its diverse San Juan Hill neighborhood. 

In contrast, Ayzoukian says, the Reser was designed to be “at grade,” with soaring glass walls, inviting the community in. And so does the educational and other programming. “It’s all about access. What Aaron has done not just in this program but in many different programs is ask, ‘How can we meet you where you are?’” That involves outreach to area schools and community partner organizations to bring in students and teachers for programs like Musical Playground.

He gestures to the lobby, teeming with children and parents, like the rest of the facility and its surroundings. How many other performing arts centers would be filled with families on a Saturday morning? “There’s obviously a need for this,” Ayzoukian continues. “Parents need stuff to do with their kids on weekends. Maybe we’ll eventually have something going on here most Saturday mornings.”

The idea to lead educational programming with global music and instruments came from listening to Beaverton’s internationally heterogeneous community, Ayzoukian recalls. “We asked, ‘what do we want to have this center be known for?’ Sometimes you just have to look right in front of you. Beaverton is very [culturally] diverse — so let’s highlight that. We don’t want to be insular and just do stuff we think is good for the public. We have to keep our gaze focused outward, listening to the community.” In Musical Playground’s joyful, sometimes cacophonous noise of children discovering music, the Reser’s community is ringing out loud and clear.