When some area students start band and strings classes for the first time this fall, they will have a head start.
That’s because some school districts, including Madison, offer lessons in the summer for beginning as well as continuing students. They are part of the summer school program.
“If we would just start in school then we wouldn’t know many of the notes and the basic songs,” said Karly Keller, who will play the clarinet as a Waunakee sixth-grader this fall. “We can just jump back in when school starts.”
In the Waunakee School District, lessons are first offered for strings students in the summer before fifth grade. Band students can start taking the lessons just before sixth grade.
“We’ve always started our beginners in the summer because typically they have more time in the summer than the regular school year,” said Ross Cowing, sixth-grade band director and the summer music coordinator for Waunakee Intermediate School.