Anderson County middle school band doubled in size, donations appreciated

CLINTON, Tenn. (WVLT) - It is Friday night and that means High School football time which also means excitement for the band.

Norwood Middle School’s sixth-graders are learning to make music and are gearing up to be on the sidelines one day.

“I just like making beats,” sixth-grader, Mekhi Brown said.

Mekhi’s dad played in the band which inspired him to join.

“It makes me feel good because I’m getting to do something that I want to do,” Mekhi said.

Another sixth-grader, Sophie Lawler, chose a saxophone because she said it sounded really cool when she listened to it the first time.

Many students say that playing in the band is fun but can be challenging.

“I sometimes say like ugh this is so hard and then my friends would be there right beside me and say no you should keep on going I really like it,” sixth-grader, Bayah Barker said.

The band director, Ezekiel Schloss, said there had been a steady decline in the band but said he think it is changing.

“I think the kids were really hungry for music again,” said Schloss.

He said he conducted an experiment by letting the students play different instruments for a couple of weeks.

“What I noticed was many students are very curious about music in general. So getting all the kids to play the instrument had a positive effect this year on the membership,” Schloss said.

As a result, band participation has more than doubled recently and Schloss said he is loving the turnout. However, donations could help since the middle and high schools are sharing inventory.

“Right now we’ve kind of run out between the middle school inventory and the high school donating some instruments to us already. We still have some needs that would be great to help with,” Schloss said.

If you want to donate, you can email Ezekiel at eschloss@acs.ac.

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