Halifax students learn to play big instruments in record numbers

More Grade 6 and junior high students participating in the Halifax Regional School Board's after-school strings program are choosing to learn the cello and double bass.

Strings specialist teacher Pam Mason called it "an explosion of interest" after teaching in the program for a dozen years.

"I like the cello because it goes really low and it's really cool," said Rylan Harrington, a Grade 6 student and beginner cello player at Grosvenor-Wentworth Park Elementary.

The instrument is taller than most of the kids in class who use dollies to lug them around.

"There's lots of people that make videos, like the Two Cello Men," said Grade 6 classmate Owen Boyden. "They're funny."

Demand outstrips instruments

In both Halifax and Dartmouth, where 1,300 students participate in the largest public school strings program east of Toronto, there are suddenly more students who want to learn the cello and bass than there are instruments available.

Music teachers are providing after-school instruction in shifts while music stores that rent and repair instruments are scrambling to keep enough "baby" or cut-down versions of the cello on the shelves.

"We have seen an increase in rentals and repairs but it would be difficult for me to say why," said Andrew Beazley, the Atlantic region manager at Long & McQuade, who has noted an increase in the popularity of the cellos and basses among the younger students.

Hannah Smith is a Grade 8 student in Pam Mason's double-bass class at Oxford School.

"I love playing the bass because I've always wanted to and I've seen it in old fashioned cartoons and all the people were always wearing fedoras and cool stuff," said Smith, who is also an accomplished singer.

Internet videos sparking interest

Last year her group learned a tune called All About That Bass that was a hit for Meghan Trainor.

The cheeky infectious video uses the oversize instrument as a symbol for overweight boys and girls to talk about positive body image.

"I think the video made people look more for the bass in songs and when you hear the bass you get more into it," Hannah said. "It's super fun once you figure out all the cool things you can do with the bass."

Hannah's group of junior and senior high students use the previously overlooked bass to play everything from Japanese folk songs to slap-bass jazz featured in hipster videos by groups like The Piano Guys and Gypsophilia.

"What they see on the internet is absolutely fuelling what they are doing," said strings teacher Pam Mason. "Their own imaginations are allowing them to be invested in the instrument they are taking."

'They are inspiring'

Mason said younger elementary students are also inspired after seeing the cello and bass performed during class visits or in concerts by senior students.

"They're the ones that are role models for the next set of kids coming through," said Mason, herself a product of the strings program started by world-renowned ukulele teacher Chalmers Doane in the 1960s.

"They are inspiring."

Grade 10 student Jack Colborne started playing the bass three years ago after seeing a performance by older students.

Although his instrument is taller than he is, he claims looks can be deceiving.

"You would be surprised how light it is, really," said Colborne, who is an enthusiastic player. "It is a very light instrument to carry around."

Not all schools in the Halifax Regional School Board are able to offer a strings program. Those that do generally keep their bass and cellos in school but students who get the bug can rent their own instrument for about $60/month to practice at home.