Featured Students: The Barrett Family

The Barrett Family

Hannah (H), Aaron (A), and Natalee (N) are 3 siblings who have been in SOUNDS Academy for 3 years. During this “stay at home period” of the Coronavirus pandemic, they have been doing more than practicing. We were able to connect with them to learn about their adventures with kittens, painting, baking, and backflips! Read more to learn about how they have been doing and how they display their character values in their lives.

Q: Tell us about your musical journey. What is your instrument and why did you choose it?

A: I chose the cello because in the 4th grade I chose the violin and I didn’t like the violin clef. Reading the bass clef made more sense to me.

H: I play the viola and I chose it because my friend played viola in the 4th grade.

N: I chose the violin because no one else in my family chose the violin.

Q: What do you like about SOUNDS Academy?

A: I like going to lessons because I like playing the songs. It’s fun learning new pieces and the different rhythms. I’m learning the 1st song in Suzuki Book #4.

H: What I like about playing in SOUNDS Academy are the lessons. It helps me to be in better orchestras in my school.

N: I like having lessons because it helps me to perform better and be ready to play with others at school.

Q: What have you been doing during the lockdown? What new things have you been learning?

H: I’ve been painting. I started painting in March. I wanted to learn how to paint because we were watching YouTube videos about people painting and I decided that I wanted to do that. We also go rollerblading in the morning.

N: We got 4 kittens on February 24th. Princess, Katsuki (Japanese Phrase that means falling star. The stripe on his nose looks like a falling star), Qrow, and Chubbers. Now that they’re a little older they are a lot more fun to play with. I’ve also been drawing, painting, and going rollerblading in the morning with Hannah.

A: I got a bike for Christmas a couple years ago and I decided to fix it up so that I could ride it. I bought a bunch of bike tools and I use them to fix up my bike. It had a problem with changing gears, so I replaced the gears on the bike. I also received an award for doing the most assignments in my science class!

Q: Why is music education important for children?-Why are programs like SOUNDS Academy important? What role, if any, do you think SOUNDS Academy and the music education you’ve received, played in shaping who you are today?

A: I think that music helps children to develop their brains. It helps more than just being in front of a tablet. I feel like my brain has grown from music because it helps me think more outside of the box.

H: I play the violin, viola, and guitar. Whenever I let my 4 year old younger siblings play my instruments, they get really excited. I can see that it is another way for them to communicate through the music so that they can express themselves. Children don’t know a lot of big words or how to communicate very clearly, so music is a way for them to communicate and I can connect with them that way.

N: When I’m doing chores I like upbeat songs with words. When I’m doing homework, I like listening to instrumental music without words. Music affects my moods and I believe that it affects the moods of other children as well.

Q: What do you want the whole wide world to know? This can be about anything and everything.

H: I write stories. I like to make up characters and write about magic and craziness.

A: I collect rubiks cubes. I have 7 different kinds. I can solve a regular rubiks cube in 34 seconds. My average is 50 seconds.

N: I like to bake. Especially when you get to eat it. I make a really great lemon bar!

Q: What character value helps you the most during the COVID Quarantine?

H: Creativity has helped me the most because drawing is keeping me sane. I get a lot of ideas when I’m bored.

A: Perseverance, because I have been getting everything done. Once I get things done I can do more fun things like playing video games, riding my bike, and playing my cello. My perseverance also helped me work really hard to be able to do a back flip on our trampoline. (see below)

N: Creativity for me because I have to come up with things to do. I made a code with my little sister, Amanda. TZC spells ‘cat’ in our code. We’re still working on translating and developing new words. We’re finding ways to get off of our electronics. We also bake and make fudge. We have a lemon tree so we’re finding new ways to use the lemons.