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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (June 26, 2019)
Wednesday, June 26, 2019 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon BUILDERS: Program teaches variety of skills Continued from page 3 students through the guitar class more than anything.= He often mentions to his students that while building a guitar is a <pile of problems,= it is ben- eficial for them to solve prob- lems relating to something they9re extremely passionate about and receive something tangible as a result, like a gui- tar or ukulele. The creative director of Sisters Folk Festival, Brad Tisdel, has similar sentiments& <The opportunity to be challenged for the whole school year to complete an instrument is a great achieve- ment,= said Tisdel. He believes that Cosby creates a great learning envi- ronment for students to do so. While Tisdel himself has not yet built an instrument with Cosby, he actively par- ticipates in the Americana Luthier Program and taught the guitar students to play Bob Marley9s <Don9t Worry About a Thing= for their Luthier Showcase July 17. Leah Chapman, a student who built a ukulele her junior year and a guitar her senior year, says she learned a lot of PHOTO BY JERRY BALDOCK Students and instructors gathered last week to celebrate another year of guitar and ukulele building. life skills from both classes, particularly that it takes <a lot of planning to succeed.= Chapman says her favorite part of building her guitar was being able to make it her own with a daisy drawn by her friend True Durden, among other details. Abi Manley, another stu- dent in the guitar class, felt she wasn9t very artistic prior to taking the class, as she was what she called <more of a math person,= but she really wanted to make something in high school that she could hold on to. Building her gui- tar helped Manley to be more creative and showed her why it9s important to be meticu- lous in the things she does. The ukulele portion of the evening, which featured a Superior Escrow Execution Ultimate Service slideshow and musical per- formance, was dedicated to Bill MacDonald, an instructor in the ukulele-building class. Marcy Edwards, another instructor of the class, told the audience, <MacDonald started teaching students how to build ukuleles after a mid- dle school student asked why there was no ukulele-building class at the high school.= 31 Edwards told the audience of parents and peers that eve- ning that in total the instruc- tors have helped to make approximately 150 ukuleles since the beginning of the class. David Perkins, who is also an instructor in the class, led the students in a performance of <This Land is Your Land.= While having an opportu- nity to build a guitar or uku- lele is an experience unique to Sisters High School and a few other high schools in the nation, educators and stu- dents agree it is an extremely valuable one. Students will endure numerous trials and tribulations while build- ing their instruments, be it a misinstalled fingerboard or a piece that snaps off at a cru- cial time in the building pro- cess, but in the words of Brad Tisdel Monday evening, <It9s not a matter of the mistakes you make, but how you fix them.= CUSTOM HOMES • RESIDENTIAL BUILDING PROJECTS Serving the Sisters Area Since 1976 CCB # 159020 CCB # 16891 Stop by and visit with Tiana Van Landuyt & Shelley Marsh. 220 S. Pine St., Ste. 102 | 541-548-9180 Strictly Quality John P. Pierce • 541-549-9764 jpierce@bendbroadband.com