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