Inside a room with a closet full of keyboards, percussion teacher Lenny Marsh taps out the drumbeat to “Come Together,” alongside that afternoon’s student. Sometimes he sings a song’s melody while the student plays its beat, sometimes he pauses to make sure his student has the correct arm positioning, and sometimes he just listens. Now full of sheet music binders and sound-mixing equipment, the former office of Shanti Elliot has been transformed into a home for percussion lessons, one of the many types of private music lessons offered at Parker.

Private music lessons at Parker have been a part of extracurricular life at least since 1993, but the program continues to shift. The recent exit of former woodwind teacher Tim McNamara left Music Department Chair Kingsley Tang to fill the vacancy with Michael Matlock, completing the lineup of professional musicians who teach Parker kids music privately.

“One of my duties as a Music Department Chair is to help facilitate and organize private music lessons to happen at Parker,” Tang said. This was a task previously shared with former Music Department Chair Sunnie Hikawa, who retired in June. Since Hikawa has left, there haven’t yet been any major structural changes to the program, but there is increased responsibility for Tang, who now facilitates scheduling and oversees the program on his own.

Tang finished hiring McNamara’s replacement late this September. “We’re very excited to have him on board.” Monday, September 24 was Matlock’s first day teaching at Parker.

Tang said that finding private music teachers is a similar process to finding coaching staff. According to Tang, there are openings, applications, and then interviews, but the process is not nearly as rigorous as the one for hiring faculty. Matlock found Parker through his college friend, brass teacher Catie Hickey, who also teaches lessons at Parker. Matlock said, “the job description was a perfect fit for what I was looking for.”

At Parker, Matlock’s new responsibilities include assisting in band and pulling kids out to work individually, as well as teaching lessons for flute, clarinet, and saxophone. He’s still looking to expand,” Matlock said. “I would love for someone to take the oboe here.”

When first interviewed, Tang was hesitant to give many details about McNamara’s exit. “I think what I can say is that Mr. McNamara was with us and contributed greatly. He co-taught jazz band, he taught the different instruments, he worked with MS and US students. He is one of the finest musicians I have ever heard play,” Tang said. “He’s decided to pursue other things … and we wish him the best.”

Typical woodwind lessons start around the fourth grade, since wind (as well as percussion) instruments require, according to Tang, a level of physical maturity. The majority of students who take lessons are around this age, since enrollment bubbles in lower school and thins out as kids grow. Tang, who has a five-year-old-son himself, sees this a natural part of the process. An eight-year-old who’s taking piano and t-ball and basketball has narrowed their interests by Upper School, so lesson enrollment reflects that.

“A nice thing about the younger kids is that they, for lack of a better way of saying it, are comfortable not being good. I think it’s difficult for an adult sometimes to start violin lessons because they don’t sound objectively great for a little while. A five-year-old is excited about the work and they don’t have a sense of how good or bad they sound in reality,” Tang said.

Tang’s enrollment bubble narrative finds a home in freshman Sage Holt-Hall, who started violin lessons at Parker in second grade and continued them through eighth. A few teachers came into her second-grade classroom to promote their lessons with an orchestra piece demo. This prompted Holt-Hall to sign-up. According to Holt-Hall, her dislike of the violin music lessons grew gradually with time. “I feel like it was a mix of realizing that wasn’t the type of music I was into…I think I thought it was going to be something different than it actually was, and it was very time consuming which was not something I was into,” Holt-Hall said.

Betty Lewis, one of three strings teachers at Parker, instructed her for all six years. “I feel like we had a pretty good relationship, but I knew that, no matter how strong our relationship was gonna be, the main focus was the violin. She knew that and I knew that and I feel like she kinda picked up on how I wasn’t so into it,” Holt-Hall said.

“I took piano from SK but now I’m doing guitar with Mr. Greenspan. I like it more than piano because I get to play the type of music I like, which is country,” fourth-grader Louise Hall said.“It’s only my first week so I’m still learning the chords and stuff and then I get a Buddy Holly song to start, which I’m excited about.” Hall can tailor the lessons to her music tastes even though she’s just started the instrument.

Other lessons are focused on the goal of performing a certain set of pieces. Holt-Hall said, “You don’t rehearse for nothing. It was always for the recitals.” Lessons take place throughout the day. Parents communicate with Tang about interest in lessons, Tang sends their requests to the individual teachers, and then teachers find time slots in their schedule. Whether students are taking strings, guitar, woodwind, brass, piano, or percussion, Tang feels that private music lessons have a unique set of benefits for musical students. “I think in a private lesson, you’re going to move faster. The curriculum can be more designed to a specific person and their needs. The group lesson has a great social dynamic and helps you understand how to work with a bigger ensemble.”

Matlock agreed and said, “They supplement the regular curriculum and give a kid a chance to get some one on one instruction and to focus on exactly what kids need that they might not always get in a setting with other instruments and other kids in band.”