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(violin music)
TEACHER: First finger down, go.
(students play instruments)
TEACHER: Second finger down, go.
(students play instruments)
TEACHER: Third finger down, go.
(students play instruments)
NARRATOR: The students are young.
TEACHER: Nice. And, rest position.
NARRATOR: Sometimes distracted,
(children playing
and notes are a little off-key at times.
(off-key notes)
But just two years into an ambitious five-year program
to teach pre-K kids how to play the violin and cello,
the results are promising.
- [Teacher] And we take a bow now, there we go.
Good job.
RUTH MEINTS: You can see it with your own eyes
that the kids are really changed from when they start,
bouncing off the walls, to the end, when they're standing
in lines, playing very complicated songs.
NARRATOR: The 32-week curriculum includes originally
composed music.
MEINTS: That is close, that's it's neighbor,
Belly Button B.
NARRATOR: Unique lingo and games designed
to make the learning fun.
MEINTS: No sharks without fins.
Let's make some unicorns.
Everybody's favorite (shouts softly)
Somebody's shoulder's getting gobbled.
Fortissimo!
NARRATOR: The idea is to close the ability gap
before kids enter school.
MEINTS: Kids who enter kindergarten already behind
by a year or so, they just stay that way, and it's,
you know, a downhill course.
So, if you can get 'em in those years
between three and five, when their minds are really,
you know, open for learning,
if we can get a whole bunch of kids in underserved areas
doing this, and be able to track the results,
they're gonna be big.
NARRATOR: There's no other program like it in the US.
MEINTS: It's the only one of its kind that provides
all of the instruments, requires a caregiver,
and is in underserved areas.
NARRATOR; And it is the largest such program,
with some 1300 kids enrolled in Omaha and Scottsbluff,
with plans to expand to Kansas City.
ABBY SCHNEIDER: We got a postcard in the mail
that said they were gonna have free violin lessons,
with free, like, the instrument was provided.
I kinda thought, that's amazing,
it seems too good to be true.
So, we registered and went and kinda kept waiting
for the catch, and, no, it was really,
there was no cost for the families.
EMMA SCHNEIDER: I think it's kinda great.
ABBY SCHNEIDER: I'm amazed at how much she's picked up.
And it's kind of incredible how much they can learn
at such a young age.
NARRATOR: It's part social science, part art.
A cultural experiment that may have Nebraska leading
the way in Early Childhood Education.
TEACHER: Show me kangaroo.
STUDENT: Kangaroo in the pouch.
TEACHER: Oh, that's right.
NARRATOR: Scientists at the University of Nebraska
Medical Center are tracking the progress of participants,
which could provide groundbreaking information
regarding the effects of music education on the brain.
TEACHER: Now, let's look for jewelry.
STUDENT: Jewelry.
NARRATOR: But parents here don't need a study
to tell them that their kids are learning more
than how to play music.
ROBERT ANDERSON: I think, with playing the violin,
it really opens his mind up to creativity.
LATRYCE ANDERSON: He was hooked from the first class,
just the way they teach it, the different games
and everything kind of reinforces it,
and he's really excited to come, every single time.
He's like, "Is it violin? Is it violin?"
OAKLAND ANDERSON: I'm really good because I've been doing it for two years.
I like cellos and I like drums,
and I really wanted to do a violin, so I got into this.
LATRYCE ANDERSON: We tried to have him perform
something before this, and he was like,
"No, no, I'm not doing this,"
and now he's like whipping out things and,
"I can do this, let's get the violin! Hook it up!"
ROBERT ANDERSON: He even accused us of bringing the wrong violin
when he didn't hit the note he wanted.
LATRYCE ANDERSON: Is this my violin?
ROBERT ANDERSON: This is not my violin, is this mine?
NARRATOR: At recitals, the students are graded
as they perform for family and friends.
MEINTS: We evaluate different things about their right hand,
like their bow hold, what does it look like,
how about their bow path, you know.
There's specific things for each hand.
(instrumental music)
NARRATOR: String Sprouts is not about finding
the next great prodigy.
Instead, it's about impacting the community in the long run,
something Meints calls the endgame.
MEINTS: One little guy last year, had he gone into kindergarten
without Violin Sprouts, would have probably been labeled,
you know, the naughty kid, or,
and you know, and then there it goes, you know,
the whole rest of his, you know, academic career is,
you know, the naughty kid.
And, really, he was, by the end, the leader in the class,
standing on the line, and that's gonna change his life.
NARRATOR: The Omaha Conservatory of Music
is able to spearhead this effort thanks to donations
and grants.
TEACHER: Take a bow.
DEANNA GIBSON: His confidence has grown tremendously,
he can get on stage, is not shy (laughs)
about anything any more.
MATTHEW GIBSON: Well, like the first time, I was so nervous
about up there, and
then at, on the stage, when I was playing my violin,
it wasn't so nervous after all.
MEINTS: Matthew is a hoot.
That kid is, he is so into violin.
The nice thing about that is if they get a little group
of friends, you know, when they start young like that.
The moment that they will not let it go is when it becomes
a part of their identity, and so if you can get it
to be part of their identity, "I'm a violinist,"
before they get very old, it doesn't go away.
I think Matthew's already got that.
You know, so, wow, he's five, and he already thinks
he's a violinist.
He's probably not gonna give it up.
NARRATOR: Many of the students like Matthew
love playing music, and there's good reason to believe
their brains may like it as well.
(kids talking to each other)