Guitar Group Receives ‘Excellent’ Ratings

By MAGGIE MCMURRAY

Moapa Valley Progress

A small but select group of Mack Lyon Middle School (LMS) 8th graders traveled to Las Vegas Academy last week to participate in the Clark County School District guitar festival. The students were under the direction of LMS guitar teacher Walter White.

The group had had been assiend two required pieces to play at the festival. In addition, White was allowed to choose music pieces that would showcase the group’s abilities. This year’s required pieces were a set of scales and a piece called, “The Pasture” by CCSD’s district-wide coordinator of the guitar program, William Swick.

White was concerned, at first, with the technical difficulty of the required piece. “When I got the piece I was surprised with the level of difficulty,” White said. “I knew it was above where we were. But the kids really worked hard on the piece. So it really helped them grow and advance.”
The piece was written in 4 parts and White’s ensemble only had 4 students, so each student had to master his/her part well.

White was very pleased with how his group did. So, apparently, were the judges.
“These kids did surprisingly well on this very difficult piece,” White said. “The judges commended them several times on how each player held up his or her part of the piece.”

At the end of the day, the judges awarded an “Excellent” rating to the local group.
“We arrived early so that we would be able to listen to other groups,” White said. “Some groups had 30 or 40 guitars on stage and we had only 4. If we had 20 more players, I’m sure we would have scored even better.”