Highland North Music –
learn, and then perform
The philosophy of this music academy founded in 2007 is that students learn best by playing rather than practicing techniques by MEREDITH BARKLEY Natalia Kelly tried to learn guitar at age 9. But the strings hurt her fingers and the lessons didn’t grab her. It was “by the book,” she recalls of those earlier lessons. Now 41 years old, a photographer and the mother of three, she’s giving it another try. This time she’s using a guitar her late mother gave Kelly’s son, and she’s at a school near her Summerfield home that emphasizes learning music by playing music, rather than by practicing techniques. Her first weekly lesson was midFebruary. She came away enthused. “I learned to play a couple chords and by the time I left I was playing ‘Tennessee Whiskey’ by Chris Stapleton,” she said of the basic chords for the song. “I can’t wait until next week.”
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That’s music to Donnie Wright’s ears. He’s founder of Highland North Music at 4057 Battleground Avenue in northwest Greensboro where Kelly attends. It’s a sentiment he hears a lot. Take Terri Dippel of Pleasant Garden, for example. Her daughter Ella, 10, is a violin student. “It’s about learning music and loving it,” she said of Highland’s teaching style. “Anyone can learn to play music with the way they teach it. We love it.”
Students of Highland North Music are often ready to perform in front of an audience within little Wright’s instructional more than a year of beginning lessons, says Vance Archer, a retired Bell Laboratories engineer who philosophy is simple. He teaches stringed instruments at the academy. aims to teach music as a language. As a baby, then a todshould be the same with music. said. dler, he reasons, you learn to speak “Our mentality is not practicing. And like toddlers, who make a slew by listening to those around you, then Our mentality is playing,” he said. of mistakes en route to perfecting joining in. No one, he said, insists you language skills, beginning musicians Once students are good enough, read before you can speak. To him, it should be allowed mistakes too, said they can join ensembles at Highland Wright, 49, a Greensboro native. North and perform for audiences. The academy has lined up about a dozen “If music is a language, we should Covi n g to public performances through the rest be rejoicing (when they) hit a note, n of 2019. The next: a Beatles showcase even if it’s the wrong note,” he said. 4 p.m. March 30 on the front lawn of “In traditional (teaching) programs, the academy’s Battleground Avenue you have to play well before you can headquarters. go on.”
Nicole E. Gillespie, SPS REALTOR®/Broker
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MARCH 7 - 13, 2019
Photo courtesy of Highland North Music
Said Vance Archer, a retired Bell Laboratories engineer who teaches stringed instruments: “From very early we try to get them practicing and playing with other students so they learn by doing.” At Highland North, students learn techniques and music theory, too. But they pick that up as they play, Wright
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They also perform in coffee houses, churches, at parades and community events like Fun Fourth in Greensboro and the Summerfield Founders’ Day parade. “Usually in a year or so they’re ready to go,” Archer said of the school’s students. Wright honed his music instruc-