MM_072017

ing the program to them and
changing it constantly to
keep up with their interests.
For Narcissi, the class
was an extension of out-
mokenamessenger.com life & arts
the Mokena Messenger | July 20, 2017 | 21
Area musicians bring harmony to Boys and Girls Club
Amanda Stoll, Assistant Editor
With hardly enough
drumsticks and recorders
to go around, fewer than a
dozen junior high-aged children
met for a music lesson.
Soon, however, their
drumsticks will be practicing
on a real drum set instead
of the table.
A drum set is just one of
many things to come for
the music program at The
Boys and Girls Club in Joliet,
where John F. Narcissi,
a Mokena native, and Jeff
Redmann, a New Lenox resident,
are working to bring
music where it’s scarce.
Narcissi and Redmann
met through Providence
Catholic High School in
New Lenox where Narcissi
was involved in numerous
musical programs, including
concert band, choir, jazz
band, drum corps, marching
band and the bagpipe corps
while Redmann was teaching
and helped start the pipe
corps.
After graduating high
school, Narcissi pursued
the study of music at Illinois
Wesleyan University
in Bloomington for a year
and a half before attending
Joliet Junior College, where
he continues to study music
with a focus on composition.
The two recently met
up again, but this time as
teaching partners.
With experience teaching
at five high schools and
teaching private lessons
throughout his music career,
Redmann mainly takes
up the teaching aspect of the
class, but he said it’s very
valuable to have Narcissi
there to demonstrate and
keep the children engaged.
The two meet up at the
Boys and Girls Club in
Joliet two or three times
a week for a small group
music lesson with some of
the boys and girls from the
club. Sometimes their class
times coincide with the normal
club hours. However,
sometimes they meet afterwards,
which can pose some
attendance challenges with
pick-up and drop-off times.
With time, Narcissi said
he thinks attendance will
become more consistent —
once parents realize how
much their children are enjoying
the program and become
as committed to their
attendance.
While the two don’t have
much control over parent
pick-up and drop-off consistency,
what they do have
control over is what material
and activities they do
during the hourlong classes
each week.
On July 12 the group met
for once such class, where
they covered music from
vastly different genres and
used different instruments
— including their voices.
“[Voice] is an instrument
everybody is born with,
and they carry it with them
throughout their life,” Narcissi
said. “Whereas a guitar
or piano you can’t really
carry around with you everywhere.”
However, the children
did get a chance to try their
hand at the recorder, as they
accompanied Narcissi in a
rendition of the theme song
for Spongebob Squarepants,
with Narcissi doing humorous
back-and-forths of, “I
can’t hear you” and “Aye,
aye, captain!” with the children.
Also in the bag of supplies
Redmann brought
were about 10 pairs of
drumsticks, so the children
could practice simple quarter,
eighth and sixteenth
notes and triplet rhythms on
the table.
During class, Redmann
told them that they will
soon have a real drum set
to practice their bass drum
beats, snare taps and high
Children participating in the Boys and Girls Club of Joliet’s music program do some drumming on the table during a
session July 12. Photos by Amanda Stoll/22nd Century Media
hat hits. Those, along with
computers for musical composition,
are being provided
through program sponsors
Comcast and AT&T, which
Redmann said have been
generous in their donations
to the class.
The class also participated
in singing “Here Comes
the Sun” by The Beatles and
“All Star” by Smash Mouth,
both of which were popular
with the children because of
their appearances in movies
like “The Bee Movie” and
“Shrek.”
“They’re getting a sense
[that] there’s more music
than what we’ve come to
know just in our little area
that we’re comfortable
with,” Narcissi said. “We’re
trying to expose them to
older pieces of music and
newer pieces of music that
are outside of the R&B, rap
and hip-hop sections.”
One of the biggest challenges
– as far as the curriculum
is concerned – is
figuring out what will keep
Mokena native John F. Narcissi accompanies the students with guitar. Narcissi will be
performing at the Frankfort County Market with a little help from the children July 30.
the children engaged, taking
into account their tastes in
music and the ever-changing
popularity of some
songs.
“Figuring out who the
kids are here and the typical
kid that’s taking part of the
Boys and Girls Club was
the first thing I set out to
do,” Redmann said.
Once they started to see
what the children enjoyed,
he said they began tailor-
Please see music, 26