THE ART OF ADJUSTMENT Mentor Stella Kim assists her mentee, Amelia Lou, in playing the viola in the orchestra room. Stella and Amelia feel they have already made a lot of progress from the few times they’ve met. “This program has a very good way of bringing and uniting the middle school and high school students together,” said Goodell.

Melodies fill the orchestra room; sounds of strings, woodwinds, and brass all tuning together at once. Your attention shifts to the conductor raising his baton, and classmates arrange themselves into position to begin playing the next song. You watch as your middle school peers play along, struggling to keep up. In that moment you understood that extra help was needed in order for you to match the pace of the class. The Tri-M (Modern Music Masters) Music Mentoring Program is a new way to provide middle school musicians one-on-one assistance with the support of upper schoolers.

“We have about 175 kids from sixth through 12th grade in the orchestra,” Orchestra teacher, John Goodell said. He is the founder of the program and dedicates his time and effort to bridging the gap between middle and upper school. “About half of them take private lessons, and the other half don’t. They don’t do it for a lot of different reasons, but it means that in our more challenging repertoire, some kids really need the extra help. This program is aimed to provide those students with the individual assistance they need to be successful.” 

The program operates during C&C, work sessions, and after school, allowing middle school students who do not have access to private lessons get the extra practice that they need. 

“It takes place down here in the music wing,” Goodell said, “so we’d have the music lab available. Also, the orchestra and jazz room, and the fishbowl.”

Beyond the immediate academic support, this program strives to motivate middle schoolers to take music courses as one of their electives when they go to upper school. 

“It helps kids in middle school realize they want to keep doing music in high school because it’s an elective choice then,” Goodell said. “You have to do two years of art, but it really helps to get people to continue to do our music programs, whether it’s a jazz group, the orchestra, or something instrumental in high school.”

Even for high schoolers who chose to not take a musical elective, they can still support the school’s music program through volunteering.

“Even if they can’t be in an orchestra or are not in jazz, they can still volunteer by planning and organizing dates for when the program can take place and use feedback to improve the program,” said Goodell. “Maybe middle schoolers who feel really confident from the mentoring can help other middle schoolers too.”

Mentor volunteer Karen Yehliu ‘27 believes that this opportunity will allow for a better connection to form between the middle and upper school students who are interested in music. 

“I think we will be able to build strong relationships with our middle schoolers,” Yehliu said, “and they will be able to learn their instruments better.”

This program differentiates from regular classes because students will have more opportunities to ask questions and recall personal feedback that can help them improve and learn their instrument. 

“It can encourage students to play their instruments,” she said, “and have moments where they can learn more about their instrument and enjoy playing it.”

While the mentorship assists middle schoolers in their musical development, it also benefits high school students as every two mentoring sessions gives them an hour of service. 

“Since it counts as service hours for our upper school students,” Goodell said, “it’s a win-win.” 

The support that middle school students receive from upperclassmen not only helps them improve in their instrumental skills, but it also builds relationships. It creates a unification of the upper class and middle schoolers that creates opportunities for bonding and friendships to form and build a stronger Greenhills music community.

“I hope that a sense of trust can be built between me and the middle schoolers as a mentor, ” Adelle Needham ‘27 said. “Hopefully, they can grow as musicians and know that they can rely on their mentors to be successful.”