PHS student introduces blind students to drumming

A Poway High School student has used his senior project to share his love of drumming with blind students.

Scott Bauersfeld, who is a member of the Poway High School Emerald Brigade, taught 11 students from the Braille Institute in La Jolla how to drum, then invited them to join the marching band’s drum line at the Oct. 30 PHS football game in the stands to play along.

Bauerfeld said he was inspired after learning that several blind people had learned to raft down the Colorado River in the same program he had done. “I was thinking this summer what I wanted to do (for my project), and I figured, if blind people could raft, they could play the drums.”

Bauersfeld has been in the drumline all through high school.

He contacted the Braille Institute to see if they would be interested, and ended up with 11 students, ranging from fourth-graders to juniors and seniors in high school.

“At first, I didn’t know exactly what to do,” he said. “I started with the basics with drum pads, like I would teach anyone (starting out on drums).”

As the students progressed, Bauersfeld had them move to using drum kits owned by the Institute. “They didn’t have marching drums, so we used drum kits,” he said.

“It wasn’t a big deal what they couldn’t see the music,” said Bauersfeld. “I had them do a drum circle thing. One student would play a rhythm and the others would play along.”

They mostly learned pop songs, since that is what the students enjoyed the most, but Bauersfeld also taught them the Poway High School fight song so they would play it along with the marching band drum line at the Oct. 30 football game.

“I wasn’t sure how it would work out since they couldn’t see, but they had no issues whatsoever,” said Bauersfeld. “It reinforced the idea for me that despite being visually impaired, they can do what everyone else is doing.”

The students joined Bauersfeld and his fellow drumline members for the first half of the Oct. 30 football game, where the students had several opportunities to play the fight song along with the marching band.

“While playing with the marching band in the stands the youth did very well and seemed to greatly enjoy the experience. They got to play the fight song several times along with a couple of other tunes. All percussion members (drumline and pit) did a fantastic job helping the youth with the music and were extremely supportive of the event. I think that the Braille students really got a kick out of being able to experience a football game from the perspective of the drumline,” Bauersfeld wrote in an email.

Bauersfeld said he was also helping the students prepare for a perfomance at the Braille Institute in mid-December.