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Piano teacher hits right note with Mooney students
By Denise Dick
YOUNGSTOWN
Judith Britton, a junior at Cardinal Mooney High School, wants to learn to play “My Immortal,” the haunting Evanescence song in which piano features prominently.
She’s working toward her goal in Heather Sirney’s Piano 2 class at the school. She took Piano 1 the first nine weeks of this school year.
“I can play the intro,” Judith, 16, said.
But her interest in piano predates even her love of the song.
“I’ve always been favoring toward the piano,” she said.
Sirney, Mooney’s music teacher, said she got the idea for piano classes from Cicelia Yudah, an assistant professor of piano at Youngstown State University. Yudah asked if Sirney was interested in an after-school piano program similar to one at another school.
Sirney took it a step further.
“I went to my principal and said, ‘Here’s my idea and we’re going to need a lot of money,’” Sirney said.
The teacher asked for eight pianos and lab equipment. The principal opted for four the first year.
After students started scheduling classes, the school added four more. That was last school year.
Last February, students started scheduling for this school year, and 80 students were signed up. The school bought four more pianos and more equipment. This year, the school added a second piano class, Piano 2.
Interest keeps growing.
“I thought it would take off, but I expected it to happen over time,” Sirney said. “We’re talking about adding Piano 3 and 4 next year.”
The piano lab is right outside the school library, so the equipment that accompanies the 16 Yamaha Arius pianos is critical. Students each wear headphones, allowing them to hear themselves play, but no one else.
No sound emanates from the instruments while the equipment is being used. Sirney, who also wears headphones with a microphone, can listen to each student individually and communicate with her young musicians either individually or all at once.
Someone walking past the lab hears only light tapping, no music.
Sophomore Michael Cunningham, 16, danced his fingers along the piano keys, playing Ludwig Van Beethoven’s “Fur Elise.”
Michael is in Sirney’s Piano 2 class, too.
“It’s so much fun,” he said.
Michael took piano for about six months when he was in fourth grade, but he forgot most of what he had learned back then.
When Mooney offered the class, it seemed like a natural fit. He enjoyed Piano 1 so much that he registered for the second class.
“Ms. Sirney is a really good teacher,” Michael said.
Grace Kennedy, 17, a senior percussionist who served as the school’s drum captain this year, wanted to expand her musical horizons. She tried to get her brother to teach her piano but decided she needed more instruction, so she signed up for Piano 1.
“I love it,” Grace said.
As a percussionist, she knows how to read music from a rhythmic perspective. The melody, though, is something new.
“It’s pretty difficult,” Grace said. “This is adding a sound instead of just a beat.”
Despite that, she’s having a good time.
“Even though it’s challenging, I really like it,” Grace said.