The guitar and piano classes had been sharing a space for over a decade, but when the dance program moved into its new studio, a space opened up. The guitar classes relocated into the black box last spring, and the piano program was able to expand into the rest of the portable vacated by the guitar program. According to teachers and students across the board, this move has been beneficial for both programs.

The guitar class moved into the portable in 2013 after being in a classroom in the Fine Arts Building. According to guitar teacher Andrew Clark, the extra space in the black box has allowed the program to be more productive.

“We outgrew the portable,” Clark said. “At the start of last year, I had about 170 students, so most of my classes were in the lower 3os. With guitars in half a portable, it was a little tight. The space is much larger here, and it has the feel of an adequate rehearsal space.”

According to chamber guitar player Shirel Behar, the new space has been a significant upgrade for the program.

“I like the new space a lot,” Behar said, “especially since it’s closer to the Fine Arts Building. It’s going to be a lot easier to set everything up and transporting equipment to the Mac will be a lot easier.”

The move from the portable to the black box has also proved to be beneficial for the piano classes. According to senior piano student Josie Molnar, now that they have expanded into the second half of the portable they have more space and fewer distractions.

“One of the things I like the most about the expansion into the guitar portable is that the upper-level piano classes don’t have to do assignments like ear training or rhythmic dictation,” Molnar said. “I think it will also be good during ensemble because more than one group will be able to practice out loud. It used to be really hard to practice with your group when another group was playing out loud because you could hear it through the headphones.”

Theatre performances will also take place in the black box in the evening, and plans are being made to accommodate McCallum’s theatre program in any upcoming performances.

“I agreed to share this space with theatre,” Clark said. “They’d like to have performances in here in the evening because it is a black box theater space. I think that’s what it was originally intended for. Dr. Parrott and I have also discussed moveable black curtains being placed around the perimeter so that theater can have performances.” 

According to Molnar, when the music classes were sharing a small space, distractions and interruptions occurred. In the past, the piano classes were able to hear through the walls of the portable and were often interrupted.

“When guitar class was on that side of the portable, I could always hear the teacher talking and people playing guitar,” she said. “It was especially distracting when they had a metronome on because it made it really hard to focus on your own metronome.”

Clark has plans for improving and renovating the new space to account for the echo in the black box; however, the plans remain in the future as the class is still getting used to the space.

“What I would like to work on now is that there is a little too much of an echo,” Clark said. “That can make it hard to hear the nuances of the classical guitar so we’d like to get rid of this marley floor and put in some soft carpet.”

Overall the move for both programs has been beneficial. Teachers and students alike are excited to see what comes next.

“I’m so happy to be in this space because it’s the perfect size for this program that has been growing over the past several years,” Clark said.