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Serenade for success
High school mariachi delivers a message of culture and achievement
Story by Felicia Frazar
T
he lessons learned from music education goes beyond the notes written on a staff. Whether its choir, band or a combination of both, like mariachi, there’s more than honing the sounds music creates. Music students tend to build better language skills, find more discipline in their studies, exhibit improved social skills, have a stronger sense of self worth, and show critical thinking and creativity, said Rafael Alarcon Jr., Seguin ISD mariachi director and mariachi instructor for Teatro de Artes de Juan Seguin. “Music is very involved with multiple interdicisiplinary studies,” he said. “Music, or the arts in general, helps to combine everything in different aspects. It helps students combine all of the different things that they learned in their other classes to create something and I think that is very difficult to have the kids understand they are doing that, because they don’t care. They just want to play the music.” Alarcon helps his students’ extend 14 SEGUIN ~ GUADALUPE COUNTY LIVING
their passion for music by learning more. “There is a history component that at the end of the year I have them do a presentation on artists or a composer or a particular group throughout history,” he said. “They get to see how music is developed throughout time and not just right now in the present. The way I guide my program is modeled after the band programs that I grew up with — discipline and patience, fundamentals, teamwork, confidence.” Learning to read music, replicate the notes and create new sounds all involves critical thinking skills, Alarcon said. “There are TED talks and studies that show how much it encompasses all of the brain activity all at once like you have to sightread and express in the music and play in tune, be in time,” he said. Alarcon was drawn to music at an early age, and despite financial hardships his family faced growing up, his parents ensured that he was able to pursue his passion.
