James Coviak’s role at Mott Middle College High School in Flint, Mich., may sound like it’s right out of a movie – à la “Music of the Heart.” But the melodies that emanate from his classroom aren’t from beginners’ screechy violins and his students aren’t starting in elementary school. These students, who are nearly through high school, are learning and mastering an instrument that many school percussion programs across the country are just discovering, even though it’s been around for decades: the steel drum.

Mott Middle College is a school for at-risk students in grades 10 through 12 – 280 students drawn from 21 school districts in and around Genessee County, Mich. The teachers at this school practice less traditional educational techniques to engage these students, who might not otherwise graduate from high school.

The instrument’s relative novelty, its bright, carefree sound and its ease of playing make Coviak’s steel drum program a logical fit at Mott. The program’s popularity and growth show that the students think so, too. Once they pick up that mallet and strike the pan, they tend to stick with it.

In 1990, Coviak started the first school steel drum program in the state, at Central Michigan University, with the help of his mentor, professor Robert Hohner. Coviak had studied with Hohner during the 1980s and pursued his master’s degree at the University of Akron, Ohio, where he first took part in a steel drum band.

“The University of Akron has a very active steel drum program. At the time, there weren’t many steel drum programs around. In fact, there were no school steel drum programs in the state of Michigan,” Coviak recalls. “So that was new for me – to learn about the steel drum and perform with their group.” Today, there are more than 20 steel drum programs in Michigan.

When Coviak began teaching steel drums at Mott Middle College, the 17 students who enrolled sat idly by and watched him assemble the instruments for the class.

“ Nobody would move a muscle,” Coviak remembers. “Everybody seemed really tentative about participating at all. It’s the nature of the school more than anything else. When we first get the kids, they’re tentative about doing anything. And then, with some hard work and luck, by the time they graduate, we’ve turned them around.”

Ten years later, he’s teaching more than 70 students the art of the steel drum. Coviak’s program spans the high school and college levels – including the Mott Middle College High School, Mott Community College and the University of Michigan, Flint. Students who advance through his program have the opportunity to audition for The Steelheads, a top-notch ensemble comprised of 12 percussionists who perform at numerous local, national and international venues. The Steelheads ensemble has appeared at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention, the Bands of America National Concert Band Festival, Journées de la Percussion in Paris, the Heritage Music Festivals in Toronto and London, the International Nice Jazz Festival in Nice, and the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland, to name a few.

School Band and Orchestra: What interested you in steel drums in the first place?

Coviak: It’s a unique sound. I really liked the way it sounded, and the style of the music. When I grew up, drum set was really my favorite instrument and the steel drum is kind of a perfect marriage between an instrument like the drum set and a melodic instrument, like the marimba. There’s something about the steel drum where it’s kind of a drum set put to melodic pitches and melody and harmony. It lends itself to that style.

SBO: Why is it so hard to get the instruments?

Coviak: There’s really only a limited number of people who know how to make the instrument. It’s a hand-crafted instrument. There isn’t really a school or a book or anything to learn how to make these instruments. It just takes years as an apprentice with somebody who is skilled at building the instruments, and most of the people who are skilled at building the instruments are from Trinidad. There is a guy from Guyana who made a lot of our drums, and he’s living in Pittsburgh now. And there’s also a new wave of young people who had studied with the Trinidadians who are now at a point where they can make drums, and that’s kind of speeding things up. In 1990, there were probably only five or six people in the United States who knew how to make a steel drum, so it was very limited.

SBO: What is the goal of the Steelheads group?

Coviak: I’m trying to create the same type of experience that I had at Central Michigan with Robert Hohner. In my own way, I’m trying to give these students an opportunity to perform in a group where people are able to perform great music and they’re dedicated and committed to learning to excel at their instrument. It’s in hopes that these experiences of excellence will transfer to other parts of their lives and give quality to everything else that they do.

SBO: How do students become involved in the Steelheads?

Coviak: Most of them have already known me for years and having been playing in the high school steel drum band. There are other students that audition and many of them now are music majors at University of Michigan at Flint.

Four years ago, the high school band was better than the college band because the people in the high school had more experience than the people in the college band. But that flip-flopped when I had this wave of students graduate from the high school and go into college.

SBO: How do you teach them to play?

Coviak: It’s actually a very easy instrument to learn because you don’t have to worry about embouchure – like you do with a wind instrument – and the technique involved is actually very simple: you just hold onto a stick, tap a note and get a sound. I am particular about the way I want them to hold the sticks and the way I want them to strike the drum, but they can instantly start getting sounds the first day, start learning simple tunes right away. The part of it that’s difficult is most kids don’t start until the 10th grade and I only have them for three years. In most cases, they haven’t really had any middle school band experience, so it’s their first time playing an instrument and then, three years later, they’re expected to perform some complicated music.

I’m using a combination of teaching styles, including rote playing – which is the traditional learning system of the instrument. In Trinidad, there are thousands of people who play steel drum and even the best composers and arrangers don’t have much knowledge of how to read or write music, but they’re excellent musicians. I’m also teaching the students how to read and write music at the same time.

The rote playing gets them excited about what they’re doing and able to perform on the instrument very quickly. What happens is I’ll walk up to an instrument and play a four-measure phrase of a tune, and ask them to repeat it and imitate what I’m doing. Then I’ll walk to the next instrument, and play the same four measures for that instrument. We’ll all practice playing that together for a little while and just keep adding parts of a tune together. In the meantime, the music that we’re performing is on the music stand in front of them. They’re learning how what I’m playing relates to what’s on the page. So it’s really kind of a crash-course in music.

SBO: How do you control the dynamics on a steel drum?

Coviak: It depends on how hard you hit the drum. Basically, you keep the sticks low to the note and not hit it with as much force if you’re playing something soft, and then bring the levels up a little bit for the louder playing.

SBO: How much music is available for steel drums at this point?

Coviak: I wouldn’t say that there’s a lot, but there is a pretty decent amount, thanks to a company in Akron, Ohio, called Panyard Inc. They have a lot of arrangements, considering how “new” the instrument is. They went out of their way to provide a lot of arrangements for bands to purchase.

SBO: What characteristics make a good steel drum player?

Coviak: The sound that the musician’s getting from the instrument is important. Trying to make music out of what you’re playing, making motion and phrasing, not just playing the notes in time.

SBO: Why do you think it’s important for your school to have a steel drum program?

Coviak: It really is our music program here. We have a really small school and I think it’s a perfect fit for us because it’s something non-traditional and the kids are interested in it because it’s new and not like anything they’ve seen before. The instrument itself – because you can start creating a sound instantly and learning tunes right away – makes it easier to get the kids caught up in learning how to play and you can get a pretty good amount of success in a short time. We really don’t have as much time to deal with these kids when they’re starting in the 10th grade. They can be pretty successful with what they’re doing within a few short years. That’s how I get around the fact that I don’t really have a feeder program from the middle school. I’m starting them off late, but we can progress really quickly because that’s the nature of the steel drum.

SBO: At the high school level, how often do the steel drum classes meet and rehearse?

Coviak: I have three steel drum classes at the high school and two of them meet four times a week for an hour and the other one meets five times per week for about 50 minutes.

SBO: How often does the Steelheads group rehearse?

Coviak: It’s a class that meets Monday nights for two hours every week. That’s the core rehearsal schedule. In the past, when we’ve had big events that we’re rehearsing for, we’ve rehearsed up to 600 hours of extra school rehearsals within one year. We’ve spent a lot of time in after-school rehearsals, but that has varied greatly from year to year, depending on what’s coming up and how much we need to rehearse.

SBO: How do you grade student participation in the steel drum classes?

Coviak: You almost answered that question yourself when you said participation. It’s all based on participation because everybody comes in with a different talent level and ability level. If they’re participating all the time and their attendance is great, then they get an A. But if they’re missing a lot and not trying, or are in class but not trying, then they get a lower grade. It’s based almost exclusively on participation.

SBO: What is the most challenging part of teaching students to play steel drums?

Coviak: I would have to say the fragile nature of the students as far as I never know who’s going to be here from month to month, sometimes. I’m going to lose somebody, whether it’s a discipline problem or I have to remove them from the band or the family suddenly moves out of state or they become ill. It’s an at-risk population and I always have this question mark hanging over me where I could lose one of my irreplaceable players right before a big performance and then panicking – we have to relearn and re-teach parts and cover for people. With a small group, it’s really noticeable when one or two people are missing. I’ve had every reason possible for people to have to miss on occasion. I feel like I’m always crossing my fingers that everybody’s going to be available for a big event.

SBO: Do you regularly perform with the band or just when a player is absent?

Coviak: I’m more of a fill-in right now but that varies based on who’s in the band. The stronger the band is, the less you’ll see me performing with them. There have been performances where I’ve been performing in every tune and there have been performances where I’m not even on the stage except to cut them off at the end of something.

SBO: How much conducting is involved in the steel drum ensembles?

Coviak: There’s only one piece that I actually need to conduct. Most of the tunes are more of what a big band would perform. I usually count off the tune at the beginning and then get off the stage. There’s no reason for me to be on stage.

SBO: What is the most exciting aspect of teaching and directing these steel drum bands?

Coviak: Again, that would be watching these kids grow and evolve and just seeing them get turned on to what they’re doing. They improve so much over a short period of time and really get excited about what they’re doing. It’s done so much for me personally – in my own experiences with Robert Hohner’s percussion group – and to be able to share that with other people and watch them go through the same things is really rewarding for me.

SBO: What kind of support staff do you have?

Coviak: It’s pretty much just me now but we finally got a system in place last June where I have co-op students who are going to be helping me out, but that’s been slow to get in gear. I’m hoping that they’re going to be able to take over some of my roles and that’ll free me up to be able to do more. I feel like we could be doing even more than we are, but it’s more than I can handle. It’s grown into almost two full-time jobs here.

SBO: What are your goals for the future of the steel drum programs at all of the different levels?

Coviak: Now that the art form is really growing, in Michigan as well as around the country, I’d like to establish some kind of regional workshop and festival where other steel bands from around this part of the country can come and participate on a yearly basis. I’d also like to expand the curriculum of our program eventually – this is a long-term goal – to a kindergarten-through-master’s program.

James Coviak studied percussion at Central Michigan University, where he performed in every ensemble possible.

“I really got addicted to music and, particularly, percussion music while I was at school there.”

At that point, Coviak had not yet determined his career path. After he received his master’s degree from the University of Akron, Ohio, his mentor, Robert Hohner, invited him to the Percussive Arts Society International Convention in Knoxville, where he caught his first glimpse of high school music education in action.

“At PASIC, we saw a concert by the high school percussion ensemble from McAllen, Texas. The group was awesome! It was hard to believe that they were high school students. The group was better than most university ensembles.”

Coviak calls this experience a “definite turning point in my life. Up until that point, I had no idea that high school musicians were capable of playing at that level.” From that point on, he’s been a music educator. Four years after attending that concert at PASIC, Coviak’s own percussion ensemble at the time – from North Farmington High School – was invited to perform at the Percussive Arts Society’s convention. Following that performance, Coviak received a letter from a percussion instructor in North Carolina.

“ He said it was the best high school percussion ensemble that he had ever heard,” Coviak recalls. “I had come full circle.”