Sophia

I was born to two punk musicians, so the idea of playing unplugged never struck me as a possibility until I saw School of Honk parading through Davis Square. It was everything I could possibly want: spontaneous public performance, loud music, and dancing. I mean, who gave these people permission to have so much fun? I wanted in.

Despite playing music for over half of my life, I was intimidated by the thought of picking up a new instrument amidst a group of complete strangers. One Sunday, years after my initial introduction to SoH, I decided to go for it. Within weeks, I was completely enamored with snare and the incredibly supportive community that was teaching me how to play it.

Being a mentor has been an equally important experience for me. Before School of HONK, I always felt pressured to approach instruction with heavily structured, traditional models, despite my own inability to learn that way. It’s been a blast to guide newcomers in a way that feels natural for them and for me. Viva SoH!

Rahul

I saw School of HONK play and I was hooked. Playing this music is wonderful therapy for me; an escape from the day-to-day ups and downs of life. I show up as much as I can, with my two kids. They experience music in a way I never got to as a child; joyfully and community-centered. This isn’t a typical classroom setting, but make no mistake – they’re learning loads. Thanks to the whole SoH team, and other players, for keeping this going and giving us all the opportunity to join in and contribute!

I love playing with School of HONK. It is the most enriching and diverse place I get to go, with people from different cultures, ages, races, and backgrounds. SoH has given me a place to learn more, to share my love of percussion with others, and to introduce my children to a music culture. That’s the key thing for me – SoH is a group of people making music as a normal, everyday activity… the way everything should be learned!

Parading with a street band has brought me full circle. I first started drumming as a kid with the Northern Virginia Patriots, parading with the largest drum corps in the country. That started when my mother asked my brother and me what instrument we wanted to learn. We had to learn some instrument, but we got to choose. So we ran off and pondered for a bit, and triumphantly returned proclaiming that we wanted to learn drums. She had asked us to pick, and now unfortunately for her she was stuck with the loudest!

After the Patriots drum corps, I played a bit in high school jazz band and other school bands. Then I had a brief stint as the drummer in an all-girl(!) folk band while in college. That ended when they found an actual girl drummer and (totally reasonably) kicked me out. After a short hiatus I started poking around with some good friends that played Brazilian music. We scored a recurring gig at a local jazz club and I happily played auxiliary percussion for 5 years, learning many of the joyful and challenging beats of Brazilian bossa nova, samba, MPB, and more.

When that band dispersed I was lucky enough to find an Afro-Brazilian drum troop to join called Grooversity. I still play with them, learning more traditional Bloco beats from amazingly-talented Berklee school of music students. We’ve played in the HONK! Festival since the first few years, so all my music right now is HONK-related.

Joining SoH has some other benefits worth mentioning. My daughter plays trombone and just had her first solo! Plus now whenever we need my son to nap we just turn on the SoH playlist as loud as we can and he conks out immediately. No joke. Who knew all these tunes were lullabies?

Alex

Hi, I’m Alex. I’ve been a music lover since middle school when I first discovered Rock n’ Roll! (it took a while…) Now I listen to every possible thing, and get my kicks playing percussion with the School of HONK. There is no cooler group of fellow musicians and friends anywhere to be found ~ I love School of HONK! School of HONK got style & class. School of HONK bring smiles to the faces.

Adam

From an early age, music has been playing in my life, a continuous soundtrack, from Hair and Sergeant Pepper on the Victrola as a boy in New York City, to concerts at the Palladium and Bottom Line as a teenager, to cassettes in rusted cars on Mass Pike road trips, but I was always on the outside looking in, in the audience facing the stage, on the sidewalk saluting the parade….

Until School of HONK. School of HONK finally offered me a chance to be in the parade- which turns out to be whole lot more fun than watching the parade. But not only a chance to be in a parade, nor just a chance to bang on a drum and learn a whole new vocabulary of rhythm. It also offered me a chance to be liberated from my natural inhibitions. To connect with a joyful, inclusive, accepting community. To revel and marvel as Kevin, Maggie, and Shaunalynn summon us to the sound in their heads. It’s called the School of HONK, but it could just as easily be called the Church of HONK for the feeling of communion and love that circulates when we gather in the round. As Kevin said at HONK! Fest 2015 when I was still on the outside looking in, if more people could do this, the world would be a much kinder, gentler, more peaceful place. Amen!

Lilia

I’ve dreamed of being a drummer ever since I was 17 when I was still living in the land of eternal cold, vodka, and bears. However, having no prior musical training (except for a few piano lessons) and not knowing where to begin (do they even have drum lessons in Siberia? Of course, they do, but I did not feel brave enough to try), I had to put it on a shelf and just keep on dreaming for a while – exactly 10 years. So one decade and one move across the world later, a miracle happened – I saw School of HONK perform at Somerville Porchfest 2015, and that’s how it all began. A week later, I came to take pictures of the band, two weeks later I started playing auxiliary percussion, three weeks later I was playing a snare drum! Just like that, School of HONK made my dream come true. It’s been a year and a half now and I can’t imagine living my life without it. I have learned so much about music, met so many amazing people, and made some really great friends. Thanks to the musical instruction and support I have received at School of HONK, I got comfortable enough to perform with other bands as well, such as Bread and Puppet Circus Band, JP Honk Band, and Extraordinary Rendition Band. Currently, I play with JP Honk Band which is just as warm and welcoming, and of course my Sundays are dedicated to School of HONK, come hell or high water. School of HONK is like one giant musical-dancing-performing-parading-polka-dotted family, so every Sunday I feel like coming home.

Photo credit: Kirk Israel

Johnny

I came to the school via my friend Big D. We had been playing music together for a few months when he told me about something amazing: the School of HONK. He was absolutely correct about the amazing part. My musical background was diverse but usually tied down to electricity: electric guitars, electric bass, keyboards, and music generated using programming languages on computers. Fortunately, I was able to start playing percussion with the School which was not only a new instrument for me but also a new section. My lucky star must have been shining on me that day, because playing percussion has brought so much happiness into my life. I keep coming back because there is nothing at all like playing funky New Orleans-style music with 40-90 other enthusiasts. And also, I just love parading around making a racket with my bass drum. Thank you School of HONK!

Candace

I think I have the most amazing luck in finding super spirited musicians, social activists and community all in one place. I couldn’t be happier to be a part of the School of Honk and the wonderful atmosphere of learning, music making and pure joy that happens each and every time we meet. I came upon the School of Honk with their open invitation to play and as an active member of the Honk Festival (formerly playing Surdo with AfroBrazil) I have always been super excited by the HONK Festival! Prior to that I studied West African drumming in Chicago and have drummed with the Batucada Belles, Rhythm Revolution (Chicago) Women Spirit Drummers (Chicago) SheDrums (Chicago), etc. well you get the idea.

Not only do I believe in the absolute healing power of music and community, there is scientific evidence that now backs this up! As a mental health therapist, I’ve worked with children in a mental health setting developing a therapeutic drum curriculum. I also have a documentary that needs to be finished “Drum On” about the New England drumming community. For about 17 years I have been a part of these music making communities and it has changed my life in the most positive way. I have met the most interesting, genuine, intelligent, funny, creative, cool, fun people of all ages and all walks of life and feel very fortunate. I am so glad that School of Honk exists, as it fulfills a need we all have to belong. Learning to play songs with instruments other than drums is new for me and I like that. I am new to the repinique and hope to learn snare as well. I wore my thumbs quite a bit with all the over use, so it’s been a slow recovery but School of Honk was there when I could only play with one hand and welcomed me with two.

My Dad was a jazz drummer and I imagine him watching us and swinging, especially when people solo- he would love that. He used to blast his jazz music and it drove us kids crazy, “turn that music down Dad!” But now, I GET it. I don’t have any real formal training, can’t read music and sometimes my hands won’t do what I want them to do, but as Kevin says every week “we don’t worry about wrong notes, we are just here to have fun” and I do.

Wyatt

So blessed to be a part of an amazing and open community! I’ve been playing percussion since I first listened to music with my family and started banging away, and since then I’ve played in all sorts of bands with all sorts of individuals. I was originally asked by some folks to come to SoH and help support the newer musicians. I was welcomed with open arms and was immediately hooked. There’s so much positive energy, passion, and love. And we get to play & learn some really awesome music and share it with the world! I wish my schedule was freer to show up to all the exciting events and practices, and whenever I can join I get so excited and enjoy every moment.

[Photo cred Leo March]

Lisa

School of HONK has been an amazing opportunity for me to learn new songs and instruments, as well as have fun playing for lots of people – making them dance and dancing with them! My first encounter with School of HONK was the Winter Solstice parade of 2015 — I played bucket and had so much fun, I immediately put 3-5pm on Sundays on my calendar! Since my humble beginnings on the bucket, I’ve progressed to washboard, bass, snare, and other percussion — and one time, I managed to make a sax bleat! School of HONK has inspired me to practice and improve, and I continue to marvel at the patience, wisdom, and skillz of the mentors and section leaders.

Like many other members, I’m a lifelong musician — singing since childhood and starting piano lessons at age 8, playing in bands in high school, and beginning to play African and Latin percussion in my early 20s. I’ve performed solo as a singer-songwriter (on vocals, guitar, and mandolin), as part of several jazz duos (on vocals), and as a member of a cappella quartets and choruses. When I’m not playing with SoH, you may find me jamming with the all-female Batucada Belles of Cambridge (on djembe/snare).

Hilary

I first heard School of Honk at Porch Fest 2015 (if you watch the aerial videos of that show on YouTube, you can see me bopping around in the crowd, mentally clearing all future Sundays in my schedule), and I’ve been a fan ever since! My first musical experiences include singing “There’s a Hole in the Bucket” duets with my father at family functions, writing wordy folk songs on my mom’s guitar, and contributing a very loud cornet to middle school concert band. More recently, I was a member of the World Music Ensemble and co-president of The Lymin’ Lyons steel band at Wheaton College (MA), where I studied Creative Writing and Ethnomusicology.

The WME and Lymin’ Lyons taught me a lot about music that can be felt instead of read, and I’m now a firm believer in rote learning and using muscle memory as a way of acquiring new music skills. I love that School of Honk creates a friendly music-making environment where much of our learning comes from listening, watching, and sharing insights with the musicians beside us– it inspires a distinct form of teamwork and encouragement that makes us groove musically and interpersonally. It’s a pleasure to know there’s a community as fun, inclusive, and joy-inducing as School of Honk, and I’m thrilled to be part of the ride!