In recent years the band program desired to offer a beginning piano class.

After the recent funds to the band program and the new remodels to the theatre, band director Maxwell Kiesner is finally able to offer the class to students.

Beginning piano offers an entry level experience to the band program with only four performances per year.

The pressure that normally comes with joining band as a new student is taken away with this class as all the people who join have little to no experience with the keyboard.

When asked what steps he would have to go through to add the class to Rio’s curriculum Kiesner replied there were surprisingly not many steps.

“Within the district the class is already running, we take that course from their course catalogue and add it to ours” he said.

Students are currently learning the different chords and how to play basic songs.

The new beginning piano class offers benefits to students of different levels and backgrounds in music.

Students taking this course may already have experiences with other instruments but many have never played piano before.

When it comes to music, Senior Noah Dohnam has some experience.

Dohnam has been playing the guitar since he was freshman and he decided to take a swing at something new this year.

“I wanted to increase my musical knowledge,” Dohnam said. “I’ve been interning at a shop that has to do a lot with music and instruments and I thought piano would be best to learn.”

Unlike Dohnam, junior Cooper Davis has little to no experience with multiple instruments.

“I had some experience going into this, I used to play a little bit of violin when I was younger,” said Davis.

But like most students, Davis saw this as a way to meet the visual performing arts requirement. “I was looking at the courses and I saw that this was a new course and I thought it was more interesting than the others,” he said. “I also heard it was suppose to be in the new building and they will be getting new keyboards.”

Besides the excitement of the new keyboards and building, Davis is looking forward to learning how to understand sheet music better and to be able to play songs.

With the increasing enrollment Keisner and the band program sought to add a course that would service more people.