Senior Natalie Lyren started a Rock Band Club at Wadsworth High School. The band currently has seven members.

The bands vocalists include seniors Jack Blubaugh and Lyren, as well as freshman Piper Schoonover, who is also a keyboardist. Senior Elias Dyson is on bass, senior Gwendolyn Shelton is on drums, junior William Beres is on guitar, and senior Iceis St. Jean plays the clarinet.

Before Lyren moved to America, she lived in the Philippines, and was part of a band. Her old band was called Forsythia. In her band, there was a total of six members, and Lyren was the singer and the only female member. Her band eventually began to write their own songs and perform them.

“If the audience is older, we would cover older songs,” Lyren said. “And if the audience is Gen Z, we would perform Gen Z songs. And, from time to time, we perform original songs so we can have exposure.”

Music is her passion, so not being part of the band any longer made her want to join a band, or start her own. So, she decided to start her own through the school.

The Rock Band Club has been focusing on playing music in the rock-pop genre. They have not yet come up with a name or an official number of members, as some additional students may join later, and they are still finalizing everything. The other members are very open to accepting other students who wish to join the band.

They meet every Thursday in Labs A and B. During the meetings, they all agree on at least one song to practice

Lyren explained how the atmosphere of the practices is very welcoming. Everyone listens to one another and sings along, becoming joyful of the song being played.

During the meetings, they focus on practicing at least one song that everyone agrees on.

“If we need to decide to something, like a song, we all put our ideas together and we will come up with one solution,” Lyren said, “We do a spinwheel thing to choose what song it is, and everyone would agree.”

In the band, St. Jean is their clarinet player. It is uncommon to see a clarinet player in a rock band, so Lyren finds this to be a unique aspect that sets them apart from other bands.
For certain rock songs that the band practices, there is no clarinet sheet music, so St. Jean has to figure it out for herself, building off of existing sheet music.

“Most rock songs don’t have a clarinet part, so I have frequently had to rewrite the songs to be playable on clarinet, which can take several days depending on the length of the song we are working on,” St. Jean said. “But the results make it all worth it.”

At times, the only sheet music offered is music made for a marching band, so it is cut off, or there are some parts missing, so St. Jean has to build off of that.

“Playing rock music on a clarinet is very different, as most rock songs don’t have clarinet parts. The majority of songs that have a clarinet part are either songs written specifically for large bands of all types of instruments or pop music, but the pop music tends to be shortened for marching band purposes, so even if we did a song written with a clarinet part, it usually isn’t the full song,” St. Jean said.

Lyren explained how she likes how everyone is very open to changing what they have to do depending on each other’s comfort levels.

Lyren and the other band members have decided that if there is a school event, they would like to request 20-30 minutes, or less, of their time to perform for the school.