Superintendent’s Artist of the Week: Chelsea Padgett

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Superintendent’s Artist of the Week: Chelsea Padgett

November 1, 2022

The baritone is a large and loud instrument. For some people, those qualities would be negatives. Sanfordville Elementary School fourth grader Chelsea Padgett saw those attributes as positives.

“I picked the baritone because I liked that it was big and heavy,” Chelsea said. “My mom also showed me a video of someone playing the baritone, and it was really loud. I really like instruments that can be loud.”

Chelsea is the only student at Sanfordville playing the baritone, which she says can sound like a ferry horn. She has music lessons with the trombone players.

“Even though she knew she would be the only student on this instrument, she was adamant that this was the voice in band that she wanted to play,” music teacher Ryan Muehlbauer said.  “So far, Chelsea has taken to the baritone very well and is proving to be a diligent worker. I’m looking forward to watching Chelsea grow this year, both musically and creatively, and expect to hear great things as our year progresses.”

For the first two weeks of band, Chelsea held the record for playing the longest note (a strength building challenge) of 20 seconds. The other students were amazed that she could set the record while playing the largest instrument in the ensemble.

Artist of the Week Chelsea Padgett

The baritone and its case are too large for Chelsea to bring on the bus, so she has one instrument at home and another to play in school. Chelsea practices for about 20 minutes each day at home.

“It’s a little loud at home,” Chelsea said. “I usually practice in the living room, but sometimes my sister will get a little annoyed and tell me to be quiet. But

my mom doesn’t mind; she wants me to practice so I can be really good at it. Before I got the baritone, she had me lift this big metal bin full of dog toys to see if I could actually hold it.” 

The hardest part about learning to play the baritone for Chelsea was figuring out how to hold it. Mr. Muehlbauer showed Chelsea how to correctly hold the instrument and how to blow into it using a buzz – with her lips tightly together but not too tight.

“I first had the pleasure of teaching Chelsea’s music class when she was in second grade at Sanfordville,” Mr. Muehlbauer said. “During one of the virtual music classes, the students were assigned a project in which they had to make a video of themselves keeping a steady beat to a rock song while at home. Chelsea let her creativity shine through by dressing up, creating a psychedelic computer background and absolutely rocking her steady beat assignment. I could tell right away that she had the creative spark which would serve her well in music and the arts.”

Chelsea enjoys singing with the chorus at Sanfordville. She also likes drawing, painting, reading and writing.

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