A recorder is a beginner's woodwind instrument similar in looks to a clarinet but not as big.

Reed said the karate belt concept in learning the instrument was developed by a woman named Barb Philipak using nine familiar songs that are progressively more difficult to learn. Students are motivated by the goal of earning "karate belts" to show what level of expertise they have achieved.

"Like in actual karate instruction, there are different colored belts which show you have mastered a certain level of expertise, only this is related to what level they've learned songs on the recorder," Reed said.

There are nine levels of colors in traditional karate instruction; belts for the lowest level of expertise are white, then yellow, orange, green, purple, blue, red and brown, on up to the black belt.

Reed said a song is assigned to each colored belt, and as the students progress and learn, they are awarded that colored "belt" -- or in this case, a colored string they tie to their recorders.

"There are three steps by which they learn each song," she explained. "First we practice reading the notes aloud, then we finger the notes and read them aloud, then the third step is to actually play the song on the recorder.

"This is reinforcing note-reading, learning lines and spaces and rhythms, and it's a great starter instrument for those who want to go on to fifth grade and pick up a band or an orchestra instrument," Reed said.

She said since introducing the class last year, several school staff members have also learned to play the recorder, including principal Darrell Propst.

"It's a fun way for the kids to learn the recorder," she said. "A couple of teachers wanted to do it along with the kids last year, then they put out the challenge to the rest of the staff and now we have 23 staff members involved and earning their belts, also."

"I just earned my black belt," Propst said. "For the kids, this does several things: They get to see the teachers participating in music and having fun with music. It's great for the overall morale of the school. We've had teachers play solos on the morning announcements and with all the talk about cutting this and cutting that, it's great."

Propst said if music class is taken away because of district budget cuts next year, it would hurt the morale of both teachers and students.

"We talk a lot about kids learning through different modalities what about that child where music is the one thing that they already have an inclination towards and are really good at?" he said. "Maybe they're struggling in math right now but they love going to music class, and I would hate to take away that opportunity in school for any one student to shine."

Reed said given the uncertainty of keeping arts in the school district next year, her recorder class is an example of something exciting and positive, and is something students will remember.

Although teaching the recorder is a part of the curriculum, she has some students who might not have considered playing an instrument had they not learned the recorder first.

"And because they did so well on recorder, I was able to recommend them for say, clarinet, or some other wind instruments," Reed said. "It is so rewarding to see kids find a place where they can relax and have fun and some of them are so good artistically it's just going to be tragic if we loose this in our schools."

With approximately 100 students in the fourth grade at Taylor Elementary, Reed said she has four recorder classes meeting twice per week for 35 minutes each.

Besides learning the recorder, Reed said her classes learn about classical music composers such as Sergei Prokofiev, author of "Peter and The Wolf" or George Frederic Handel, who wrote the "Hallelujah Chorus."