“Hey, everybody! Let’s learn a note!”

The eyes of 45 sixth-graders light up, and smiles dart across their faces. Most straighten their backs and move to the edge of their seats – just the way they’ve been taught.

The Quail Run School band, meeting for the first time with instruments in tow, is about to make its first sound.

The instructions, from teacher Paul Morgenroth, are simple: Pick a note. Basically, make a sound.

Morgenroth snaps his fingers four times.

“One, two, ready, play!”

The gymnasium fills with the sound of 50 angry cab drivers blaring their horns while caught in a traffic jam.

Cheeks puff. Clarinets squeak. Trombones blat.

And the next generation of Lawrence band nerds is born.

Asked after rehearsal how the band sounded on its first day, trumpet player Billy Barnes pauses and contorts his face.

“Hmmm … Well, I think we’ll be better at the end of the year.”

‘Teach you everything’

Across the city this month, about 275 sixth-graders are taking their first toots as members of their school bands.

Last year, 49 percent of sixth-graders opted to play a band instrument. An additional 27 percent were in orchestra. Organizers of the school music programs expect the percentages to be about the same this year when the final numbers are tallied.

The school district tries to make band and orchestra as accessible as possible, offering yearlong instrument rentals for $40. Students on free and reduced lunches can have the fee waived.

And teachers like Morgenroth, one of seven teachers who lead Lawrence’s 15 elementary school bands, say they’ll walk students through all the basics.

“You could be dumb as a brick, you could ask me whether you blow in this end of the instrument or that end,” Morgenroth says. “And I’ll teach you everything.”

Instrumental decisions

There’s no formula for how beginning musicians pick the right band instrument.

Dawson Conway of Langston Hughes School liked the French horn’s “mellow” sound. Danyelle Brown, a student at Kennedy School, chose the clarinet because her mother played it. Jamesha Flanagan of Schwegler School liked the clarinet because her mom said it had a “pretty” tone, though Jamesha admits it might not be so pretty at first.

• In the halls: How did you choose a musical instrument? (09-13-05)

Many students make up their minds about instruments during a weeklong instrument tryout held at the schools. Band teachers take one of each instrument available to novices – clarinet, flute, trumpet, French horn, baritone and trombone – and let each student take a few blows.

During the tryout week at Kennedy School, Morgenroth describes to students how to buzz into a brass instrument’s mouthpiece to make a sound.

“This is like Indy car,” he says, making a kazoo-like noise like a race car zooming past a TV camera.

“Bullfrogging” – puffing out cheeks – is not allowed, he says.

Joseph Romero takes his turn buzzing into a trumpet.

Squirt.

He crumples over in defeat, a mild smile on his face. His classmates giggle.

Charlene Collins blows into a French horn. A booming elephant call comes out. The class giggles again.

“It’s going to sound horrible at first,” Charlene says. “But this might make us realize a talent.”

Complicated and exciting

The sixth-grade bands will work the whole school year to prepare for concerts in late spring. The groups meet four times a week for 35 minutes.

“I have people ask me, ‘How can you listen to that all day?'” says Morgenroth, who commutes to six schools each day. “And I don’t know. It just doesn’t bother me.”

Some of the novice instrumentalists will realize band isn’t for them and will drop out in the coming weeks. For others, the start of sixth-grade band marks the beginning of a life of music.

“I like the band,” says Kinisha Bridgewater, a clarinet player at Kennedy School. “I hope I can be in marching band when I get to LHS (Lawrence High School), and we’ll get to go on trips.”

Ade Ojeleye is getting used to lugging around his new baritone, which is like a half-sized tuba. It’s a challenge for his 98-pound body.

“I never knew there was an instrument called the baritone” before the tryouts, the Quail Run student says. “It’s going to be hard and complicated and a lot of learning. I think it’s kind of exciting.”

And as students close their bedroom doors, perch instructional books on cheap metal music stands and fumble their way through fingerings and tunings, families will adjust to listening to hours of practice from their new band members. Students are expected to practice about four times a week at home, and some also will take private lessons.

It truly is music to the ears of Nadine Spotted Horse, a former saxophone player whose daughter, Emma Washee, is a trombone player at Sunset Hill School.

Spotted Horse isn’t worried about the extra noise at home while Emma practices. She already raised two sons – one a trumpet player, the other a drummer.

“I’m used to it,” Spotted Horse says. “Thank God we have a basement.”