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How to get involvedVisit the Songbirds Foundation’s web page at songbirdsfoundation.org.Through the Donate a Guitar program, you can donate a guitar you are not using or make a cash donation.
On a recent Wednesday afternoon, Reed Caldwell finds himself sitting on a couch across from 14-year-old Alex Bell in an upstairs space at Siskin Children’s Institute on Carter Street. It’s a small room, with a small table and a couple of couches.
While Caldwell talks to a couple of parents in the larger outside room, Bell sits down and immediately starts picking out melodies on his brown sunburst Fender Squier model electric guitar. He has the volume turned to a lower lever, something he says he doesn’t do at home.
Caldwell soon joins him and begins showing Bell how to use a distortion pedal. Bell is partial to heavy-metal music and is learning to play “One” by Metallica. He’s only been playing for less than a year but has a natural ear for it and usually plays every day until his parents, usually his mother, make him stop.
“It’s fun to play,” he says.