Del Couch has a tough time finding a place to sit down and eat at home.
“My living room, dining room table and kitchen table are all full of instruments,” he kidded.
Acoustic and electric guitars. Bass guitars. Guitar amplifiers. Tenor and alto saxophones. Mixing boards.
He doesn’t mind, either. Each and every instrument is a welcome donation to the Del Couch Music Education Foundation based at the Manatee School for the Arts.
“I had a guy say the other day, ‘You still taking instruments?’ Yeah. Always. Everything helps.”
MSA’s musical instruments must stay there. So Couch’s goal is to give free donated instruments to students to take home and augment the music lessons and training they receive at MSA.
“The kids have instruments 45 minutes three times
a week and they can’t possibly learn to be creative in that period of time,” said Couch, whose band, Shaman, has entertained folks around here for years. “The whole point is to give kids instruments they can own 24-7 and gradually find the kind of music they want to play and really express themselves.”
Most of the donations have been guitars, but there have also been exotic instruments such as an expensive Selmer Paris saxophone, a piccolo trumpet, not to mention a couple of baby grand pianos.
Donors have come from near and far, too. One couple drove down from Orlando with a flute, a clarinet and an alto sax.
A Verizon guy gave him a new Stratocaster guitar.
Then there was the Palmetto matriarch who donated an heirloom – an 80-year-old ivory-keyed accordion with gold buttons.
“It’s beautiful,” Couch said. “I thought about putting it up on the wall as a museum piece. The woman said she played it in school and had held onto it all these years, but wants to give a student the opportunity to learn to play it.”
One such student received a donated bass guitar and wrote Couch a touching thank you note.
“I read it and, oh, man, I didn’t want to get emotional in front of her. She couldn’t figure out how she was going to get the money to buy a bass guitar and couldn’t burden her family with it. Now she can pursue her dream of being a musician.
“It shows you what you can do to change a student’s life. Just one thing. That’s my whole goal – make a difference in their lives.”
Want to donate a musical instrument? Visit DelCouchmusiceducation.org. Or call 941-545-4379.
Vin’s People runs Sundays. Email Vin Mannix at vinspeople@gmail.com. Or call 941-962-5944.
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Manatee musician, educator collects instruments for aspiring students
