Oregon man 'plays' it forward to kids with music

COOS BAY, Ore. (AP) — When ORCO Arts Guild's band rehearses, peanut butter shivers in its jars.

Every Thursday afternoon, the band gathers in the Oregon Coast Community Action food warehouse on LaClair Street for a high-energy practice — apparently with its amps turned up to 11.

Soon, 13-year-old Tre Glick will be shredding along on a guitar he received Thursday afternoon from a program called Play It Forward, the brainchild of Bryan Keith Mast.

"Welcome to the guitar-playing world," Mast boomed over the din, shaking Glick's hand.

Glick's parents, Debbie and Damon Glick, said Tre had played saxophone at North Bend Middle School, but since he'd started homeschooling, his musical opportunities had been limited.

"He always wanted to play guitar," Debbie said.

They heard about Play It Forward — Mast's project of matching refurbished instruments with teenage players — from another homeschooling family.

By day, Mast manages bridge maintenance for the Oregon Department of Transportation. By night, he plays mandolin with the bands Five Pound Possum and MGB, where he's known as Bryan Keith.

He's also on the board of ORCO Arts, and has been lending his musical and instrument-repair skills to the Guild band.

A longtime woodworker, Mast got interested in luthiery — the building and repair of stringed instruments — when he inherited his great-grandfather's instruments. He learned some more at Orcoast Music.

One day, he was behind the counter at Orcoast when "a girl came in with her grandma's dead guitar," he said.

Instead of telling her it was terminal, he brought in an extra guitar he had at home and gave it to her.

At ORCO Arts, he met plenty of other kids who wanted to play but couldn't afford instruments.

So he's been rounding up instruments, strings and amps, refurbishing them and giving them to teenage musicians in a program he calls "Play it Forward." Six kids have benefited so far.

Donors have contributed microphones and sound equipment to the band, including a 24-channel digital recording mixer that enables students to learn how to mix sound for performance and recording and to record demo CDs of their original songs one track at a time.

Teens interested in genres other than rock also can participate in the ORCO Arts Guild's music program and get instruments through Play It Forward.

To get started with his new guitar, Glick will get some lessons from members of the worship team at Refuge Church of God in Coos Bay, and also from Doug Krechnyak, a guitarist who helps The Guild's musicians hone their skills.

Krechnyak got pulled in to help music director Patty Becker, whose expertise runs more to keyboards than to Korn.

"Sixteen-year-old boys want to hear screaming lead guitar," Krechnyak said. "So I got involved."

Guild band members were running through the set they planned to play Oct. 4 for their first gig of the season at Octoberfish — a set that included original songs. Although it was their first rehearsal since their summer break, Krechnyak was pleased with what he heard.

"The best thing is to be prepared," he said. "If they're prepared, they'll have confidence."

Mast said working with the Guild kids is a pleasure.

"They're all good kids, they're real respectful," he said. "It's rock 'n' rollin' and guitars.

"What's not to like?"

While the band rehearsed, Glick, the newest member of the Guild, roamed the rehearsal area, getting used to the unexpected weight of his new guitar and gently running his fingers over its strings.

"I'm actually really blessed," he said.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press