Dual identity

Three days a week, he’s John Steinhardt, the music teacher at Swan River School.

But two to four nights a week, Steinhardt morphs into Schizoid Johnny, self-described “last of the one-man bands,” with a repertoire that ranges from delta blues to psychedelic rock to grunge.

Both personas believe that people have the power to change the world — a message Steinhardt hopes to convey to his students and his audience.

On Tuesday, students and audience were one and the same when Swan Rivers fifth-, sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders watched their band teacher put on a concert in the gymnasium. It was the first time the students had seen Steinhardt perform as Schizoid Johnny.

He played everything from trombone to harmonica to resonator guitar, eliciting whoops from the students whenever a song’s final notes faded. Interspersed between songs and hidden in the lyrics — which were often hard to hear clearly because, as Steinhardt explained, rock and roll is rebellious music and meant to be played loudly — was a message of respect, tolerance and diversity.

“Wherever we go, everyone on the planet deserves respect,” Steinhardt told the students.

His show, “The Rock and Roll Experience,” grew out of a teaching gig in California several years ago. He has spent most of his life as a professional musician, touring the world and living out of a suitcase. But a few times Steinhardt, who has a degree in music education, has taken a break to teach music.

One such class in California had students who covered a broad spectrum of cultural backgrounds and ethnicities. Steinhardt realized they were a sort of microcosm of the larger world.

Inspired by his students, he wrote several songs about respect and tolerance and presented them to the class.

“It went over very well,” Steinhardt said. “The students understood. They understood different parts of songs and why they related to them in different ways.”

Even in a small school in Northwest Montana, where cultural and ethnic diversity are slim, it’s important for students to hear the message, he said. Everyone is different and has had different experiences — but deep down, Steinhardt said, everyone is the same.

People might learn that if they just took time to listen to one another, he said.

“The key is learning how to say sometimes, ‘I need to shut up. I need to be quiet and listen,’” he said. “Maybe the time you give to another person by listening ... is the key to getting people to understand and get along.”

Steinhardt’s show and teaching style emphasize getting along and making “a peaceful existence.” He said the world has presented a hypocritical message to students, essentially relegating ideals such as nonviolence and respect to the schoolhouse.

“The thing I find really contradictory in teaching school is we have no tolerance for violence, no tolerance for drugs, no tolerance for disrespect, but in the world sometimes our only solution sometimes is to go to war,” he said. “It sends a message of hypocrisy ... the innocent mind knows it.”

He hopes to inspire students to hold fast to the values they learn in school and carry them out into the real world.

“Listen, there is a way. We teach you this, and we have to continue it no matter what,” he said. “It’s that ’60s and ’70s coming out of me.

“If we’re going to change the world, we have to do it.”

His approach to teaching makes him an exciting and refreshingly different band director, Swan River Principal Peter Loyda said. Loyda praised the changes Steinhardt already has wrought in the school’s band program, which has twice as many students than it did last year.

Teaching really isn’t any different than performing, Steinhardt said; the audience is just younger.

“Teaching is entertainment when you get right down to it,” he said. “You inspire them and get them into a frame of mind that is acceptable when you want them to listen.”

On the Net:

www.rockandrollexperiencesj.net

Reporter Kristi Albertson may be reached at 758-4438 or by e-mail at kalbertson@dailyinterlake.com