Corpus Christi Caller Times Caller.com - Alice student says math helps music make sense

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Tuesday, October 31, 2000

Alice student says math helps music make sense
Renee Diebel is recognized as a South Texas Distinguished Scholar in performing and fine arts
By Jeremy Schwartz
Caller-Times

Paul Iverson/Caller-Times

Alice High School senior Renee Diebel plays clarinet most of the time but switches to tenor saxophone for the school's jazz band. She says tutoring other students has made her interested in teaching music.

Renee Diebel, 17, attacks the learning of the clarinet with the tenacity and single-mindedness of a prize fighter, methodically dissecting a piece of music until she knows it inside and out, her music teachers say.
   For Renee, a senior at Alice High School, that drive and determination to master her instrument comes from a love of music.
   "I've been into music since the beginning," she said on a recent afternoon amid the controlled chaos of the band practice room. "I just like the way the clarinet sounds, the tone it produces. It's just fun to play."
   The Caller-Times South Texas Distinguished Scholar in performing and fine arts ranks third in a class of 367 with a 4.71 grade point average on a scale of five, or 5.33 with honors classes factored in.
   Renee wants to become a music teacher, a career plan that has crystallized in the last several months as she has tutored other students on difficult musical passages.
   Her approach to music is as much mental as it is emotional, as shown by her interest in music theory.
   "They say math has a lot to do with (music theory) and I'm good at math," she said. "Music theory answers all the questions, like when you wonder why a composer wrote a piece with an F-flat instead of an E-natural. It's like a puzzle and theory helps put it all together."
   Renee has put it all together when it comes to mastering music and excelling in band at Alice High School.
   Through the years she has attended band camp during the summer, joined the church choir and learned to play handbells to improve her music reading skills and taken clarinet classes at Texas A&M University-Kingsville.
   In addition to playing the clarinet, she leads the marching band as drum major, plays tenor saxophone in the school jazz band and sings in the school choir. This year she is trying to be named to the Texas Music Educators Association all-state band for the third year in a row.
   Arnold Garza, jazz band director, said Renee is a model for other students. "She's a kid with a tremendous work ethic," he said.
   "She's known what she's wanted since she first started playing," he said. "She's one of the few students that has listened to the teachers when they say these are the steps you have to take to play a song right."
   Her mother, Judi Diebel, said Renee's dedication shows in her record of perfect attendance since first grade. "If we had a whole world of young people with her dedication and sincerity and passion for people," she said, "the world would be a wonderful place."

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