Kootenai Kid: Kaylee Wood keeps busy with music and friends

Ask Kaylee Wood what musical instrument she plays, and be ready to hear a list of diverse answers that include piano, bass, saxophone and cello.

“I like the bass the best,” said Kaylee. “It’s really fun to be in the orchestra.”

A member of both orchestra and jazz band at Canfield Middle School, the eighth-grader is also in her second year as a member of the Spokane Junior Youth Orchestra.

“My dad suggested it, and it sounded really fun,” said Kaylee. She travels to Spokane each Monday evening to rehearse and prepare for the concerts the orchestra puts on throughout the school year.

“This year a couple of our concerts will be at the Fox Theater,” Kaylee said .

Each person in the Spokane Junior Youth Orchestra auditioned for their spot and began rehearsals in September. The students are generally 11 to 15 years old and, in addition to perfecting their musical skills, are taught about the composer of the pieces they perform.

In addition to being an advocate for Kaylee’s musical talent, her dad, Doug Wood, also happens to be the music instructor at Canfield Middle School, where Kaylee and one of her two younger siblings are students.

“It (music) is my career and it’s our family’s pastime,” said her dad. In addition to Kaylee’s mom, who plays the piano, Kaylee has an 11-year-old brother who plays the drums and a 10-year-old sister who plays piano.

Kaylee said the family will sometimes play as a group with her dad playing the guitar, mom on piano and her brother and sister either playing an instrument or offering other forms of entertainment.

“Both my brother and sister like to juggle, so they are really entertaining,” Kaylee said.

In addition to the weekly trips to Spokane to play in the Junior Youth Orchestra, Kaylee also takes private piano and bass lessons. There are times it is difficult to find more hours in the day to complete her homework and play her music.

“Sometimes it’s hard to fit everything in,” Kaylee said. “But I do what I can.”

Finding moments for downtime does not seem to bother this bubbly teenager, who said she enjoys keeping busy with her music and her friends.

“I don’t watch much television because we don’t get many channels,” Kaylee said. “But even if we did, I don’t think I would watch it because there are just so many other things to do.”

Kaylee said the jazz band membership this year went from 50 members to about 15.

“They made the auditions harder to make it more advanced,” she said.

“We took the kids who were ready to play at a higher level,” her dad added. “And already they are playing the doors down.”

Kaylee said she is looking forward to the festivals the group attends. Last year they competed in the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival in Moscow, and in January they plan to attend a music festival at the University of Idaho.

“Our goal is to take the top award,” said her dad, who added that a school from Seattle usually leaves each year with the first-place honor.

It is clear that Kaylee loves the music she plays and is dedicated to the hours it takes to excel in both school orchestra and the Spokane Junior Youth Orchestra.

She encourages anyone who wants to try an instrument to give it a chance before giving up.

“Stick with it, because after the first couple years of learning the basics, it gets to be really fun,” Kaylee said.