‘Live, laugh, lock in’: Watching kids play soccer in China put Tim Blaydon on course to teach students music at North Central

As a junior in high school, Tim Blaydon and 1,800 other band students from around the globe performed in front of more than 10,000 athletes and millions of spectators at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

The performance served as the catalyst for Blaydon’s shift from wanting to be an engineer to deciding he would become a band director.

“I just looked at the joy on people’s faces when they heard the music, and the joy I had when I was in that ensemble , and thinking, ‘If I have this in my life, I don’t need a ton of money to be happy,’ ” Blaydon said. “It would make my life comfy, sure. But my joy needs to come from something more meaningful. And so I jumped ship and decided to pursue music education.”

Eighteen years later, Blaydon is the director of bands at North Central High School, and this year he received the Regional Music Educator of the Year Award from the Spokane Falls Music Educators Association.

Blaydon remembers peering across the slums of Beijing from the 27th floor of a hotel near the Olympics. He looked at kids playing soccer in the street and came to the revelation that changed his career trajectory.

“Why do I need to be an engineer when they can be happy with a ball?” Blaydon recalled thinking. “And I wanted to give kids the same opportunity to see stuff like that and to have the same joy that I had playing an instrument.” Whether it’s his jazz band class that starts an hour before school or a regularly scheduled period, Blaydon’s energy is contagious. Blaydon said his teaching philosophy starts with the school’s philosophy: “Every kid, every day.”

But when it comes to phrases he uses most often, the biggest one is plastered in black, glossy letters across the back wall of his band room.

“Live, laugh, lock in,” the sign reads. It’s a play on the widely criticized expression used in millennial home decor, “live, laugh, love,” but with a Gen-Z twist.

“This is a very rowdy bunch of kids, and they like to hang out with each other, make fun of me, make fun of each other, and it’s all in good fun,” Blaydon said. “Then at the end of the day, we still have to work and work as a team.”

Blaydon admits that much of his job is learning individual students’ passion for music and figuring out how to foster that love. Whether a kid wants to play trumpet casually for the rest of their life or has dreams of performing professionally, it’s up to Blaydon to help them achieve their goals.

Because North Central offers a band program for middle schoolers within the high school called the Institute of Science and Technology, Blaydon’s students range from sixth-graders to seniors. Since he’s been at North Central over the past five years, he’s seen a few students start their musical career as scared, unsure middle schoolers and end their secondary experience as confident, proficient musicians.

Junior Hana Partridge has known Blaydon since COVID. She plays clarinet for the North Central band, but first met Blaydon as a sixth-grader. She called Blaydon “the most amazing teacher” and someone who’s able and willing to be anyone’s friend.

“He prioritizes supporting his students over everything,” Partridge said.

Blaydon had such a profound impact on Partridge’s life that she’s planning on going to college to become a band director.

For a decade, Blaydon played the trumpet in the Spokane British Brass Band, but had to stop last year to focus solely on teaching. He also works with teachers in the theater department in a “departmentwide effort” to put on a musical. Practice for that occurs after school four times a week.

When he’s not thinking about music, Blaydon said he likes to unwind with video games, Dungeons and Dragons tabletop role-play games and occasionally hitting the course for a game of disc golf.

Before coming to North Central, Blaydon spent the five years prior working as a beginning band teacher across nine elementary schools. He rotated from one school to the next every day, teaching more than 300 students. With approximately 180 students to teach at North Central, it’s now easier for Blaydon to form meaningful connections. Not only that, but the support of parents through their music booster program makes it so the band can raise thousands of dollars for unique opportunities, such as flying in a Hollywood composer for $3,000 to speak with students.

For Blaydon to be the most effective at his job, he said he had to learn how to teach the same thing a million different ways because if you teach one thing one way, it’s possible to reach 60% of students, but that means the other 40% aren’t absorbing the knowledge they need.

Music to him is not just about notes and chords and melodies, but he believes it “teaches the whole person.”

“There are students that share things with me that they don’t share with other teachers,” Blaydon said. “Because what makes this program and all band programs unique is that you can have the same teacher for four years, and for these kids at NC, it’s seven. I really get to know kids and families, and for some kids, this is why they wake up.

“If they were stuck behind a desk all day, they would hate it but they get to come here and have a release, see their friends, talk to their friends, and be a part of something that’s bigger than themselves.”