Families of BSB

BSB Insider

We need to talk about keytars

BSB student journalists have continued to submit to and produce editions of the Insider student magazine over the past two years, writing numerous articles on current and social affairs topics, reviews, and opinion pieces as well as on events taking place around the school.

Here, Adam – a former Insider editor – waxes lyrical on his love for much maligned keytar instrument.

Long-time readers of the BSB Insider might have noticed that at least one of my articles in every issue refers to a certain musical instrument; the keytar, a keyboard-guitar hybrid. Sometimes it’s just a passing mention, sometimes it’s more integral to the article substance, sometimes I realise I forgot to include a keytar reference, so I stick it in lastminute in an arbitrary Editor’s Letter. Either way, it’s always there, often accompanied with a free-to-use picture of a Yamaha SHS-10.

I don’t know why I started doing it; I don’t know why I continued. I don’t own a keytar. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a keytar in real life, let alone played one. Keytars are about as relevant to my life as Millard Fillmore. Tracking the origins of my keytar tradition, I think I initially grabbed it purely at random from my mental wordbank to facilitate an article’s surreal tone, then inexplicably decided to call back to it in the next issue, then called back to it again in Issue Three, and after that it just felt strange to stop. Okay, maybe keytars weren’t an entirely random choice. I do genuinely think they are up there with Segway’s and aviator shades as ‘things that are objectively cool, but society simply doesn’t currently accept their true coolness’. The world of the future will be full of people wearing aviator shades playing keytars on Segways, and anyone who disagrees needs to get with the times. (The discontinuation of Segways has obviously hampered their cultural progress slightly. But they’ll be back.)

That said, keytars aren’t a modern idea; indeed, humans have known the power of the keytar for quite some time now, and I don’t mean since the 80s; I mean since the 18th century. Ludwig van Beethoven wrote two pieces of music for keytar. I’m not kidding, he genuinely did. Admittedly it wasn’t called the keytar back then, it was the orphica, a portable handheld piano invented by Carl Leopold Röllig. But the principle was the same.

And let’s be honest, the Ancient Greeks were miles ahead in technological achievement; they probably invented the keytar ages ago, but then they all got destroyed in the Dark Ages. China, too – the guqin, an ancient Chinese instrument, clearly belongs to the keytar family. Perhaps it predates even them. You can just envision a Stone Age caveperson hitting an animal bone against several rocks to make different pitches, sticking the rocks to a log using tree resin, and playing ancient sold-out keytar concerts. Now that I think of it, that’s probably what Stonehenge was for!

So really, when I regularly remind us all of the keytar’s existence, I’m reinforcing a cultural tradition that has defined humanity for centuries. Surely George Mattson, who in 1979 created the Syntar, widely considered the first true keytar, must be up there with Johannes Gutenberg and Thomas Edison as one of history’s greatest inventors. Where would we be today without the keytar? Too often we take for granted the combination of synthesised sound and onstage freedom of movement it offers. I seek to restore its power, to place the keytar once again at the heart of human existence.

Somewhere in the centre of the earth rests a sacred temple, carved in ancient stone, yet its inscriptions remain in pristine condition. The tunnels snake downwards to the inner chamber, a cold stone room, yet one that holds the secret to all life. Three alcoves are set into this sanctum’s back wall, three pedestals displaying the holy trifecta of coolness that fuels corporeal existence, both physically and spiritually. To the left, a pair of RayBan aviators, a mystical light with no known source glinting from their surface. To the right, a Segway i2 SE, rocking slowly back and forth in the winds of time. And in the central alcove, a gold-and-silver Roland AX-7 keytar, encrusted with jewels and relics, eternally powered by the engines of the universe. Above the alcoves, a short four-bar piece has been chiselled into the stone with great care, as if set there not by human workers but the omnipotent precision of a deity. I take the keytar from its pedestal, sling its silken strap around my shoulder, and play the notes. It’s the opening riff to Take on Me by A-ha, which didn’t actually use a keytar but is sufficiently synth-infused to carry the weight of this coursing natural energy. As I play each note, cogs behind the chamber walls begin to turn. The room, the temple, the whole earth is changing, reshaping itself. I board the Segway, place the aviators upon the bridge of my nose, and roll back up to the surface. I pick up speed, accelerating with every keytar chord, until I erupt forth from the cavern I first entered in search of life’s answers. A beam of spiritual energy strikes the aviators and elevates the Segway, lets it float in the endless celestial colours and lights of outer space. Around me, I see the faces of our world’s great figures. George Mattson. Carl Leopold Röllig. The caveperson who first played the rocks-stuckto-a-log. And now I am joining them, as a guardian of the Keytar of Eternity, the Coolest Person on Earth. My life’s mission is achieved.

My apologies, I think I might have got a little bit carried away. It’s astonishing how just a few references to keytars can set you on the path to egocentric self-deification. Don’t worry, I won’t go seeking the temple of the holy trifecta of coolness. Besides, I simply don’t have time to become a god; I have to go to university in a few months’ time. When I said I wanted to move on I didn’t really mean ascending to a different plane of existence.

Still, my faith in the coolness of the keytar has not waned. I still marvel at its ingenuity, appreciate its convenient application in works of absurdist humour. As I mentioned previously, I do not physically own a keytar. But psychologically, I do. I am one with keytar, forever emotionally fused to its divine music. Anyway, thanks for reading the BSB Insider, it’s been a great project that I’m proud to have contributed to. I hope you’ve enjoyed it so far, and I look forward to seeing its future, even if that is a future without a regular keytar mention. I don’t know, we’ll see. But from me – goodbye. May your keytars forever be cool.

Families of BSB

Keeping the flame of community burning brightly

Creating a sense of community and building close relationships with the families of students and the wider population beyond the school gates is an intrinsic part of BSB’s philosophy and culture. It is a strongly held belief that providing an inclusive and caring environment helps to nurture a spirit of togetherness and creates an atmosphere in which students can prosper, secure in the knowledge that they and their parents are surrounded by an extensive support network both on and off campus. Families of BSB (FoBSB), the parents’ association of The British School of Brussels, is at the heart of that support network, providing information and support to help students and their families to get the most from their time at BSB and in Belgium.

Run entirely by parent volunteers, FoBSB organises a wide variety of events, activities, and groups throughout the year and operates Cavell House, the parents centre on campus which hosts language conversation classes, a book club, first aid courses, cookery demonstrations, a craft club, talks, Pilates and more.

The activities of FoBSB, along with the stafforganised events for parents on campus, are of course all geared to make new and existing families feel part of the school community. This inclusivity is rooted in face-to-face interactions; the social aspects of support are hugely important when new families arrive in Belgium with little or no knowledge of the country and without any personal contacts. Understandably, this important aspect of the BSB support structure was affected by the restrictions and regulations of the past two years and, just as with all other parts of school life, FoBSB had to adapt and show great ingenuity and resilience to keep the channels of communication open.

“One of the main challenges during the early part of 2020 was keeping the day-to-day running of FoBSB going as we were unable to organise events during confinement and the volunteer parents found they had much less time as they had kids at home instead of at school,” says Maurits Wesseling, the Families of BSB Chair. “It was a struggle to maintain contact with people and it was harder on some families more than others, especially the newer ones who hadn’t been at the school for long before they had lockdown.”

“It is only natural that some newer families are more introverted to start with when they arrive and we found that these were the ones who were more hesitant to make contact when we had to switch to communicating purely online,” he added. “It is more difficult to help people come out of their shells when you can’t meet them in

person. So, we know there were a few who had just arrived, were alone and confined in a new home, and were having to home-school from the start – and this was a big challenge, making them feel part of a community that some had not actually physically been part of yet.”

Maurits admits that it was hard to find those people who were struggling the most when all the interaction of the time was through social media and the FoBSB Facebook group, and those who felt uncomfortable with that were reluctant to join in. But slowly and surely FoBSB developed a new way of keeping the spirit of community alive and bringing those new and existing families together. “We hoped that, despite not having interactions with some people online, they were getting our messages and seeing our updates. It did seem a little strange to post stuff when we were unable to announce events and activities, but we just wanted to keep that channel open. Eventually, when it was possible to get out and organise socially distanced events, we organised a walk around the lake in the Tervuren park and put an invite out via our social media. The response was heart-warming and inspiring. While there were fewer people there than there would be in normal circumstances, we welcomed several families and managed to hold a safe gettogether and finally talk to them, some of them for the first time, about life at BSB.”

The park walk was the catalyst for a rejuvenation of the connection between FoBSB and the family community. It sparked a resurgence in events, still mostly held online, and led to more families becoming connected. “We embraced the fact that we still needed to conduct many things online and so we created a Zoom group and held evening meetings with parents through that,” Maurits says. “We even held a wine tasting evening over Zoom one night who was really fun. We still weren’t getting the same numbers of people joining in as we would have got in normal circumstances, but we were building a momentum which would lead to greater things once the world started to open up.”

Once restrictions began to ease, FoBSB started organising get-togethers with parents on café terraces in Tervuren and eventually brought some on to campus to give some of them the first taste of the school. “When the situation started to change, I spoke with Melanie (Warnes, the school Principal) and we both decided that our focus should be on bringing the community back to life and integrating new families,” says Maurits. “So, we started to tentatively organise events within the regulations, such as the car boot sale on campus - which wasn’t on a massive scale, but it was a nice get together. People had the opportunity to connect, to buy and sell some stuff. That was actually quite a good turnout. We also started hosting regular coffee mornings in Cavell House again and then, more recently, we managed to finally hold the Summer Ball at the Africa Museum which was a tremendous success with a record number of people attending. It was clear by then that people wanted to let their hair down.”

Other events that really capped a successful return were the St. Patrick’s Day celebrations held in March this year, plus the families’ tea party on campus and the Quiz Night event in May.

One of the strongest examples of FoBSB and the community of BSB working together, shoulder to shoulder, was the BSB response to the refugee crisis caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

With so many young people and children among the refugees, ensuring their continuing education soon became a principal factor for schools in host countries such as Belgium.

It wasn’t long before BSB started to receive requests from students and relatives of children that had arrived in Belgium from Ukraine, asking if they could be considered for a place at the school. From the moment the first emails arrived, discussions at the highest level of the school began about how BSB could help and accommodate these students.

It became clear that BSB as a whole had to do something. The school’s guiding statements say that we strive to be an educational force for good. There was an overwhelming sense that this was a situation in which our values would come first, that everyone at BSB would do everything in their power to help those in need.