Half an hour before a concert, the nerves begin to show.
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There is equipment to set up, instruments to check and sound levels to get right.
The young musicians know an audience is waiting and there is plenty of nervous energy. Then they step on to the stage.
“Their little faces just change,” teachers Matt and Robyn Hicks said.
The students see people smiling and enjoying their music and suddenly the nerves are replaced by something else — pride.
“Afterwards, they are pretty pumped,” Matt said.
“They say ‘When are we doing it again?’”
At Cobram and District Specialist School, music reaches well beyond the stage.
The program has grown from humble beginnings of recorders, guitars and basic drumming into an important part of school life.
Robyn remembers collecting donated supermarket credits to buy the school’s first drum kit.
Other instruments followed as students’ interests and skills developed.
“Music is our classroom,” Matt said.
“Within it there is maths and literacy, technology and personal development, along with learning to work with others.
“Music can also be playing as students return from recess and lunch, helping them settle and reset.”
For those drawn to an instrument, the journey starts simply.
Students try different instruments, learn the basics and build their skills.
Interest might get them started, but practice, commitment and perseverance take them further.
Being part of a band means listening to each other, accepting feedback and becoming accountable to fellow musicians.
It also offers something bigger — the chance to belong to a team and be part of something beyond themselves.
Over the years the band has ebbed and flowed as students have moved through the school.
One particularly successful group performed at community events, opened and closed the Tri State Games before an audience of around 500 and travelled to Melbourne for recording opportunities.
At one concert, the father of a guitarist and singer watched from the audience.
“I cannot believe that is my son up there,” he said.
“Never in a million years would I have thought he’d be up there playing guitar and singing.”
Families become part of the journey too, with mums and dads turning up as willing ‘roadies’ and sometimes heading off instrument shopping as their children’s interest grows.
Music has created connections beyond the school.
When the band was short a guitarist, a student from Cobram Anglican Grammar came across to practise and play with them.
Those experienced young musicians have now finished school and moved into the workforce.
“Now we have to start again,” Matt said.
But not entirely.
There is usually an “apprentice” in the pipeline — a younger student watching, listening and waiting for an opportunity.
Already others are stepping forward.
One student, Rose, tried different instruments before settling on bass, while some students would rather spend recess practising than heading into the yard.
The connection doesn’t necessarily finish at the school gate either.
One of the boys has returned to mentor some of the younger musicians.
Their musical tastes are varied, although country is a favourite, with students drawn to its beat and lyrics.
Chris Stapleton and Luke Combs are popular, while one rock drummer was just as happy drumming along to John Williamson.
Younger students hear the music from their classrooms and come looking.
Some pull up chairs to listen and, before long, audience members are dancing.
Perhaps one of the best descriptions of these young musicians came when Australian musician Peter Denahy spent a day playing and writing songs with them.
Afterwards, he told Matt and Robyn he hadn’t realised he had been playing with students from a specialist school.
He simply thought they were boys who loved music.
For some, music may eventually lead to playing in a band.
A couple of the boys, now in the workforce, would love that opportunity.
For others, it may simply become something they love and carry with them long after school.
Either way, it has given them what Matt describes as “the key to another room in the world”.
And once that door opens, who knows where they might go.