In July, it's tough attending a year-round school. It seems like the rest of the world is outside playing, going on vacation and in general, having a better time than you.

Never mind all that time you had off when all the other Federal Way Schools were in session. That's in the past and long forgotten.

But then the Harmonica Man comes to Sunnycrest, and holds an assembly where every single student gets their own harmonica to keep. Then life is good again. That's what happened last Tuesday when Gary Turk shared his talents with close to 400 Sunnycrest students.

Turk lives in Maple Valley, works for a photocopier company by day and sings and plays with the Night Train Blues Band when he's not working. He heard about Sunnycrest through a friend who volunteers with the all-day Kindergarten class there. Turk brought harmonicas to that class and taught them how to play. When Principal Tom Capp saw how well those Kindergartners responded to Turk's instruction, he asked him to come back for a full school assembly.

"If you really practice and have a song in your heart, then you can sing and play like I do," Turk told the assembled students after singing and playing a song on the harmonica for them.

Then through methodical instruction the students, in Kindergarten through fifth grade, learned to play a five-note riff. They also learned that a harmonica is the only instrument played by both blowing out and inhaling.

"This really helps their breathing," says Turk. "It's especially good for children with asthma and I think they out to use it in hospitals."

In the blues world, the harmonica is called the "harp." The largest ones may have as many as 30 holes. The harmonicas given to Sunnycrest students had ten holes in them. By blowing out or inhaling through each hole, students have the ability to play 20 different notes.

Turk taught the students to play a Muddy Waters' tune and when the assembly was over, it was so hard for them to put away their harmonicas and board the buses home. They wanted to keep playing.

"Music is so rewarding when a child gets into it," says Turk. "When they practice, they get better and they feel better. Success begets success."

Capp knows how rewarding harmonica playing can be because he played in a 2,000 member harmonica band at Seattle's Folk Life Festival and made the Guinness Book of World Records.