Steve Butters is unlike any teacher you’ve ever met at Elgin Community College; he teaches his academic students how to play the steel drums because he can. He is also notorious for saying “gnarly.”

He is a part-time teacher at ECC and has been jamming out in the H Building for the last 15 years. Butters teaches one music appreciation class and two steel drum band classes on Monday and Wednesday nights. The rest of his time is dedicated to rocking out with his band “The Pan Chicago Steel Band.” He has earned his bachelor’s degree at the University of Iowa and later his master’s at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in music.

A non-traditional class day is nothing new in Butters’ music appreciation class. One day in the semester he takes his students for a tour around the Blizzard and Black Box Theater at ECC because he feels like it.

“Fun is a big part of going on random field trips,” Butters said. “I’ve been on stage countless times and backstage millions of times, but I figured majority of the students have never even been on a stage. So man, I even learn stuff about what’s involved in putting on show.”

While Butters does teach music appreciation, he also attempts to teach those students actual music to spice the class up. ECC student Elizabeth Escobar previously took his class and really appreciates Butters.

“The most memorable moment in his class is when we went downstairs and we played with the steel drums; that was cool!” Escobar said. “I like how he recorded it and put it on YouTube too, especially when he started playing the drums I was like ‘Damn, he has skills. When I listened to classical music before, it was more for focusing. After his class though, I started listening to the dynamics, the flow, and the feeling that is put into music. Music sounds so much harder and the artist put so much more effort than I thought before.”

Sophomore student, Alex Lewandowski, rides on a different vibe compared to the music appreciation and class the steel drum class that Butters offers.

“He’s two different people in music appreciation versus drum class,” Lewandowski said. “In music appreciation, there’s a class of thirty, but in drum class we’re tight-knit. It’s a place that we can go to and truly enjoy. He doesn’t only focus on classical music either, which gives variety. He composes a lot of our pieces too. How many people can you find that know how to do that?”