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Peggy and Her Range Riders – 1938. My mom Peggy is on the left, her sister, Theresa, on the right
Music is a gift we receive from our parents and give to our children. That’s if we’re lucky. I was. My mother sang and played with her family as a child. As the eldest of four, I shared music with her before we had a television in the house. I sang along with her songs as a toddler. And I’m still surprised to know the obscure verses to jazz standards that were sung on the radio in the fifties.
Children are little sponges. We owe it to them to make sure they are absorbing the useful cooperative life skills that music teaches naturally.
Shared family music provides a constructive long-term activity that creates a dialogue where learning occurs but isn’t forced. It creates stronger communication among family members, deeper emotional bonds, and an appreciation for the joyful results of successful teamwork.
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playing with my daughter Molly March 2015 in Québec. Shawn McEnroe photo
In our folk and acoustic music world, families often participate together in informal and formal performances. My daughter sings and plays bass with me in two of my groups. My other music partner performs with her husband and daughter. A third bandmate also plays with her parents and her sister in Cape Breton. And those we play with tend to become so close they are considered family. This music-making thing is so much more than a ‘family business’ though. On a purely practical level, you’d probably pass it by. Not enough money to be made, you’d think, not enough time to practice or play.
But we measure joy in deep satisfaction, not dollars and cents. The first time my daughter had a long talk with me about music theory and how to tell a story in a song lyric, my heart sang. Music gave us a common language where we could be peers, not parent-child. She’s in her mid-twenties, so that’s important.
And those harmonies. I didn’t even know what I was doing at age four, singing with my mother. I just sang the harmony. Singing now with daughter Molly, I see our stitches in the tapestry being woven, generations of voices singing down the years. Music opens our hearts. This is not something you measure in currency.
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Backstage view: Great Groove Band – Philly Folk Fest 2014
My mother’s mother sang to her, she sang to me. I sang to Molly. She will sing to her children someday. Encouraging our children to partake fully of the arts is important. They need to be drawing, writing, singing, playing an instrument, dancing, learning to build something, to garden or cook or sew or craft as part of their education. They shouldn’t just be consuming media on their electronic devices. We want them creating!
Molly and I both feel strongly about this. We’re part of the posse for the Great Groove Band, a program I started with Andy Spence at the Old Songs Festival near Albany NY in 1998. Molly grew up at Old Songs and is now the Groove Band vocal coach there and at Philadelphia Folk Festival, where we also teach young musicians how to work together. Full program information is on the Groove Band page.
We invite you to attend either (or both) festivals and bring your young musician (age 6-17) to our performance training program. Our teaching staff has music teachers from elementary schools through college. We welcome young singers and all acoustic instruments including percussion. There are two performance ensembles at Old Songs, one for teen instrumentalists. We provide music and listening downloads two months in advance for both ensembles. Students learn songs and tunes and how to play together. They participate in arranging decisions and create a stage show for the main stage on Sunday afternoon.
Register for the 2015 Great Groove Band at Old Songs Festival
Contact either Molly Hebert-Wilson at mollyhebertwilson AT gmail.com or me at donna AT fiddlingdemystified.com for more information. You can also sign up for the Groove Band mailing list in the page’s sidebar.
Here’s one performance – 2014 at Philadelphia Folk Festival – an Old-Time song called “Mole in the Ground.”
Donna Hébert – 3/30/15