94 Sing Out! • Vol. 44 #1 • Fall 1999

HOMEMADE JAMA potpourri of regional folk activities in North America & abroad

by Donna Hébert

Coaches Are Key

In addition to being excellent “groov-ing” players themselves, the musi-

cians hired to work with kids must haveexperience doing just that, and also bemusically literate, i.e., write and readmusic and chord charts, and be able toarrange on the spot. In our case, oneyoung flute player could only play halfnotes, so horn/flute coach Lise Brownrewrote a waltz part in half notes. Mystring arrangements come out of yearsof dance fiddling and teaching, andlike Lise’s horn arrangements, areoften reworked to fit the group needs.Some were even written by young stu-dents at my Summer Groove Camp inAmherst, a day camp for young fid-dlers which expands on the festivalexperience, adding classes in theoryand harmony.

Tell People About The KidsBand In All Your PR

Festival committees should includeinformation about the youth band in

all their festival PR [prominently,please!] with contact information forregistration. They should also send bro-chures to music departments, and areaschool and private music teachers; aswell as get flyers to area schools’ end-of-year music concerts (for a summerfestival). Most young players at OldSongs Festival are registered for ourgroup by parents attending the festivalfor the weekend as campers or volun-teers. They are going to be there al-ready, and they already play an instru-ment. Voila!

Find Out About Them WhenThey Register

There’s a lot of information you wantto get about players when they

register. What instrument do theyplay? How long and how well? Howold are they? Get a complete address/

at dances for years. This program putsthe kids “in the band” and “in thegroove” with us. Working first withNorthern banjo player Diane Sanabria,and later with guitarist Liza Constableand horn player Lise Brown, we’ve de-veloped a program that can fit just aboutany group of school-trained instrumen-talists – string and horn players.

Andy Spence, director of the OldSongs Festival, got excited about thisnew opportunity for children to par-ticipate hands-on as soon as I broughtthe idea to her. “Today, a folk festi-val must teach as well as entertain,”shared Andy. “The music we love isonly a small part of the music scenetoday and we must preserve it andcarry it forward to each generation.The schools require a child to learn aninstrument in 5th grade, and they canchoose from a selection of band in-struments. Most schools do not haveorchestras anymore ... and the musiclearned is mostly classical or band mu-sic. Our project with the Great GrooveBand provides a chance to take the in-strument the kids already play andlearn to play fiddle tunes. With fiddletunes one can play for dancing and inensembles with others. These twoabilities are the ones that promote theplaying of music at home ... and for alifetime.”

Sally Bogardus, the mother of oneof our teen fiddlers Jon Bogardus ofGreenville, N.Y., added “The GreatGroove Band is a great way for kidsto build self-esteem by playing infront of large audiences!”

How To Incorporate A Kids BandInto Your Festival Program

Here are the most important thingsto remember if you want to in-

clude a program l ike “The GreatGroove Dance Band” in your local,regional, or national folk festival:

PLAYING IN THE BAND

Kids love music. From the young-est ages, they move in time, sing

in tune and write their own if we givethem half a chance. Those of us wholove folk music often wonder how toprovide opportunities for our childrento love it too. What could make moresense, then, including a hands-on instru-mental music program for children at afolk festival?

For two years now, I worked on justsuch a program bringing young play-ers of various abilities and instrumentsfrom New York, New England andPennsylvania into the “Great GrooveDance Band” at the Old Songs Festi-val, held in late June in Altamont, N.Y.This year we began on Friday after-noon and practiced a selection ofcontradance music for two hours withmusica l coaches Liza Constable(backup instruments), Lise Brown(flutes, horns) and myself (strings).Reassembled after rehearsing in sec-tions, the group played together in aslow jam setting over two days, tak-ing the tunes from very slow indeed atthe start, right up to dance tempo. Laterin the weekend, the Groovers playedtheir new tunes for live contradancersand again with us in concert on themain stage. Players covered a range ofskills from low intermediate (1-2 yrsexperience), needing more attentionfrom the coaches, to highly experi-enced players who really only neededhelp “finding the groove.”

The idea for “The Great GrooveDance Band” came out of my fiddleteaching and band coaching in theAmherst, Mass. area. I began playingfiddle sitting in with New Hampshirecaller Dudley Laufman’s CanterburyCountry Dance Orchestra in the early1970s, and students have played with me

Fall 1999 • Vol. 44 #1 • Sing Out! 95

e-mail if possible so coaches can com-municate ahead of time with familiesand young musicians and know whatsort of arrangements to prepare, espe-cially for horn players, who requiretransposed arrangements. Make surethey know to bring music stands, ex-tra strings, reeds, etc. Coaches providemusic, and let registrants know timeand location of scheduled workshopsat the festival.

What Music To Use?

This year, most of the kids at the OldSongs Festival fell into an interme-

diate level (with seven string players,including viola and cello, plus trom-bones, sax, flutes, trumpet and ukelele),but I’ve seen all levels. We begin withsimpler versions of dance fiddle tunes –just the reels ... jigs and waltzes are of-ten easier to play unaltered – preparingahead of the festival using a computermusic program to write arrangements inboth clefs and also in horn keys – Bb, Eb

for clarinet, trumpet, saxes, trombone(bass clef) – plus chord charts for thebackup guitarists. Given the amount ofwork, writing the arrangements for 2-4new tunes each year is really a labor oflove. We pick tunes we really love toplay ourselves and want to pass along.

Then we create several levels of themelody for players of various skills toplay. Then we add harmonies, bass andrhythm lines so it sounds like whatyou’d hear at a dance, with a goodstrong offbeat accented. Chord changesare also included.

[Note about sound: For perfor-mances and teaching with such a lim-ited time available to work with them,young players need to hear your ev-ery word. Make sure your festivalteaching and performance areas havesound, or coaches could be shoutingover 40 kids.]

No Lost Lambs

I t’s very important for coaches tobe dedicated to not losing anyone.

We’re always looking for strays whenwe play with the kids, making surethey don’ t ge t los t . We’ l l movearound, making sure we help thosewho need it, and stand next to thewaiverers so they can cop our groove,which, is after all, the whole point ofthis operation.

Groove

What is “groove?” It’s the heartof the music, the inner rhythms

of the tune that pulse in our veins.

The Great Groove Dance Band performs at the 1999 Old Songs Festival in Altamont, NY.

How do you find it? Someone showsyou how, usually, and takes you there.That’s what we’re doing. We knowthat’s why we still play after all theseyears. Why not show the kids how tofind it for themselves? Once they do,they’ll never stop playing music!

For more information about in-cluding this program or one like

it in your festival, you can contact mea t P .O. Box 2632 , Amhers t MA01004-2632; Ph: 413-253-4058; E-mail: dhebert@crocker.com Web:www.dhebert.com.

Franco-American fiddler Donna Hébert isa founding mother of the New Englandcontradance renaissance, fiddling withYankee Ingenuity, Rude Girls and nowFranco-American heritage group Chant-erelle. Her songs and tunes may be heardwith them on “Soirèe chez nous” and onthe new “Mademoise l l e , vou lez -vousdanser?” anthology of Franco-Americanmusic on Smithsonian/Folkways. Her solodebut CD, “Big Boned Beauty” was re-leased this year on Rudegirl Music. Donnaalso teaches “Fiddling in the Groove”workshops to string teachers nationwide.

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