Wonderful Music Festival at Andover Elementary
Make Joyful Sound!
enthusiastic group of kids in a percussion workshop
Carol Godbout-Kinney took care of organizing the classes in the school while the Hullabaloo Committee hired the musicians to work and play with the kids during the workshop.
On day one, on Monday, it was all about percussion and a talented and energetic duo called “The Junk Beats” led the students through some fantastic percussion experiments.
Chuck Buckets, so nicknamed for his talent for playing on found objects such as old garbage cans and wash tubs, along with fellow musician Keith Mullins, spent 6 hours playing, singing, and letting kids explore their inherent musical talents.
The kids were full of questions for Chuck and Keith. They described the fun they have being musicians and explained that playing music was their only job, that was who they are and what they do.
It was terrifically inspirational to let kids know that you can in fact follow your dreams, be your authentic self and make a living doing it!
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They shared a number of their adventure stories with the kids, telling them about the countries they had traveled to and the famous musicians they had met and worked with along the way.
Keith told a fun story about a song he wrote a couple of years ago.
It was that holiday time of year again, with all the conspicuous consumption and spending frenzies that go along with it. Keith decided that wasn’t the kind of Christmas he wanted to give his kids, so he bought a bunch of cool gifts on Kijiji.
Then he wrote a song about the experience and called it “Kijiji Christmas”. He went on to explain how Kijiji got wind of it, and used his song to promote their website, so it became somewhat famous. Plus Kijiji gave him a bunch of cool stuff!
He sang the bluesy tune for the class, and it really was a wonderful ballad….”It’s a Kijiji Christmas…A whole lot more for a whole lot less. We get to go crazy without the craziness. This year is a Kijiji Christmas! My kids get moe than all of their friends, we ain’t got to overspend….I bought my boy a train from my neighbour Jack and when he gets bored I’m getting my money back on the Kijiji”.
He says buying and selling items on Kijiji is an environmentally friendly way to recycle and reuse and save lots of money while you’re at it.
Irish lives in Miramichi but tours internationally. She’s a solo singer, song writer and all around musician with enormous energy and a huge voice.
Starr is both a musician and a music instructor who gives both guitar and piano lessons. She also plays a mean alto saxophone!
Starr and Irish spent the first part of the program teaching the kids how to hold the guitar and finger chords. At the end of the second day several of the kids were courageous enough to perform solo as they strummed their guitars and sang.
All of the students participated in the grand finale as they all played a little mini concert together.
In most cases it was the first time any of the students had ever held a guitar!
The camp was a great success and fun was had by all!
Stephanie Kelley
