Calling all youth musicians – this is a great opportunity to learn to play music together! In addition to learning some techniques and skills specific to playing this month’s featured tune, participants jam together on a variety of other songs, too.
Facilitator Jef Walter typically leads a few songs to get the jam started, then goes around the circle to give particpants a chance to choose a song they’d like to play. Participants are also encouraged to bring a prepared song to sing and/or play with the group, but this is not required for participation.
“Cripple Creek” will be the featured song this month. And there will be plenty of time for jamming together on a variety of other songs, too (sample song list below).
For those who don’t play an instrument yet, Marbles will have a build your own instrument station set up in Curiosity Square.
Sign up for e-mail updates about programs and opportunities for youth musicians; or call 919-664-8333 x4.
Directions and parking information for Marbles Kids Museum
Downtown Raleigh parking information
About the youth jam facilitators:
Jef Walter performs regularly on bass and guitar with a “who’s who” of North Carolina acoustic musicians, including Charles Pettee and the Iron Mountain Messengers. He is also the band mentor for The Carolina PineCones, a youth bluegrass band based in Raleigh. Walter will facilitate this year’s youth jams with a rotating group of special guest co-facilitators.
Special guest Courtney Andrews Clapp is an award-winning bluegrass and old-time (clawhammer) banjo player with more than a decade of performance and teaching experience. She started playing banjo as a student at UNC-Chapel Hill, where she founded the UNC Bluegrass Club in order to meet fellow musicians. Fourteen years later, she is an award-winning banjo player who has taken home first-place ribbons for both bluegrass and old-time banjo playing. She has performed with the traditional bluegrass band Skyline Drive and Trail Mix, a group that plays a variety of musical genres including bluegrass, swing, jazz, and classical. She has also been a member of countless old-time band configurations for square dances and other performances, including the Merritt Mill String Band and the Piedmont Perrenials, and has appeared as a guest banjoist with the John Cowan Band, Big Fat Gap, Kickin Grass, and the Apple Chill and Cane Creek Cloggers. Clapp grew up in western NC and currently lives in Chapel Hill, NC.
Songs played at past youth jams have included:
Instrumentals:
- Angeline the Baker (D)
- Arkansas Traveler (D)
- Soldiers Joy (D)
- Whiskey Before Breakfast (D)
- Liberty (D)
- Old Joe Clark (A)
- Cripple Creek (A)
- Salt Creek (A)
- Cherokee Shuffle (A)
- Blackberry Blossom (G)
- Billy in the Lowground (C)
Songs with Lyrics:
- Bury Me Beneath the Willow
- Nine Pound Hammer
- Long Journey Home
- I’ll Fly Away
- My Home’s Across the Blue Ridge Mountains
- In the Pines
Newer songs the group has worked:
- St. Anne’s Reel (featured song in April 2017) – Key of D
- In the Pines (featured song in March 2017) – Key of G
- Clinch Mountain Backstep (featured song in Feburary 2017) – Key of A
- Nine Pound Hammer (featured song in January 2017) – Key of A, Key of C
- Hot Corn, Cold Corn (featured song in December 2016) – Key of G
- Down the Road (featured song in November 2016) – Key of A
- Meet Me By the Moonlight (featured song in March 2016) – Key of G, Key of E
- (A) Worried Man Blues (featured song in February 2016)
- (D) Swallowtail Jig
- (G) June Apple
- (G) Long Journey Home ($2 Bill)
- (G) Red Clay Halo
