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.
In the spirit of the season, this month’s featured tune will be “Jingle Bells,” played in bluegrass style (boom-chick rhythm on guitars, mandolins chopping on the backbeat, banjos rolling, instrumental solos between each chorus and the next verse, etc.), 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.
Over the past eight years, Tatiana Hargreaves has been on the forefront of an up and coming generation of old time, bluegrass and new acoustic musicians. Since releasing her first solo album Started Out To Ramble in 2009, Hargreaves has toured with musicians such as Dave Rawlings, Gillian Welch, Laurie Lewis, Darol Anger, Tony Trischka, and Michael Daves. From being the second woman to place first at the Clifftop Appalachian Fiddle Contest, to her bluegrass fiddling on Laurie Lewis’ GRAMMY-nominated album The Hazel And Alice Sessions, Hargreaves has demonstrated her skill in both the old time and bluegrass worlds.
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:
- Cripple Creek (featured song in November 2017)
- Old Joe Clark (featured song in Octeober 2017)
- 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
