My Story
I started playing guitar when I was 14 years old. My biggest fan was John Denver, and I wanted to play guitar like him. But it wasn’t until college in the 1980’s that I actually learned how to play and sing using Neil Young songs. In the early‘90’s, my two little blond haired girls were born, and I naturally played guitar for them. Every night while putting them to bed, I played the folk tunes I knew. Gradually I became interested in children’s music. We constantly went to the library, and I would check out ten cassette tapes at a time from the children’s section. All we did was listen to varieties of kid’s music until I had built up a repertoire. That is when I discovered Raffi, an international children’s musician who performs traditional and original songs, particularly environmental songs teaching children awareness about caring for the earth. We watched Raffi videos together, and I saw the gentle way that Raffi captivated the audience. I longed to take my children to such a concert.
I became inspired. I knew that Raffi would likely never come to Asheville, and so I decided to become Asheville’s Raffi. I knew I could play traditional kid’s songs and lead children, and so I began playing every Friday at my daughters’ preschool. The children responded beautifully when I brought in rhythm sticks and shakers. I tried all kinds of combinations of using the instruments before working out a routine. First I learned that I needed to keep the order the same, such as first we tap, then we shake. I learned that all the instruments needed to be alike to avoid the teary eyed child who didn’t get the one they wanted. I learned to use what I called musician’s manners when handing out and taking up the instruments. And I realized how to work with children’s energy by allowing children to tap rhymes with rhythm sticks, by including lots of jumping and stomping and shaking, and by always finishing with a lullaby. These became the expected activities, and in that order. A framework was born.
As occasional parents joined us, I became nervous and self conscious. So I realized that I needed to learn performance skills. For two straight years every Thursday night, I went to open mike night at Bean Streets, a coffee house that used to be in downtown Asheville. The first year, I would become so terrified I would forget the words or the chords to the song and simply sit down in the middle of my act, especially if someone came in who I knew. It was so scary every week sitting there waiting on my turn to perform, but I Knew that this was something I had to learn, and that I wanted to learn. Something in me had to do it. By the second year, they could have made me the host, because I was showing people how to hook up their guitars and where to stand.
So I approached the daycares. Back then in 1995, there were only about 30 childcare centers in Buncombe County. I gave each a free demonstration, and six hired me on the spot. A business was born. It was never easy living on the meager fee that I charged, but I knew I had to sing for children. As I began making the rounds, teachers consistently asked me, where did I get my cases of six-inch rhythm sticks, and where in the world did I get my cases of identical four-inch cylinder shakers. Actually, I made them myself, so I began making more and selling them to daycares. Also, I built a web site, called Tap-n-Shake, and began teaching many workshops at childcare conferences throughout the state, and finally provided every daycare in Transylvania County with their own cases of rhythm sticks and shakers through a grant with Smart Start.
I have personally conducted thousands of music programs with children in daycares, preschools, libraries, festivals, birthday parties, holiday performances and puppet shows. When my son was born I never missed a beat. By this time in 1998, I had collaborated with a puppeteer, Susan Ward, and we did musical thematic shows all over Western North Carolina. With my daughters in the audience cheering on the puppets, I had my baby son in the carrier and later the stroller where he eagerly tapped his sticks and shock his shaker. By the way, now he is age 21, and accomplished on many musical instruments and is a classical guitar major.
Singing folk songs with children is the most fun I have, and it is when I am at my best. Singing is so good for the soul. It unites us with everyone in the room, and it connects us in a way that raises the spirit of a human being. There is nothing more important or valuable than playing music together, especially with children who are in the midst of their early development. By adding the routine of using the rhythm sticks and shakers, I created a musical experience which combines all the necessary ingredients for early childhood development: self-expression, self-awareness, socialization, physical, emotional, and cognitive development, and FUN!
