Playing for kids...

[PhilGE]

Here are a few pix from a recent "jam" with a college student a couple of weeks ago. I'm working on building up some momentum for the jam (at noon on the campus) and attendance has been light. A student photographer for the student newspaper happened by just as a bunch of preschoolers, some who I know, came over to dance to our tunes. It was a delightful time and a great photo-op! The young man playing banjo is multi-talented and does a great job at frailing.

-Phil

P.S. I'm adding this note on 9/20/05: All photos are credited to Joe Wyse, photographer for the Goshen College student newspaper, the Record.

[PhilGE]

another

[PhilGE]

last

[bluesmandolinman]

the crowd dancing in front of you... what more a mandolin player can wish ?! Very nice http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[ira]

what a blast! congrats on your new fan base!!!!

[Ken Berner]

Great stuff; you are to be commended for sharing your gift with these children! Whenever small children are brought to our jams, we generally play a couple of tunes that they can relate to. Playing at schools is also a great blast for all involved and you never know how you might touch someone with your music.

[PhilGE]

Thanks - you got it, Ken! I just started to work at Goshen College and now host an old-time jam once a week at noon. Young adults get to hear and see the music regularly. I've also been blessed with the opportunity to play for my son's classes as he's moved his way up from pre-school into kindergarten at the college's center for young children. The photos above are from when one of the pre-school teachers heard about the jam and brought the kids out for some fresh air and exercise. I think we all had a blast!

[acousticphd]

You're a mando-playing chick magnet!

[Jim Yates]

Phil,
It looks like you guys are having a blast and so are the kids. We do a lot of playing at band shells and gazebos in the summer and it's always a great feeling when some kids start dancing at the front of the stage. We always compliment our "mosh pit" dancers.
I spent the second last year of my teaching career teaching music to students in grades K to 3. Of 36 years in the teaching profession, I enjoyed that year the most. I always had a guitar, mandolin, banjo, Autoharp... and although I wouldn't play a fiddle for a paying audience, I did play it for the kids and they loved it. It was fun listening to a kindergarten kid explaining to the principal or a visiting parent the difference between an Irish bouzouki and a mandolin.
(While I didn't have students playing mandolins, they did play ukulele, recorder, kazoo, washtub bass, washboard...and of course they sang and danced)