This will be kind of long but I figure some of you here will appreciate this.
Last year my oldest daughter and I got back from a week of camp and asked if she could start playing my ukulele. She said she wanted to be able to lead worship at campfire next year. I said sure. My kids have never stuck with any instruments and I figured this would be the same. I was wrong. I taught her a few chords and she was off.
My youngest daughter has wanted to play drums for a while but hadn't told her mom or me. In April I asked a previous co-worker her opinion on a slaptop cajon she had. She liked it, but played her traditional cajon more. I told her I was looking to buy a cajon for the house and my youngest could see if she was interested. She lent it to me and said to keep it as long as I wanted. My youngest started practicing just about everyday.
Both of my kids were old enough to go to the high school week this year (mid June). My oldest took her (my) soprano uke and I took my tenor uke because I figured I'd have some free time. On Wednesday of that week I asked the guy who was leading campfire for the week if I could join him and he said yes. Figured it was a good way to force me to learn some new chords/songs. Later that day I remembered that my oldest wanted to play campfire but I knew she didn't think she was ready. I asked the guy leading if he would mind if she joined us and again the answer was yes. He hoped that her playing might inspire some of the other campers to join.
So I ask her and her eyes get big and she's nervous... but she likes adventure. She said yes so we started practicing the songs. But they were songs she had never heard and I'm not a singer. So we made a plan to get with the guy leading later that night so we could all practice together. I also asked my youngest if she wanted to play cajon and she said absolutely not... which is exactly what I expected
After dinner the three of us get together to practice. Then the leader's brother joins. Not long after that two campers walk by and the guy leading tells them to get their guitars and join us. At some point my youngest sits down with us and I tell her to go grab a slaptop cajon someone brought. Because we're just sitting around jamming at this point she thinks nothing of it, get it and joins us.
This moves from practicing two songs to the leader just breaking out songs for us to play. I'm sitting across from him watching his hands... making the uke chords. My oldest is sitting across from me watching my hands and making whatever chord shapes I make.
Eventually it starts to rain so the rest of the camp starts slowly filing into the pavilion where we're "practicing." But because they're coming in just a few at a time we all just keep playing. Eventually we have about 110 campers and 20+ staff for the week singing along with us and calling out requests. My girls had their first jam session and "performance" in front of about 130 people. After we finished they both came up to me and said, "Can we do that again?"
This is getting long so I'll continue the rest in the next post.
Last year my oldest daughter and I got back from a week of camp and asked if she could start playing my ukulele. She said she wanted to be able to lead worship at campfire next year. I said sure. My kids have never stuck with any instruments and I figured this would be the same. I was wrong. I taught her a few chords and she was off.
My youngest daughter has wanted to play drums for a while but hadn't told her mom or me. In April I asked a previous co-worker her opinion on a slaptop cajon she had. She liked it, but played her traditional cajon more. I told her I was looking to buy a cajon for the house and my youngest could see if she was interested. She lent it to me and said to keep it as long as I wanted. My youngest started practicing just about everyday.
Both of my kids were old enough to go to the high school week this year (mid June). My oldest took her (my) soprano uke and I took my tenor uke because I figured I'd have some free time. On Wednesday of that week I asked the guy who was leading campfire for the week if I could join him and he said yes. Figured it was a good way to force me to learn some new chords/songs. Later that day I remembered that my oldest wanted to play campfire but I knew she didn't think she was ready. I asked the guy leading if he would mind if she joined us and again the answer was yes. He hoped that her playing might inspire some of the other campers to join.
So I ask her and her eyes get big and she's nervous... but she likes adventure. She said yes so we started practicing the songs. But they were songs she had never heard and I'm not a singer. So we made a plan to get with the guy leading later that night so we could all practice together. I also asked my youngest if she wanted to play cajon and she said absolutely not... which is exactly what I expected
After dinner the three of us get together to practice. Then the leader's brother joins. Not long after that two campers walk by and the guy leading tells them to get their guitars and join us. At some point my youngest sits down with us and I tell her to go grab a slaptop cajon someone brought. Because we're just sitting around jamming at this point she thinks nothing of it, get it and joins us.
This moves from practicing two songs to the leader just breaking out songs for us to play. I'm sitting across from him watching his hands... making the uke chords. My oldest is sitting across from me watching my hands and making whatever chord shapes I make.
Eventually it starts to rain so the rest of the camp starts slowly filing into the pavilion where we're "practicing." But because they're coming in just a few at a time we all just keep playing. Eventually we have about 110 campers and 20+ staff for the week singing along with us and calling out requests. My girls had their first jam session and "performance" in front of about 130 people. After we finished they both came up to me and said, "Can we do that again?"
This is getting long so I'll continue the rest in the next post.
