Join Lydia Garrison and Richard Gregory-Allen, musicians and singers, for this fun and light hearted music class! We will meet for a 2 hour class, between the hours of 9-3, on the THURSDAY or SATURDAY surrounding these dates: 3/29, 4/19, 5/10, 5/17. (Please email Lydia to indicate your availability of days and times: hello@lydiagarrison.live)
Kids and interested parents: come bringing voices, instruments serious or silly, costumes if desired, and a song you would like the chorus/band to learn. Email this selection – including a YouTube video – with your available class days & times. Indicate if the song recording on YouTube is placed at a good place for your range (if you’re a singer), and if it’s not, say if it needs to be a little higher, a lot higher, a little lower, or a lot lower. Or, make a simple iPhone recording of yourself singing a snippet of it, and we will determine the correct key. Also indicate if you read musical notation.
No experience necessary. We will learn by ear – aka, “monkey see, monkey do”. We will bring simple instruments for anyone who wants to play something but doesn’t have an instrument of their own. Bring any instruments you play. Be ready to BE QUIET and LISTEN when it’s not time to play.
We will learn songs class members are interested in learning- anything goes! We will make it simple and fun.
Costumes can play a role in music because sometimes we can feel on the spot to perform things “right,” but in costume, things are more about fun and freedom than “rightness.” Also, some kids may feel more comfortable singing with a mask on. For example, I have a friend who was back stage at a Bob Dylan concert, and before the show, Bob – a very famous singer, in case you don’t know him- was walking around with a paper bag on his head, singing. Performing can be nerve wracking, especially in his case as he was playing for thousands of people. In the spirit of feeling comfortable and HAVING FUN!!!, please feel free to bring costumes that you can play music or sing in.
Click this link to see an example of what we might do in class:
Www.lydiagarrison.live/northern-lights-music
Your teachers:
Lydia is a Northern Lights parent and an Ithaca musician, born and raised. You can read more about her on her website: lydiagarrison.live
Lydia learned music by ear and can’t really read music, though she’s learned a bit about it in college, and is trying to brush up on it again.
Lydia plays fiddle, banjo, guitar, scrubboard, triangle, writes songs and sings. She grew up playing Old Time music and Cajun, and started writing songs as a 14 year old. Now her original songs make up the majority of her performances.
Richard Gregory-Allen is a lifelong musician from Dallas, TX and now Boston, MA. He’s played violin, viola, piano, guitar and mandolin in his life, and aspires to do more singing. He’s played classical music, New England Contra Dance music (a little Irish, Quebecois, Scottish, Cape Breton, Old Time), and plays popular music you’d hear on the radio with a couple bands in Boston, MA. You may remember him from Northern Lights Camp, where he taught the class on converting an exercise bike into an electricity generator.
We are looking at Thursdays or Sundays the weeks of: 3/29, 4/19, 5/10, 5/17 – but perhaps based upon availability of interested participants.
