Teaching WOTFA Camp 2024

In some ways it was a harkening back to our own teenage years, watching a group of teenagers as they exchanged instruments, laughed and talked together while discussing the merits of fiddle music vs. bluegrass music. The week we spent as instructors at the Washington Old Time Fiddlers Association Camp this summer was a refreshing reminder to us that there are still kids interested in playing music. We met kids whose older siblings we taught at our house 15 plus years ago- the family tradition goes on for these kids, still picking up new instruments and tunes all these years later. Seeing fiddle players taking pointers from bass players on where to place their fingers for a 3-chord song, watching seasoned guitar players help out 12-year-olds in classes, laughing along with hastily assembled bands during the band scramble as they attempt to pull off instrument switches and crowd participation - people that are there to have fun and aren’t afraid to laugh at themselves and with each other while they do it!

The past few years we’ve been living, teaching and playing music in Central Texas. When we moved here 9 years ago, we imagined that the area was ripe for our style of music. “Texas=fiddle music, country music, bluegrass and acoustic music” we reasoned. After running a music school here for 8 of those years, we realized that in fact very little of that is true. Families earning 6 figures and (much) more are primarily interested in their kids playing in school band, on winning sports teams, and running themselves ragged to cram every possible activity into 12 years of academia. Kids we meet here are overscheduled, overstimulated, and scattered between far too many extracurriculars. “Trying” an instrument for 6 months of fun is common, but it’s been endlessly surprising how many students take lessons for as long as 3+ years, and then put down the instrument completely. Time and again, we just get a student past the “beginner stage” only to have them quit for sports, gymnastics, or middle school. And probably our greatest surprise was that no one even knew what fiddle was, never mind seeking it out. I mean, we know the song “If You’re Gonna Play in Texas, You Gotta Have a Fiddle in the Band”, but apparently it’s not as popular in Texas!

Observing these kids at camp, many from rural areas and plenty- although not all-homeschooled, we remembered that hunger that we felt for music as teens. The eagerness to learn a new chord shape, the excitement to show our friends a new tune we’ve learned. Each contest or festival where we met up was another chance to try out some improv in a jam session, learn a new lick from someone, maybe get a chance to play a name brand instrument that someone just bought and wants to show off!

Inspiration struck us and got us fired up again, because we had forgotten a little. Being stuck in one place, one scene, one area and groove is never good for the artistic types among us. You have to get out there and see how other people are doing things to remind yourself that there isn’t just one way. It’s easy to get a little discouraged if you don’t see the kinds of movement or progress that you hope for in your circle. But it’s usually happening somewhere and getting a chance to watch it happen can invigorate your own efforts, like it did for us!

Now let’s play some music!

-Deanna and Andrew

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