Roots and Traditions: A Musical Journey

My Students

Did you know that country music can trace its roots back to African American musical traditions? Just a hundred years ago, nearly half of the individuals playing the "Old Time" music that laid a foundation were African Americans. As a music teacher, I am concerned that this is no longer the case.

My school is located in a low-income neighborhood in an urban area and many of our students come from families of a lower socio-economic class.

As a result, few students at my school have access to musical instruments or other forms of art enrichment. With that said, our students have demonstrated a great interest in both learning and participating in the arts. Our school is a small school and as a result, we occasionally find ourselves short on resources. We had no instrumental music program until I was awarded several DonorsChoose grants last year. Students have responded extremely well to the presence of musical instruments. Not only have they performed for their school, but they have also ventured into the community to perform at a local nursing home. I am creating this project for students in my music appreciation class and in my music club. I want to teach these students about Old Time music; a style that uses banjos, fiddles, mandolins and guitars.

My Project

For this project, I have asked for two banjos and a mandolin. In my music class and club, I currently have violins, guitars and keyboards. In my after school club, I have been teaching several students Old Time tunes. They absolutely love this music because it has an upbeat drive and is quite accessible (easy to learn). My goal for this project is to teach students about the history of and how to perform traditional Old Time music. I want them to understand the connection African Americans have to this music. My impetus for designing this project came after a funny conversation with a student. After one of our "jam sessions" he informed me that he'd searched for a specific tune on YouTube. "All I could find were old white men playing it," he stated. That comment really made me think about the extent to which this form of music, which had once been shared between blacks and whites, had become segregated.

My project is important because it seeks to revive and preserve an aspect of African American culture that is no longer commonplace.

Today, there are very few African American strings bands and they are only popular among a small portion of music lovers. I want to teach my students about the traditional aspect of their music heritage. By equipping them with instruments, I can enrich their understanding of this music as they will actually have the ability to perform and truly know this music!