The Great Elvis Sing Along

Posted by Jenny

It all began as a simple joke gift to David’s father, Charlie. We couldn’t resist the humor in giving the long-time Elvis fan a plug-and-play Karaoke set complete with a sing-along DVD of Elvis’ Christmas hits. It became an even bigger hit with our nieces after Christmas as they sang their little hearts out to Blue Christmas.

Cinnamon Apple Sauce Christmas Ornaments

Posted by Jenny

Remember I told you about making ornaments from cinnamon and apple sauce? Well, I spent Christmas Eve day relaxing by making a few of my own!

The Barnes Bluegrass Christmas Party: Bizzarro Edition

Posted by Jenny

It’s an annual tradition dating back to the time I was in middle school and, though the crowd of musicians has changed over time, it has always been the highlight of my holiday season, filled with fond memories: The Barnes Bluegrass Christmas Party.

This year included the attack of the Bizzarro Glasses courtesy of Archie McPhee. They were a joke gift to our family members last Christmas and my mom has used them all year to play jokes on all of her doctors, physical therapists, favorite waitresses and cashiers. Now was the time to trick all of her friends!

As each couple arrived for the party, she greeted them at the door wearing her beautiful optical wear. Results ranged from blushes of embarrassment to shouts of “Oh, my goodness!” Needless to say, she got the reaction she hoped for. The goal from that point on was to convince as many friends as possible to wear the hideous things. It was a happy evening!

The Malpass Brothers live at R.A. Fountain

Posted by Jenny
We had the delight of experiencing the Malpass Brothers live at R. A. Fountain. Things almost got out of hand when the brothers sang “If you’ve got the money, honey, I’ve got the time.” An older woman from the audience ran up to them waving dollar bills and stuffing them into their beautifully embroidered western shirts. Needless to say, it was a fun and eventful evening!

While we were at R.A. Fountain, a book caught our friend Libby’s attention and I got a chuckle out of watching Libby reading a book written about someone named Zibby. I couldn’t resist, so here’s a photo.

On a side note, he probably won’t remember, but Chris Malpass and I were in the same banjo class at our local community college when I was 14 or so and he was 11 or so. On the first day of class I got in trouble; someone from admissions came to class to ask me to leave because I was too young to be enrolled. My mom, feisty as she is, put up a fight; “I paid the money, she isn’t disrupting anything, and there’s a boy over there younger than my daughter.” Apparently the Malpass family had the foresight to register Chris under his father’s name because their situation was more easily overlooked. Exasperated, the woman looked at me and asked how old I was. I don’t like to lie and am sometimes naïve, so I said, “I’m 14.” “No, honey, how old are you? I finally caught her drift and shifted my feet nervously. Sighing, she scribbled something on my admissions form and said as she turned to walk out the door, “If anyone asks, you were born in 1978.”

Moonlighting… or more aptly, Noonlighting

Posted by Jenny

Just as I’ve begun to feel that I’ve stretched myself much too thin, a busy fall semester has come to a close just in time for a much-needed and quite longed-for Christmas vacation. What’s been keeping me so busy this fall? I am happily enrolled in the Suzuki Pedagogy Graduate Certificate program in the School of Music, which trains violinists to be violin teachers in the Suzuki Method.

This style of teaching focuses on starting young (as early as age 3), learning by ear before learning to read music (using our innate learning skills known as the “mother tongue” method), and creating a positive environment in which the parent, student, and teacher are all equally important in order for the young musician to blossom. It’s also the method by which I began studying violin with Joanne Melvin when I was 8 years old.

It’s been a great semester; I’ve met wonderfully kind and wonderfully talented new people, I’ve had the delight of learning from Joanne Bath, who is one of the first few teachers using the Suzuki Method in the United States, and it’s given me a welcome respite from the worries of the current economic climate. Classes are held twice a week so I’ve been going during my lunch break, hence the “noonlighting”. I am also now a member of the Suzuki Association of the Americas- complete with membership card!

I soon learned of an opportunity to teach violin on a volunteer basis barely a hop and a skip away from my office. A program for pre-kindergarten children at a nearby elementary school allows ECU students the opportunity to practice their teaching skills while providing free violin lessons to 3 and 4 year olds three days a week. So there went the lunch breaks for my other 3 days. But it has been worth it. I’ve learned what it’s like to work with 3 and 4 year olds, and they’ve learned a lot about violin and showed tremendous progress since they began.

Working with other ECU students, we split the class into three smaller groups so there were fewer children per teacher. I have been working with four delightful little girls. At first, I had a bit of trouble with one little girl. Often I would try to show her how to do something and she would jerk away and say, “Let me do it.” After much thought, I realized that she’s just a very independent girl and wants to do things on her own. Realizing this, I changed things up and said, “let me help you one time, and then you can do it by yourself,” or in activities where we would clap hands, and I would want to help her clap by clapping her hands, I would let her clap my hands (as long as she was doing it correctly) so she felt that she had a little more control. That minor adjustment has made a world of difference and we now work much better together; at times she will even say, “You can help me.”

We Suzuki student teachers got quite a treat one day. During the time normally scheduled for violin lessons, the children performed a nursery rhyme play for their family, schoolmates, and other teachers. It was fun watching the children dress up and act out the various nursery rhymes which they had rehearsed so thoroughly, such as Little Miss Muffett, This Little Piggy, and Hey Diddle, Diddle. Since it was an open event and people were taking photos, I took a few myself. You can see a snapshot of them performing the Itsy Bitsy Spider below. They did a great job and I was quite proud of them.

As if all of this wasn’t enough to keep me busy this semester, I decided to play with the choir at St. Mary’s for the Christmas Eve mass. The pieces we will play are all quite beautiful and it has been a wonderful exercise for getting back into the practice of reading music, given as I have played primarily by ear for the last several years.

As a side note, I learned from the Pre-K teachers that you can make aromatic Christmas ornaments from dough composed of equal parts of cinnamon and apple sauce. Simply mix it, roll it flat, and cut into shapes with cookie cutters. Be sure to cut a little hole for a string or ribbon and let the shapes dry out. They’ll stay hard for years and smell of cinnamon. I bought the materials last night and plan to try that project sometime during my break.

My vacation officially starts now, and I plan to keep busy with relaxing, visiting with family and friends, and trying out new projects like those cinnamon-apple sauce ornaments.

We wish you the Merriest of Christmases and the Happiest of New Years!

God bless us, every one!

III Century Singers Christmas Concert

Posted by Jenny

We had the good fortune of attending the III Century Singers concert again this year, this time at the First Baptist Church in Mt. Olive. The pieces were beautiful and for the first half of the performance, the group was accompanied by a string quartet. The harmonious voices of the singers combined with the acoustics of the church sanctuary created a phenomenal sound. It was such a full and round sound, that when I tried to put into words what I was hearing, all I could come up with was the mental image of a giant golden sphere hovering in the air above me, shining brightly. You could say what I envisioned was much like Harry Potter’s golden snitch, without the wings and not remotely so frantic.

Dancing by Starlight

Posted by Jenny

He was dressed in a sophisticated black suit and a blue shirt, wearing the tie she gave him for Christmas last year. She was wearing a beautiful new blue dress and the lovely sapphire jewelry he gave her a few Christmases ago. The handsome young gentleman escorted his loving wife to the dance floor, and together they swayed with the music.

Then he twirled her under his arm. Her golden hair caught on the buttons of his jacket sleeve. She followed through, hoping to come disentangled, but it was not to be. Wondering why she was not standing upright, the dashing young man felt a tug at his sleeve and, seeing his young wife bent over connected at his arm, he untangled her hair from his buttons quickly as possible, which naturally must have felt like an eternity to the young couple in the midst of a dance floor beneath the sparkling glitter ball.

They regained their composure and finished the rest of the song, but as it ended and they retreated red-faced to their seats to sit out the next song, an elderly gentleman pointed to them and said, “That’s what happens when you try to get fancy!”

Other than that little episode, we had a wonderful time at the Starlight Christmas Dance. We especially appreciated the local businesses who donated decorations, food and beverages for the evening. Thanks to: Excel Linde, Uncle Yammy’s Rib Shack, Pepsi Co., Wilbur’s Barbecue, and all the other sponsors for making the evening delightful- and delicious!