You can make a song about anything
By Bob Robinson

GREENVILLE – “Never wipe your nose on your mom… or your teacher!”

The song was in Bluegrass style… the words written to please an audience of eight and nine-year-olds. It did. “Use a napkin not your mom” was a hit, as was “Pan American Boogie” and others.

“Wild Carrot” had the third graders at Greenville’s East School moving and clapping from the first song to the last.

The husband and wife team of Wild Carrot (Pam Temple and Spencer Funk) were the first of Darke County Center for the Arts’ “Arts in Education” series. They performed for first, second and third graders throughout the county Sept. 16 through Sept. 20. Their performance at East was Sept. 17 and they were part of DCCA’s Coffee House series Sept. 19.

According to DCCA Artistic Director Keith Rawlins, the great thing about Arts in Education is kids don’t realize they’re being educated because they’re having too much fun.

“I call it ‘stealth education’,” he said. With Wild Carrot kids are being introduced to various types of musical instruments, their originations and the kinds of music that form America’s heritage. They think they are having fun. They don’t stop to think they are also being educated.

Funk said their performances are tied into the curriculum as they discuss history, geography music and more…

“The guitar was invented over 450 years ago in the continent of Europe,” Temple told the kids… “Say ‘continent of Europe’!”

“Continent of Europe!”

Next they introduced the concertina… “Say ‘concertina’!” It also came from Europe and predates the accordion.

“Sound is made by… ?”

“Vibration!”

“Right! Vibration! The concertina has 48 reeds in it that vibrate to create sound… they need air movement to do this, so the air is moved by the bellows.”

The performers told the kids that music can communicate without words, then performed a two-part medley. They called the first part “sad.” It had a slow tempo. The second part was happy… happy and upbeat.

“The first part was how the settlers felt when they first left the homeland to come to the new world. The second part was how they felt after they had settled in and knew everything was going to be okay.”

Among the other instruments Wild Carrot introduced were the mandolin, also from Europe, and the banjo… from Africa.

“They didn’t actually bring the banjo from Africa,” Funk said. “The idea, the knowledge how to make it came from Africa.”

Only one instrument had its origin in North America. The Appalachian Dulcimer (also known as the lap dulcimer).

“What did they have a lot of in Appalachia? Wood! They made the dulcimer from the wood that was plentiful.”

The team then taught them to look for patterns in music like rhyming words… torn and born, west and vest, pie and tie. They told the kids to look for words that rhyme when writing a song.

“You can make a song about anything,” Temple said. “Try that sometime.”

Temple and Funk have been performing for 18 years. They’ve been married for 17.

“We’re lucky,” Temple said just prior to the performance. “We get to work together. The other side of that, of course, is we have to work together!”

She laughed. “Not really. It’s great… and we both love teaching kids about music.”

Published courtesy of The Early Bird