Discuss with the board the traditional and cultural music in your home community.

[Meredith Pizzi]

[Christine Czuhajewski]

I am half Filipino and growing up only had strong ties with my Filipino family. I was raised in a household with my immediate family, grandparents and several aunts and uncles. Distant relatives are also very important in Filipino culture, so we were constantly visiting other large households or having large gatherings at our house. Many of the early childhood songs that I was exposed to were in Tagalog and were short easy melodies, similar to the ones used in America. However, the content of the songs were sometimes a little bit bizarre and frequently more designed to teach respect, obedience, or skills. For example, there was a specific song about policemen and ways to respect the law. My Grandfather would sing it every single time we saw a police car. We also had our own version of songs that teach body parts, but they were not in English. One of my first memories was getting introduced to my first keyboard by an aunt who had just immigrated from the Philippines. She was a “music teacher” in the Philippines, but all this meant was that she could carry a tune and she had absolutely no formal musical training. So she spent time teaching me how to plunk out songs on the keyboard that stemmed from her exposure to American culture. Her region of the Philippines was a few decades behind America at that point, so we sang and played a lot of old American musicals. Part of our cultural music also involved traditional Filipino dances that we had to learn and perform in groups for cultural festivals. My least favorite aspect about the cultural music of my home community was (and still is) Filipino Karaoke. Growing up, I was not exposed to traditional American early childhood songs until my mom made me watch the one kid program she had on VHS.

[Amanda Braden]

I currently work and live in Valparaiso, IN where a large number of people identify themselves as Christian and actively attend church. So, traditional and contemporary Christian music is somewhat prevalent in the community. There are a number of Greek families in the area, and I currently have a client who enjoys sharing Greek songs with me from his culture from time to time in sessions. There are two local radio stations – one is a Christian music station and the other is affiliated with Valparaiso University on which the music is often rock, alternative, or independent. Many people I know in the community also enjoy country music as well as pop music. Much of the music I hear at local events is country music, contemporary Christian music, or covers of popular songs from the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s. The city also has an opera house that often puts on Broadway musicals. Other local venues often host country, folk, and rock musicians.

[Kayla Lyles]

I am lucky enough to be back working in the area where I grew up. Growing up, my town was predominantly Caucasian (I’m African American – to provide some context), but now we have a larger Hispanic population and families from other cultural backgrounds which is really great to see. Now more and more, we are seeing festivals which are celebrating their heritage and culture, so of course that involves music from their culture. Of course, when broken down, everyone’s musical taste is different, but as a whole, if you were to attend local events in the community you’d hear mostly country music and classic rock. Classical and church music also has its place as well, as we have numerous churches from various denominations in the community and local chorales and orchestras.

[Jacquelyn Blankinship]

This is a harder one for me since I don’t really have a “home” community due to moving around so much throughout my life. Right now, I’m located in Western North Carolina so this area is heavy with Appalachian culture as well as being located in the Bible Belt. I think those two things are probably the most influential things to consider. That typically means that hymns (a good majority of the time, from the Baptist tradition) and bluegrass are pretty important here.

That being said, with relocation to Atlanta coming up for me in about 5 weeks, I’ll be moving to a much more diverse community – something that I am pretty excited about. The community there will have a tremendous increase in ethnic and racial diversity from where I am currently, and I look forward to finding out more about what that means regarding music.

[Michelle Russell]

I live in the town of West Hartford,Connecticut. I live in a predominantly Caucasian area. Although we are next to an urban setting that is much more diversified, I live and work in the same town. I am honestly not sure what the traditional or cultural music of my community is. If I were to talk about the city of Hartford there are some very strong cultural influences from Jamaica and the West Indies, Puerto Rico and Latin America.

I seem to be at a loss for looking into my own community. I can tell you that among parents in this town there is a strong importance placed on music in the public schools! The town has amazing music programs that are nationally recognized and supported by the taxpayers over and over again. The schools are full of choirs, orchestras, bands and jazz bands. As I think about it, they are mostly rooted in western music tradition. I guess there is an expectation that the young children I work with will some day follow in this style of music education.

This is a question I am going to have to think a lot more about.

[Milijana Majstorovic Kozul]

As a little girl who lived in Yugoslavia (now it is EX or former Yugoslavia), we, all nationalities, used to sing pretty much similar songs during the preschool and school period, and also in older period, as we spoke pretty much with the same language, but after the civil war (1992 – 1995) the situation changed. Yugoslavia has split in many different separate, countries (Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, and Montenegro) so more of the “mutual” songs of my generation or community, which used to be “our” songs, was replaced with “new” songs, but that is another story. Today, after all these years, most of us have some kind of nostalgia when we try to recall those years before the war. As time goes by I can say that I was more Rock n roll kind of person so my musical taste as well as my community develops in that way. Today I am happy that even that we are still living separately I can travel across the all ex Yugoslavia and again explore and enjoy in every tradition and community 🙂 listening and singing, old songs again.

[Darcy Lipscomb]

I grew up in the eastern panhandle of West Virginia. In terms of active music making, there were bluegrass jams and folk groups. People would also come together to line dance. While everyone’s taste is individualized, when it comes to listening to music, a lot of folks where I grew up enjoyed country music and some classic rock.

[Jaycie Voorhees]

Growing up in Utah means I have been surrounded (and part of) a community of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. While many of our church hymns are similar to those of other religions and US culture in general, we do have many songs that are unique to our own hymn book and children’s songbook. Songs such as “Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree”, “Do As I’m Doing”, and “If You Chance to Meet a Frown” are popular songs from our Primary Children’s songbook with which many children in our community are familiar. I personally love these songs and work with many children who show very strong responses to them due to familiarity and exposure. It’s always tricky though to know whether they are appropriate in a group setting with children who may not have the same exposure simply because they belong to another faith. In any case, that music is a strong part of the LDS culture here in Utah.

[Katie Whipple]

So my hometown is deeply embedded in old Baptist hymns. At least in the nursing homes, assisted living facilities, etc. As a former Catholic, now Episcopal, I have had to learn a lot of old hymns that I was not familiar with! Songs like Old Rugged Cross, What a Friend We Have in Jesus and In the Garden are all songs that I have had to learn! For young kiddos I would say that traditional nursery songs are most popular here… the wheels on the bus, old mcdonald and twinkle twinkle for sure! A few months ago my two year old came home singing “my baby bumblebee” song… not sure of the title but it’s “I’m picking up my baby bumblebee…”. It took me a while to figure out what he was singing but the rhythm and the hand motion cued me more than his words.

I think it is interesting because even though each of us are from different places with different cultures and backgrounds, music is so much more accessible than it used to be. We aren’t restricted to just what is offered on the radio or even what they have in stock at the music store. I imagine that in years to come that cultural music will become wider and shared among more people. I would love to hear the “popcorn song” that Jaycie mentioned. That sounds fun! It is also interesting to hear from Milijana and how the musical culture of her former country has changed. It is a beautiful thing that the old music of her ex-country can be shared across each new nation and that music is a way to connect them again.

[Megan Dewing]

I grew up in the Southern Tier of New York, in a small town. The music I sang growing up was traditional nursery rhyme songs. My family has always gone to church, and my parents would listen to and sing hymns and praise songs around the house. Whenever I got together with my friends we would always be singing or playing music in some way. Although my family didn’t listen to it, country music was a big part of our towns culture, with a country band playing at every town event.

I enjoy learning about other’s cultural music and having them share it during sessions. I remember in college that I had a young boy from India in one of our practicum groups at school. He loved when we would bring in music from his culture, and enjoyed sharing it with the other children in the group. I have moved around a lot since working with this client, but seeing excitement from others sharing their music with me has been something I have enjoyed about working in different places.

[Anonymous]

What a pleasure to read each of your posts. Each Sprouting Melodies training, I learn so much about music around this country and some times around the world. Thank you all for sharing!

[Kristina Rio]

Like Erika said, it’s such a pleasure to learn from all of you during this process!

[Amanda Maestro-Scherer]

Like Christine, I am also half-Filipino, so grew up listening to a lot of Filipino children’s songs and rhymes, maybe some that are traditional, but some that I think my mom would make up, teaching body parts, or even to wake me up in the morning! I also grew up listening to a lot of folk music from the 60s and 70s and classical music, as those were my parent’s preferred music. Also, one of the big musical influences for me early on was a TV show in the 80s called Jem and the Holograms, about an all female musical rock group, that plays their own instruments, and writes their own songs. I thought that was the coolest thing ever, and tie that pretty strongly to me wanting to be a musician growing up. Early music is pretty influential! 🙂

[Mary Withington]

I live on the coast of eastern NC, so the music tradition here is Christian gospel, country, and southern rock. I know there is a Down East group that sings and teaches others about traditional sea chanteys and fishing songs. The children like traditional children’s songs like Eency Weency Spider, Twinkle little star, but they also like children’s church songs, like He’s Got the Whole World, and if I were a Butterfly, and Jesus loves me. Most of the children ages 2 through teens that I work with LOVE the Frozen soundtrack and the song Happy. The older adults like classic and old time country, gospel and fundamentalist hymns. I, too, am Episcopalian, and had to learn all of those traditional gospel hymns to do my job. ( no one, not even many Episcopalians know and can sing our hymns by heart! ) Beach music is still huge here, and shagging is still very popular. Most adults know and can sing the Beach music tunes ( My Girl, Under the Boardwalk, Carolina Girls). All the kids and teens I work with love Disney and dream works movie music. Thank goodness Hannah Montana is now passé. But they can all sing Wagon Wheel! I’ve worked with all ages from newborn to 100 year olds, in the south and in Minnesota, in schools, psych hospitals, and nursing homes and hospice, drug and alcohol rehab, so I’ve had to learn about so many different typss and genres of music. Personally, I greatly enjoyed the concert I went to 2 days ago with my teen nephews– Dirty heads, Offspring, Incubus and Panic at the disco, but that’s another story!

[Mary Withington]

I just want to add that when I did my internship in Minnesota in a nursing home, I had to learn all new music to reflect their culture and traditions. There, Jewish songs, German and Scandinavian songs, and Lutheran hymns were very important. Along with accordion and polka music! I had to learn how to polka, and was taught by an elderly man with Parkinson’s who couldn’t walk. But when polka music started, he could dance like a champ!

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