I trekked down to Wilmington for another day in the park, as they say. Now that I know the routine, I enjoy setting up and just playing with the kids. Supposedly it a performance/workshop but it ends up me playing with the neighborhood kids in the park, making connections – and that’s okay by me.
The open bag of instruments is always a good way to start. There are some kids who dive in, and others who need to be led. In fact, one girl with several other younger kids in a day care group didn’t want to do it, but I asked her to deal out some instruments to the younger kids in her group and that was the key to get her involved.
One boy really hit it off with me in the last half hour, hanging out and playing tambourine, boom whackers and rain stick. He was curious about the guitar so we did some strums. I encouraged him to sing into the mike, but was very shy, but we did My Girl and he ‘sang’ one of the parts. This is the workshop aspect of these sessions where there’s great communication and encouragement going on.
There were several photographers on hand to catch the kids dancing, playing maracas and ribbon shakers. And though it wasn’t a big show, the important interpersonal stuff got done and folks appreciated the session.
Again, worth the trip.