Summer program teaches youngsters how to fiddle

A row of fiddlers lined the front of the Central Junior High School orchestra room, all trying desparately to hold on to the notes in their heads. Two boys, one of them barefoot, coolly held the necks of bass fiddles taller than they are, and a lone girl carrying an accoustic guitar stood next to the teacher, also with a guitar in hand as he counts out the next measure.

"D-G-A-D, 1, 2, 3, 4, starting at 9, ready, go!" said Central Junior High School orchestra leader Steve Schaffner as 15 adolescent musicians picked up in the ninth bar of the bluegrass song "Bile 'em Cabbage Down."

On Thursday, these students sacrificed another morning of sleeping in by gathering at the school for the fourth day of the weeklong River City Fiddle Camp. The seventh- through 10th-graders, all members of the school orchestra, were preparing for a concert tonight at the Mississippi riverfront in Cape Girardeau. They will perform five songs, and some students will sing solos for three of them.

Schaffner said the students were willing to give up two hours every morning this week to attend the camp just because they enjoy the music.

"It's mostly been a week to get together and jam and do it for fun in a really informal setting," Schaffner said. "The concert is just to show the parents what we've been working on all week."

Sylvia Christy, 14, said she came to fiddle camp mostly because she just loves to play. She said she is looking forward to the concert but is also a little nervous.

"I sort of like performing and sort of don't," Christy said. "I like it because I'm performing with a group of friends, but sort of not because of stage fright."

Kyle Gilhaus, 15, said he thinks all concerts are fun, but he has had plenty of time to get used to performing since he began playing the fiddle at age 6. Gilhaus said he learned to play fiddle at the insistence of his grandfather, a local musician who also taught Schaffner to play.

"He said, 'You're going to play fiddle, and you're going to like it!'" Kyle said.

Actually, it didn't take long before he loved it, Kyle said, and now he plans to become a music teacher someday.

However, 13-year-olds Zach Reeves and Raymond Woldtvedt are starting their music careers right away. They said they've used their experience on the bass to start their own rock band, and have performed at their church and in a school talent show last December. Both began playing bass with the school orchestra when they started seventh grade last fall.

Reeves said he doesn't know which instrument he likes better, the bass fiddle or bass guitar.

"With guitar it's just sideways, but I guess it's easier to play because it's smaller, and you don't play with a bow," he said.

wmcferron@semissourian.com

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Want to go?

What: River City Fiddle Camp concert

When: 6:30 p.m. today (June 10)

Where: Mississippi Riverfront, go to river entrance near Port Cape, turn right and walk about 100 yards.