JAM sessions fill music students with Southern pride

The Junior Appalachian Music program shows North Carolina students how to pick up instruments and strum old-time favorites.

from the June 21, 2007 edition

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The program's appeal for students was apparent during a recent JAM session at Sparta Elementary. There fiddle players filled a hallway, a classroom of guitarists strummed in unison, and a group of upper-level students in a room full of Spanish vocabulary posters swapped stories about how they'd been invited on stage to play with local bands during recent performances.

"I didn't know you were sitting in with other bands!" exclaims string band instructor Tammy Sawyer.

Ms. Sawyer feels this type of community recognition is especially important for the students she works with. "A lot of these kids are at risk," she says, "and JAM really gives them a chance to get the positive attention they need. It also helps them connect to a continued culture that they're part of. Some of them are finding out there are musicians in their family they didn't even know about."

Fifth-grade language arts teacher Roxanne Edwards has noticed increased confidence in her students who participate in JAM.

"This region's culture and accent has a stigma attached to it of not being educated," she says, "but students connect this music to the region's culture, and they see how difficult it is to play and it boosts their self-image. It shows them that it's not shameful to be from the South or to have an accent or to play old-time and bluegrass music. When they go to concerts and competitions, they see people from all over the world that value southern Appalachian music and that makes them value it, too."

James Hall is a JAM student who might never have picked up an instrument had it not been for the program. Now he's a nimble-fingered mandolin player. During a recent JAM session, the seventh-grader listened intently as instructor Stanley Widener played a traditional tune called "Leather Britches."

After the song ended, James asked the instructor if he could identify a song he'd been practicing for fun. He started in and then paused for Mr. Widener's response. "Did you learn that by ear?" the instructor asked, incredulously.

"Yeah," James answered nonchalantly. "Sometimes I try to teach myself other little things I hear. I just don't always know what they're called. I picked that tune up some place and just kept it in my head."

Widener's face broke into smile. Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" may not be a traditional Appalachian song, but the sentiment seemed fitting. James had not only learned how to joyfully play an instrument, he also had learned how to listen.

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