NEGAUNEE - Music isn't just about being proficient on an instrument like the piano and performing on stage in front of an audience - It's about life.
"Now we talk about having a soundtrack of our lives, music that's playing in the background," Negaunee resident Walter Krahn said. "What I like a whole lot more is making the music."
In August, Krahn spent a week at the Augusta Heritage Center in West Virginia studying old-time Appalachian fiddling as the recipient of a Hiawatha Music Co-op scholarship.
The center hosts a summer's worth of workshops and activities promoting traditional music and arts. Besides focusing on old-time music, the week Krahn was at the center workshops were also held on vocal performance and traditional dance.
Like Christmas carols, traditional music is music that is passed down from generation to generation, usually by listening.
"There was no sheet music," Krahn said. "It was all by ear, which is a completely different way of dealing with music. ... Traditional forms of music were designed so the amateur can make something of it."
Although he took piano lessons as a child, Krahn said he became serious about playing fiddle and mandolin about 10 years ago after a camping trip.
"There were some students from Montreal. It was a communal fire pit. They had a guitar, recorders and they were playing and singing," he said.
Disappointed in not being able to participate in the music, Krahn decided to practice, focusing on traditional music.
"I've come to think of music as a participatory thing rather than the performer and the audience," he said. "Music, historically, has been participatory."
The week at the heritage center was organized around workshops in which visiting performers learn from and play with master musicians. Krahn said he typically spent mornings in a workshop with fiddler Matt Combs and playing in music jams throughout the afternoon.
"The place is crawling with musicians. Most of these musicians are very deliberately trying to carry on the tradition," Krahn said.
Even though the environment is open and encouraging at a music jam - where musicians sit and play together, trading songs and picking up new tunes - getting over the fear of making mistakes can take some work, Krahn said.
"You start sweating. Your fingers turn into sausages," Krahn said of his first experience playing at a local jam. "These people are just so supportive."
At the heritage center, Krahn said it isn't unusual to see groups of musicians sitting in random locations to play together. One day, Krahn sat down on the porch of one of the buildings to play his fiddle and was soon joined by one, then two, then a dozen others.
"It's an ensemble environment. It's not a competitive environment. It's not like playing racquetball. It's kind of like team juggling," he said. "You never knew what someone was going to start playing and if they were going to start dancing while they did it."
To learn new songs, musicians simply listen and try to follow along, picking up the most important notes first and then filling in in-between as they become more familiar with the material.
"It really is everyman's music. It was music you would hum or sing while doing dishes. It was a pastime," Krahn said of traditional music. "I hope to teach some of these tunes to local players.
One of the most important aspects of traditional music is the fact that anyone can do it, Krahn said.
"Music-making is part of who we are," he said. "The idea that a person can't make music or shouldn't make music is misguided. We aren't all going to be Eric Clapton, and if you can get over that, you're on your way."
For more information on the Augusta Heritage Center, visit www.augustaheritage.com. For more information on the Hiawatha Music Co-op scholarship to the center, email info@hiawathamusic.org.
Johanna Boyle can be reached at 906-486-4401. Her email address is jboyle@miningjournal.net.
