A Folk Music Lesson

Students in Dale Stuckenbruck’s class are taking a deep dive about the history of American Folk Music by exploring and experiencing the music of ethnic-immigrant communities as well as native ethnic communities.

Often, American Folk Music is narrowly identified as being “country music” and “bluegrass” music, but it is actually is broader and is rooted as an assimilation of numerous ethnic folk traditions. Students are learning about ethnic cultures that include Jewish-American klezmer music, Native-American music, Hawaiian-American music, Franco-American music, and Scandinavian-American music. In class, they are identifying the musical traits, instruments, and techniques used in these cultures for enabling their own compositions.

Recently, students submitted beautiful compositions of lullabies in a Native American style after seeing a demonstration of a Native American flute (pictured) and other instruments. Listen to Student Kevin Woska’s Native American Lullaby.