Hey Teach'! (Do you use the Digital Tradition?)

Subject: Hey Teach'!
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 25 Feb 97 - 03:03 PM

If any of you good folk out there are teachers (any grade) or librarians or other academic-type people, and have found the Digital Tradition Folk Song Database to be helpful in your work, we'd love to hear from you. Just a few lines telling who and what you are, and how the DT is of value to you.

(in advance) Thanx much!

Subject: RE: Hey Teach'!
From:
Date: 27 Feb 97 - 08:20 PM

Yikes! OK here goes it: My name is Marla Archer-Brinkmoeller. I have been a member of the Board of Directors of Manistee Universal FreeNet (MUFN) for the last couple of years. I, as are others I have recomemded DT to, have been impressed, to say the least, with the ammount of info in this data base. And if anyone can't find it in the database...all they have to do is post a message here, and there is almost always some one who will 'help them out,' as it were. Beyond that, I have found it not just 'user friendly' but, what perhaps amazes me most is it's appeal to school-aged, computer literate kids!!! In fact I am doing a 'show' kind of thing at a charter school here in Michigan in two weeks, and the plan is to gather the kid(grades 1 thru 50 around a PC and let them play the keyboard... and where else but.... DT's own Mudcat Cafe. So keep it clean, y'll & wave at Kiddies! Thanks, marla

Subject: RE: Hey Teach'!
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 27 Feb 97 - 09:55 PM

Thanx, Marla. The IRS likes some indication that we actually ARE educational. Your note counts!

Anyone else?

Subject: RE: Hey Teach'!
From:
Date: 08 Apr 03 - 12:13 AM

Wonder if we have had any more since then.

Subject: RE: Hey Teach'!
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 08 Apr 03 - 12:51 AM

This may not be exactly what you're looking for, but here goes:

My wife is a music teacher. While working on her master's degree, one of her assignments was to compare 3 versions of a song. I found several versions of "The Two Sisters" in DigiTrad and printed them out for her, notes and all. She chose 3 and developed a presentation around them for her masters class (all of whom were teachers but not necessarily music teachers). She said it was a great success. Anyway, she got her degree...

Subject: RE: Hey Teach'!
From: Hollowfox
Date: 08 Apr 03 - 09:39 AM

I am a librarian in the Youngstown (Ohio) public library system. The very first reference question that I answered through Internet use was filled by using the Digital Tradition. One of the hardest questions a librarian can get is a question regarding half-remembered poetry. Often the answer is a song, rather than a poem, and a quick look at the Digital Tradition has more than once saved me the trouble of slogging through the Poetry Index.

Subject: RE: Hey Teach'!
From: GUEST
Date: 08 Apr 03 - 09:44 AM

Surely the only reply to the title of this thread is: "Leave them kids alone!"?

Subject: RE: Hey Teach'!
From:
Date: 08 Apr 03 - 11:12 AM

Sorry, Guest. My opinion is that, we can't "let the kids alone".

I'm not a teacher, or anywhere in the teaching profession. However, I enjoy the folk music, having grown up with it.

Many of today's kids, and even their teachers have not. We need to be able to inoculate these generations in some "real" music, rather than pop ONLY. Not saying Pop is bad, but if people grow up thinking that is the ONLY kind of music worth listening to, well, they'll be sadder in the long run, and so will we.

Subject: RE: Hey Teach'!
From: GUEST
Date: 08 Apr 03 - 11:19 AM

I wasn't making a point, just an admittedly poor joke using the lyric of the Pink Floyd song.

(some days you have to explain everything you say....)

Subject: RE: Hey Teach'!
From:
Date: 08 Apr 03 - 11:26 AM

Sorry. Just didn't recognize the lyric snippet. You'll have to incorporate a "smiley" so we know it's a joke. Not always apparent, especially for old fogies like myself who couldn't tell a Pink Floyd lyric from a Pink Cadillac.

Subject: RE: Hey Teach'!
From:
Date: 08 Apr 03 - 11:26 AM

BTW, I also don't drive (reason for the Pink Cadillac)

Subject: RE: Hey Teach'!
From: Giac
Date: 08 Apr 03 - 12:41 PM

Like buttin' your head against a Wall, hmmmmm Guest?

Oh, yeah, uh :).

Subject: RE: Hey Teach'!
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 08 Apr 03 - 02:37 PM

...back to the topic, I use the DT all the time to research lyrics and the background to songs I use as an elementary music teacher. I prefer to use traditional songs rather than "songs composed for elementary music classroom" and the DT is a wonderful source.

I also give an annual assignment to the older children to invent their own musical instrument. Last year (and this year) I gave them a link to the Mudcat Kids and several of them came up with instruments inspired by 'Spaw and others!

Subject: RE: Hey Teach'!
From: Susan from California
Date: 08 Apr 03 - 10:53 PM

I teach 7th and 8th grade History. I use info gleaned all the time in my classes.

Subject: RE: Hey Teach'!
From: open mike
Date: 09 Apr 03 - 01:46 AM

I am on the board of directors of a folk music society.
We are a well-established organization and have been in
existance for over 20 years. I often find information on
the Mudcat to inform our members about performers, songs,
instruments, and the history of folk music. The goals of
the Mud Cat Cafe' coincide well with our purpose of
bringing music to people, and helping them to learn
about it. The collection of lyrics and songs is a valuable
resource, and the forum is comprised of people who are
a wealth of knowledge, and they are willing to share
what they know in a spirit of community, which is
rare these days. The Chat feature is an incredible
treasure and a wonderful cultural exchange as musical
people from all over the globe meet there regularly to
exchange ideas, review music and form international
friendship bonds. The Mudcat serves many needs.

Subject: RE: Hey Teach'!
From:
Date: 09 Apr 03 - 09:22 AM

Dear Dick--

I teach "College Composition" and "Application Software" as adjunct faculty at Three Rivers community College. I also "advise" the Student Performing Arts Guild. In these capacities, I have found the DT to be very useful in teaching internet research, musicology, and historical perspective. My students have used the DT for their own lyrics searches, and several of them have told me they continue to use it. I've also referred several of my friends and family to the resources of the DT, as well as several of my colleagues in education. Personally, I use it extensively for my own research on tunes and songs I hear, enjoy, or perform.

These things are always difficult to quantify, since teaching is, as they say, a profession that touches infinity, but the DT is definitely a significant educational resource, both in and out of the classroom.

With much gratitude to its creators and maintainers, I remain, faithfully,

Vicki Baker (aka Vixen)

Subject: RE: Hey Teach'!
From: Frankham
Date: 10 Apr 03 - 09:18 AM

Dick,

We use DT for classes that we teach (beginning folk) and our performances for school children through Young Audiences of Atlanta.
It's been a great educational help in our programs. Keep in growing.

Frank Hamilton

Subject: RE: Hey Teach'!
From:
Date: 09 Mar 04 - 03:43 PM

It's about that time of the year again, so I'd like to refresh this thread.

Subject: RE: Hey Teach'!
From: Cattail
Date: 09 Mar 04 - 04:14 PM

I hadn't played for 8-10 years, until one day I thought I'd have
another go, I went looking for the lyrics to a song and found the
tradition. Then I found the forum, and here I am now, loving my
music again and trying to improve myself with the help and
information I get from this site.

Without the tradition, and the forum I would not have found my way
back to music as I have, it is a unique place on the web.
I have spent a lot of time on the net in the past and there is just nowhere else like it.

Long may it continue.

Thank you to Max, Joe, Dick, Susan and others who keep it together, and of course all the great people who come here with their help,
chat and information.

This also reminds me that I MUST get some money to Max so that it
'can' continue, we can't expect others to put their money into this
while we just take out, can we?.

Cheers for now

Cattail !

Subject: RE: Hey Teach'!
From: vectis
Date: 09 Mar 04 - 05:51 PM

I live and teach in the UK and use the DT regularly for lyrics and song tunes. I have also used it to get non-musical ideas and information from other "Mudcat" teachers, including those from outside the UK.
Mary

Subject: RE: Hey Teach'!
From: Mrrzy
Date: 09 Mar 04 - 08:26 PM

I sang to my Intro to Psych classes, and used the 'Cat to check lyrics, of course. Also note thread title is from Up The Down Staircase, if you really want to be an old fogey...