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DEH CHO
A program offered by the Kole Crook Fiddle Association is helping young fiddlers progress in the Deh Cho.

Students at Charles Tetcho School in Trout Lake including, from left, Adam Lamalice, Kaechoa Rocque-Jumbo and Madison Jumbo work to improve theirfiddling. - photo courtesy of David Madde

Fiddle instructors Helen Edgar and J.J. Guy spent last week in Trout Lake and Fort Simpson introducing the fiddle to new players and building on the skills that some students have already gained. The fiddling workshops were part of the association's annual teachers' tours.

The association sends fiddle instructors on tours approximately four times a year, in September, November, January and in the spring, to communities in the NWT where the association has established a presence, said Edgar. The tours are an opportunity to review and refresh the songs students already know how to play and to teach them new ones. Many of the young fiddlers get excited when they find out instructors have arrived.

"I think that it's fun that they come here and teach us," said Katrina Deneron.

Deneron, 14, has been playing the fiddle for two or three years in Trout Lake. She has attended the fiddle jamborees the association holds in Fort Simpson, but said she prefers when instructors come to her community. That way they can teach everyone instead of just the children who can go to the jamboree, she said.

Between Nov. 26 and 27, Deneron and the other Trout Lake students who already have some fiddling experience learned the carols Joy to the World and Jolly Old St. Nicholas for their Christmas concert. They also reviewed some of the songs they'd learned previously.

"I love playing the fiddle," said Deneron, who has her own instrument and practises at home.

Jada Lamalice, 9, said she also enjoys when fiddle instructors come to Trout Lake.

"I like when they teach us new songs," she said.

Having played for approximately three years, Lamalice said her goal is to be able to play the fiddle really well.

Guy, from Saskatchewan, said the students in Trout Lake were eager to learn. Some of them could hardly contain themselves, he said.

You can definitely see the students making progress during the tour stops, even though they are short, he said. After having a lesson, some students go home and practise even more before returning the next day for another lesson.

In Fort Simpson between Nov. 28 to 30 the number of students Guy and Edgar taught kept rising as young musicians found out they were in the village. On Nov. 29, the two instructors began teaching at 9 a.m. and worked straight through the school day, seeing approximately 35 fiddlers.

Edgar, from New Brunswick, has been coming to teach in the NWT since the Kole Crook Fiddle Association was formed. She said she enjoys seeing the progress the students have made, including students she first taught at age 6 or 7 who are now in high school.

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