Juno award-winning singer-songwriter Leela Gilday takes Bompas Elementary School students on a sing-a-long journey as part of Blues in the Schools, an international education program designed to promote blues music among aspiring student musicians and expose others to the beauty of singing and music. Grade 5 students Ava Erasmus, left, and Cassidy Barry, sing along with Gilday, while blues musician Rick Fines takes in the student-added backing vocals to the song. - Andrew Livingstone/NNSL photos

LIIDLII KUE/FORT SIMPSON
Leela Gilday's hand rises above her head before dipping below her knees and back up again. The voices of 20 students belting out notes in unison rise and fall with the movement of her hand, as they learn about the dynamics and intricacies of how to sing in tune.

For over an hour on March 26 students at Bompas Elementary School were exposed to the basics of singing, storytelling and guitar-playing as part of the first-ever visit by the Blues in the Schools music program.

The Juno award-winning Gilday was in Fort Simpson with Ontario-based blues musician Rick Fines last week as part of the program, offering workshops to aspiring musicians and students of all ages.

Folk on the Rocks and the Northern Arts and Cultural Centre brought the professional musicians to Fort Simpson for the first time in the seven-year history of the program being offered in the territory.

Fines has been coming North ever since the program was first introduced to the territory, while Gilday is in her fifth year. So far the duo has been to Hay River, Inuvik and a number of other communities, exposing students to music.

While Gilday and Fines talked about how they became professional musicians they both reiterated that music doesn't have to begin there. The message they shared was that whether it's playing guitar or piano or singing, it's something you can use to explore emotion through musical expression, professionally, or as a hobby in your spare time.

"Learning music in any way is great thing," Gilday told the students. "Music is a language, the more you practice the better you get."

Fines echoed this sentiment, adding music can provide a creative outlet for anyone who chooses to pursue it.

"It's about having something in our lives that we love," he said.

Being a professional musician is a difficult endeavour, said Gilday, and requires a lot of sacrifice that not everyone is willing to make.

"If you really love it, nothing can stop you from achieving your goals," she said. "We are born with a voice and we have a right to use it. Singing is about being a human being and we can use it to express ourselves."

Later that day, Fines was in the library of Thomas Simpson School, working with a small group of students on a number of chords, helping them to learn some basic blues scales. Later that afternoon he and Gilday worked with the high school music students, as they performed a version of the traditional blues song Swing Low, Sweet Chariot. Originally written by Wallis Willis, a Choctaw freedman, sometime before 1862 in Oklahoma. The song contains lyrics about the Underground Railroad, a movement to help black slaves escape the Southern U.S. for Canada.

For 17-year-old guitar player Kody Hardisty, the opportunity to learn from a talented bluesman like Fines has helped him grow as a musician. Hardisty first picked up the guitar six years ago after growing up around it as a child.

"My cousin influenced me," he said, adding he spent a lot of time at his house when he was younger. "It was my second home growing up, and he'd play guitar all the time."

Although mostly interested in playing rock and metal, Hardisty understands the influence the blues - which was pioneered in the Southern U.S. in the early 1900's before creeping up the Mississippi River to places like Chicago and Detroit - has played in shaping the music he loves.

"Music is a good way to express feelings and thoughts and we're learning it through the blues," he said.

Blues in the Schools is an international education program designed to promote blues music among aspiring student musicians.

Started in Chicago and Memphis schools to teach African-American students about the role blues has played in North American music, the program has now spread around the world.

"Part of why we go into schools is so they can get a first-hand experience of the power of music, they might not otherwise be getting," Gilday said.

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