|
|
Okee Dokee Brothers Connect with Children through Music Just before 4 p.m. on Wednesday at St. Joseph’s Home for Children, silence fills the halls as calm settles throughout the building.
Suddenly, a guitar and banjo begin playing loudly in the chapel. Children clap, giggle and sing at the top of their lungs with the Okee Dokee Brothers, a musical group that plays at St. Joe’s every Wednesday.
They call it choir practice.
“We love it,” says Joe Mailander, who plays guitar in the band. Justin Lansing plays banjo. “It’s about connecting with the kids. We get a lot of satisfaction out of that.”
The Okee Dokee Brothers are part of The Medicinal Strings Foundation, a nationwide nonprofit that plays music for underserved communities. Lansing and Mailander have known each other since they were 3 years old, and have played music together since high school.
They started playing regularly at St. Joe’s in July 2008, and the duo made a special appearance at St. Joe’s 140th anniversary celebration last month.
They play anything from “old folk stuff, to Bob Marley or The Beatles, to Woody Guthrie,” Mailander says.
“One of my big things is to let the kids feel comfortable enough to let down their cool, outer shell so they can be a bit goofy,” he says.
The audience, which ranges in size from five to 20 people, becomes part of the performance because the band takes requests and invites children to play drums, tambourines, maracas and triangles.
“They really do get into that quite a bit,” Lansing says.
The experience also teaches children about music and instruments. During one session, Mailander explained how to use a capo, a device that clamps onto the neck of a guitar and raises the pitch.
Though they try to incorporate as much education and participation as possible, Mailander and Lansing say they get the most satisfaction from every child leaving the performance in a better mood than when they came in.
“That feeling totally makes it worth it for us,” Mailander says.Read more recent news.Volunteer with Catholic Charities. |
