Strumming New Guitars in Tar River, North Carolina

Last year Give A Note Foundation presented a grant to Tar River Elementary School in Tar River, North Carolina. Music educator Angela Mangum shared the impact of that grant with us recently.

How has the Give a Note grant
made an impact on your program?

“Having the [Music In Our Schools] Tour come to Tar River was like a fairy-tale ending, a dream come true!” shared Mrs. Mangum when her school received the grant. “The children will follow up with hands-on music-making activities with new instruments for the classroom, including xylophones, guitars, and drums!”

All 3rd- to 5th-grade classes are now working on the new classical guitars. The instruments sound wonderful! They are learning to use fingers 1, 2, and 3 on strings 1, 2, and 3 in frets 1, 2, and 3. They added in picks last December—they really loved that! When they learned how to finger the easy G chord and C chord, they felt like rock stars!

My 3rd grade club had SO much fun this past December. They selected “Sweet Home Alabama,” and half of the class played the G chords, half played the C chords, and my superstar Gaige played all the full chords plus the D Major chords. They sang the chorus over and over, while strumming the bottom three strings. It was definitely a “Life is Good” experience.

In this video from our Winter Concert the PreK “Twinkle, Twinkle” was a big hit. They performed the song twice—once singing and once doing a “Musical Interpretation.” You can see two of our new xylophones being played in the video.

The “Christmas Hallelujah” is also a big favorite of our community.

You all have done a wonderful thing for our school community!

Angela Mangum is the music educator at Tar River Elementary School in Tar River, North Carolina.