[HANASHIR:2896] Re: songleading without a guitar

[Judah Cohen <jcohen...>]

Joanna,

        Having grown up in the Conservative movement, I can remember in the
1980s that the guitar was still a foreign instrument for me to see within a
camp religious setting.  While good to have for secular songs, the guitar
was far from "standard."  It was not considered a part of *any* service
(Kodesh or chol), and thus was not missed when doing religiously affiliated
songs (or, for that matter, anything in Hebrew).
        I spent one summer at Ramah in the Berkshires (Wingdale, NY; 1984).
Almost all the singing we did (liturgically and paraliturgically) was
without accompaniment.  While I am no expert in this field, I might suggest
that the  Conservative Jewish children I was with had a completely
different cognitive sound map:  they saw guitar as an intrusion (more a
strangeness than anything else) into songs which could be supported well
enough with a voice.  Also, the Birkat HaMazon (always unaccompanied)
tended to take up a higher proportion of "singing" time in Conservative
camps than in Reform camps (the everyday version at Ramah when I was there
was about twice as long as the Reform version used in most UAHC camps
today), substantially affecting the overall shape and feel of song
sessions.  The Shabbat experience was thus less a question of learning to
imagine the guitar's accompaniment  and more a continuation of what we did
every day (i.e., sing without accompaniment).  The difference was that on
Shabbat we had the leisure to sing many more songs; and we did the
unabridged Birkat.  Whatever the case, I strongly suggest you see what you
can do to observe a Conservative Shabbat song session:  it has (or at least
had) a very different and special dynamic and energy.  Moreover, based on
my 1980s experience (which could well have changed substantially), most
children will not enter the camp feeling something is "missing" religiously
without a guitar.
        This said, one of the interesting things to take off within the
Ramah setting (at least in NY) appears to be unaccompanied vocal harmony
(i.e., a cappella groups).  My sister led the a cappella group at Ramah
Nyack this past summer, and I've heard of others coming up as well
(Pizmon's had quite an influence in this area).  Perhaps this might be your
entry point into bridging Shabbat and the rest of the week (after all, it's
both "cool" in this day and age as well as halachically correct).
        But again I mention that all this may be entirely obsolete.  If
this is the case, take it as nostalgia.

Be well.
Judah.

Judah Cohen
Music Department
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA  02138
jcohen (at) fas(dot)harvard(dot)edu
(617) 628-4783

"...I do not feel that my research suffered unduly from the fact that I
enjoyed it." -- Daniel Miller, "Modernity--an Ethnographic Approach" (p. 6)


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