Ashland Girls Find Their Voices
Tuesday, December 01, 2009
Kerissa Fuccillo started playing the guitar at age 13 and, like most of us, was insecure about her voice. It wasn’t until age 18 that she really started teaching herself how to sing and learned that there are so many amazing musicians with such different and unique voices. Five years ago, Kerissa started an amazing thing called 'Guitar Circle,' which came out of an internship she ran through the Wilderness Charter School. “I wanted to create a space for young women to discover their passion for music, and to get past the fear,” says Kerissa. It’s a huge journey finding your voice, being okay with it and finally sharing it with the world. Guitar circle is relaxing, tea and cookies are set out and every circle starts with a check-in. “It’s nice to just have time to sit down and play music with friends,” says Mariah Best, a senior at AHS. After check-in you warm up with a song or two, then usually learn a new one. Sometimes musical theory is a part of the two-hour session, and sometimes it isn’t. “I never thought I could learn music so quickly, but we’ve already learned so many songs in such a short amount of time,” says Alex Contrufello, a current student at the Wilderness Charter School. The songs that Kerissa teaches her students aren’t the ones you would hear everyday on the radio. There are the classic old songs by Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Johnny cash, etc; folk-y songs that to perform just right you have to get into a “drunken-pirate” kind of mood; and contemporary “Indie”/ singer-songwriter genre songs. As the girls advance, they begin writing their own songs. Performing is scary at first for the girls. You’re up there in front of everyone, all eyes are on you and all ears are wide open, listening for the tiniest mistakes -- or so one would think. But the truth is, they’re not listening for the mistakes; they’re just enjoying the music. Everyone is very supportive, and there is no negativity. Getting over the fear of performing is a huge part of guitar circle. About singing Kerissa says, “It’s a powerful thing to sing with people or by yourself. When you show others that you’re not afraid to use your voice, you give then permission to do the same.” There’s no need to be insecure about your voice, as everyone’s got one, no matter how deeply hidden inside of you it is. And the world would love to hear it, because everyone enjoys music in all its shapes and forms.
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