Eric Lee demonstrates his strings techniques at Marblehead High School
 by Cliff Garber  ·  7 March 2008

On Tuesday March 4, Eric Lee, a member of the Celtic-inspired folk rock band, The Strangelings, conducted a workshop for string players at Marblehead High School. Eric is barely out of high school himself and his fiddle playing “defies the laws of gravity and thermodynamics” as he nearly sets his fiddle on fire. Eric was discovered playing his fiddle at a campsite at the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival this past summer. By that Saturday night, Eric was playing with The Strangelings on the mainstage, and has since become an official member of the band.

The workshop came about through the combined efforts of the me&thee coffeehouse’s Kathy Sands-Boehmer and Danielle Yeti, the strings music teacher at the high school. The coffeehouse has been exploring ways to reach out to the student community and make them aware of successful musicians who are part of their generation as well as exposing them to more established artists who regularly appear at the legendary coffeehouse on Mugford Street. Meanwhile, the music department at the high school has been searching for ways to show their students examples of young musicians in the real world who play the instruments the students are playing. Eric, who is all of 19, certainly qualifies on both scores. It wasn’t that long ago that Eric was in their shoes trying to master the fiddle and searching out various sounds and techniques.

Danielle’s class “ran the gamut” with Eric as he explained how he became interested in the fiddle and who his fiddle heroes are. The dozen or so students, a couple of seniors, a junior and the rest underclassmen, were also shown various bowing and fingering techniques they can use to bring out their music. “Play with passion,” Eric told them, “the sound matters, but so does the effort you put into the piece.” The group has just started to learn to play “Purple Haze,” so Eric and Danielle walked the students through their various parts individually (first violins, then violas, then cellos) and pointed out areas to emphasize. Then the whole group played the piece from start to finish. Jimi Hendrix himself would have been pleased with the results.

Eric managed to play it fairly straight for the class. He is saving his behind the head and behind the back playing for the show. Come see Eric and all The Strangelings at the me&thee on Friday, March 14. All interested students in the local schools are especially invited to attend the show at a discount — their tickets will be half price. For more information about that show, please visit http://www.meandthee.org.

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