hasnt enrolled his six-month-old daughter in guitar lessons (yet), but it sounds as though she could be starting to crawl in the footsteps of her musician dad.
Laylas just got to the point now, where shes trying out her voice, shes trying all the different sounds she can make and experimenting with her instrument, says the frontman. Shes surrounded by music and instruments all the time and kind of yammers along to songs Ella Fitzgerald records especially. I hope that by the time shes in school, music programs will still exist if shes interested in pursuing that.
On Dec. 7, the n (MBCCF) will host Celebration 2012!, a concert at the Vogue Theatre to raise money for programs that Verreault hopes his daughter will be able to experience. The concerts lineup includes Verreault as a solo artist, as well as other notable local musicians including Chilliwack, Jim Byrnes, and The Harpoonist and The Axe Murderer.
Music education benefits the school, it benefits the parents, it benefits the community, says Elka Yarlow, MBCCFs executive director. These are critical skills. These are skills that, in the long term, help in job performance, help in other academic pursuits.
The money raised at the concert will help fund MBCCFs Adopt an Instrument, an initiative that provides instruments to schools, community centres and youth orchestras throughout the province.
We dont ever want to see a situation where a kid has a desire to play an instrument, but is denied because they cant afford it, Yarlow says. That is what our commitment is: to make the school music program sustainable, to promote the importance and value of music education.
MBCCF also has the Songwriters of a New Generation (SONG) program, which teaches at-risk youth about the benefits of songwriting as healthy and accessible form of self-expression. The foundation brings artists and industry professionals to public schools and community centres in the Lower Mainland to teach youth about the different aspects of creating a song.
Verreault is one of the artists/mentors who has contributed his knowledge and passion to aspiring young writers through SONG.
Watching the lights turn on in the kids eyes when they either discover they can write a song or that they can sheepishly, or confidently, play their compositions for their friends for the first time, is something that has been hugely inspiring for me, he says. Verreault has been involved with the program for close to 10 years. After those sessions, Ill sometimes go home and write three or four songs.
He says the time spent with the kids reminds him to embrace the playful spontaneity of songwriting that he forgets as an adult.
When I do songwriting sessions with young people, I leave remembering that its about connection with others, but also that its about that connection with yourself, he says. Its those epiphany moments where youre tangibly in touch with your sense of wonder and you cant believe these ideas are coming to you. Once you listen for them and turn that tap on, they just keep coming and coming.
I just reassure them that every time John Lennon or Kanye West or anybody starts a song, theyre looking at the same foreboding blank, white screen or white piece of paper they dont know where to start either.
Over the past decade, Yarlow has witnessed a disturbing trend in reduced funding for school music programs primarily for instruments. Shes energized by this challenge and feels it is the foundations job to stop this trend, to help BC youth experience the benefits of music education.
We know of the benefits of musical education, she says Theres been a plethora of studies proving how it helps critical thinking, how it builds self-esteem, which, unfortunately a lot of kids dont have any more. These are critical skills. These are skills that, in the long term, help in job performance and help in other academic pursuits.
When youre learning music, youre using the same part of the brain that you use for math but of course, dont tell the kids that, she adds with a laugh.
Additionally, the MBCCF offers $500 and $1,000 scholarships to students needing support for professional music instruction. With these scholarships and the expensive programs, the success of events like the Celebration 2012! concert are important for the MBCCF and for music programs and future musicians around BC.
Originally, Yarlow says they entertained the idea of holding a fundraiser gala, but the idea didnt seem like a good fit.
We decided it wasnt who we are, she says about the event, which she hopes is the first of many. When its all said and done, were musicians helping musicians. We decided to do what we do best and thats putting on a show. This more closely reflects who we are and what we do.
Verreault knows intimately, how important music education can be in a young persons life.
Im a product of music education, he says. When I was going to high school, our school was incredibly well-stocked with all types of instruments for me to sit down and get acquainted with. Having that opportunity sent me on the path Im on now. Ive been able to literally see the world and find my place in and to make sense of it its been that personality and life-defining that I cant imagine not having access to those things and not having incredible mentors and teachers open my eyes to how much music encompasses.
I mean, its philosophy, its math, and physics and yoga I cant think of another discipline that has so much thats a part of its makeup and you can express.
He hopes that someday Layla will want to pursue musical endeavours. But for now, hes content with serenading his favourite and sometimes improvised songs to his daughter because those words and melodies are such an integral part of him.
Having a daughter has made me sing around the house for hours and hours every day and I got better at singing quietly, Verreault says. I have more stability in my voice when Im singing quietly now, in a low register, that I didnt have before.
For more information on the fundraiser and the Music BC Charitable Foundation, go to . Verreault is also playing at the when "string quartet meets indie rock." On Dec. 13, the string quartet is hosting an evening of music with Verreault, Dominique Fricot, The Gay Nineties, Ali Milner, and Data Romance as special guests.
