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Songs around the campfire....

happyflowerlady

Survivalist
Ever since I was a child, I have loved just sitting around a campfire on a warm starry night, and singing campfire songs. My folks would sit around the campfire when we went fishing and camping for the weekend; and we would all join in singing some of the old songs they always sang. My favorite was always "Redwing", a very old time song about an Indian maiden who loses her sweetheart while he is away and is killed in a battle.
As I grew older, and went to summer camp, we would often have a bonfiire at night and logs around it that we kids would all sit on, and sang songs . "Burn, o campfire with your cheery gleam....fireflies glowing over the rippling stream", or words to that effect. It was my favorite memory of summer camp.

After I grew up and had children of my own, we used to love having a little campfire, sometimes out by a lake, sometimes in the back yard; and I taught them the oldsongs I learned from Mom and Daddy, and some of the newer songs that we liked.
We didn't have any music, but we did love to sit around the campfire and sing together.

One day, I discovered the Omnichord. It is the perfect instrument for somone who wants to be able to easily learn how to play music, and to be able to do it anywhere. The Omnichord sounds similar to a harp, and looks like an electronic autoharp. Since it has all of the background effects of a keyboard, it can make its own band, and it will work with batteries; so an Omnichord is as at home around the campfire as it is at chruch in the musicians section.

Here is an example of how they sound, in case you have never heard of one.


image.jpg
 

actadh

Explorer
Wow - the Omnichord sounds neat. Very 60's in that intro.

My instrument is the ukulele. I took a 40 year break between playing the guitar and taking up the ukulele. It is a portable and small instrument. I can bring song sheets downloaded on my smart phone - I can only remember about a dozen songs without prompts.

Here is one of the pdf's I like for the campground -

https://halifaxukulelegang.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/campfire-song-book.pdf
 
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campforums

Founder
Staff member
My favorite part about camp fire songs is that for even the same song, everybody seems to have their own special twist.
 

L_B

Explorer
My grand daughter is 7 years old and she brings here ukulele with her when we go camping. We sit around the fire and she plays songs for us. My partner will bring his guitar and they will jam together. I love it. I am not musically inclined so I just listen or song along. I love making beautiful memories around the campfire.
 

campforums

Founder
Staff member
My grand daughter is 7 years old and she brings here ukulele with her when we go camping. We sit around the fire and she plays songs for us. My partner will bring his guitar and they will jam together. I love it. I am not musically inclined so I just listen or song along. I love making beautiful memories around the campfire.
Do you have any favorite songs or do you just freestyle it?
 

L_B

Explorer
Mostly just freestyle it. She has a few that she learned in her music class that she plays but I can't think of them right now.
 

campforums

Founder
Staff member
Well I am sure the creativity starts flowing more easily once the music is playing.

I participating in a few drumming circles around a campfire a few times and there was no singing but everyone was just playing drums and it blended together nicely to make a nice rhythm.
 

campforums

Founder
Staff member
Thanks for the suggestion! I don't think you can just use your voice. Even if you have no musical background like myself, it is not hard to use a drum or bells depending on your style. Even little kids can get going pretty quickly.
 
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