Milford musician Amy Conley appeared to be having a power struggle during her Wednesday concert at the Stephenson Memorial Library in Greenfield. Her audience was engaged: some children tentatively sang along as she led them on guitar, while others wandered around or snuggled in the laps of parents. It was the frog puppet, perched to the side of Conley’s guitar, that she appeared to take issue with. Her audience erupted into laughter at the end of every verse as frog managed to twang a guitar string before ducking out of sight.
This was Conley’s first performance at the library, in a special appearance during the library’s preschool story hour.
“I didn’t want the kids to miss out on this,” organizer and librarian Cheri Brodeur said.
There were about 13 children filtering in and out of the performance. Many in the audience were story hour regulars, Greenfield resident Heather Gagnon said. Her three young children come every week, which she said is convenient as and her teenage daughter works at the library at the same time.
“Kids are so used to entertainment on the screens, they like having a real live person up close to them,” Conley said.
Her aim is to make music experiences playful, and enjoyable for both the kids and their parents. Mandatory participation, or mandatory sitting and listening don’t factor in, she said.
“I allow the children to be children, [I do not] expect them to sit, or listen, or anything like that because they’re so young.”
Conley led the audience through the hokey pokey, a story book with an accompanying melody, and brought out shakers for children to accompany her through a song.
“My goal is to have children enjoy music and be inspired to maybe play an instrument, sing more, dance, be musical.” Conley said, adding that opportunities for brain development through music are “amazing.”
“I’ve been performing music for the past, oh, 30 years,” Conley said. “I perform at a lot of libraries.”
Conley teaches music for preschoolers and babies through the Music Together program in Milford. She likes to involve parents in her work with children whenever space allows.
“We’re teaching our children through example,” to love music, she said. “Hopefully they do music at home with them in some form or fashion,” even if it’s as simple as singing along to songs on the stereo.
She also does workshops and ukelele lessons for adults. She said when teaching children they may have self-control issues, but they are much more willing to try things than adults.
“Neither one is easier than the other, but for different reasons,” Conley said. “A lot of adults are afraid of their own music, they think… ‘I cant do this.’ Adults expect themselves to learn quickly and get things right away.”
Many of her ukulele students get frustrated after just one week of learning the instrument, to which her response is “relax.”
“You’ve only been playing for one week, be nice to yourself, relax, you don’t have to learn this right away,” she said she tells her students.
Story hour runs every Wednesday from 11 a.m. to noon, and every week has its own theme, craft, and snack, staff member Lori Turner said.
Conley offers lessons for a variety of musical instruments, and is performing at sing-a-longs in Milford, Wilton, and Nashua through March and April.