(Interviewer in italics, Informant’s actions in parentheses)

On my mom’s side, there’s this song called the “Instrument Song” where we all are… are instruments… and we all, like, harmonize… as a big family.

And how does it go?

There’s many parts… It goes… “doodle, doodle, doodle, doodle, dayyy… (Laughs.) The horns, do the horn…” We’d just get a newspaper and do the horn.

Context:

Just… people do it. Whenever, like, every— we have big groups of family, we just always do it ’cause we used to do it at my Uncle Bert’s house before he died, and, like, he would, like, conduct the whole thing.

Background (from interviewer):

My informant comes from a very musical family. Both her parents, her brother, her sister, and her are very interested in music and theatre; all three children have been in middle school or high school musical theatre productions, church choirs, and/or marching bands. Her family is originally from Texas, and they often go back to visit their cousins and grandparents and get together with the entire family (this occurs two or three times a year, for a week or a month at a time). Their family is very tight-knit. This tradition shows not only the family’s collective love of music, but also the close bonds they have with each other and their devotion to keeping their Uncle Bert’s memory alive.