Guitar Camps

jayswett
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Sat Jun 18, 2011 7:46 am

Last summer, Dennis posted some thoughtful and insightul comments regarding a guitar camp that he had attended, and at that time, I made a mental note to attend one this summer. Needless to say, this year has passed very quickly, and suddenly, but not unexpectedly, I find myself confronted with time constraints and other responsibilities like everyone else. Nevertheless, my sense is that there are some things for which one simply needs to make time, and I think this may be one of them. The recent TG event in Binghampton, NY looked like alot of fun, and helped remind me of Dennis' guitar camp review. I pose 2 questions:

1) Anyone considering a guitar camp this summer? If so, anybody from New England?
2) Any idea how to find one? I will obviously try google, but I thought the knowledge base here at TG might be helpful.

Thanks in advance.
Jay


haoli25
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Sat Jun 18, 2011 8:37 am

Jay, with the momentum of Totally Guitars it is inevitable that there will be Totally Guitar Camps and Workshops in the not too distant future. I was reading that guitar sales in the US alone was $1.5 billion and almost 3 million units sold just for the year 2010. Just imagine what they are worldwide. With that kind of volume and the buying potential of the TG membership, it wouldn't surprise me at all if the manufacturers of guitars and accessories are not already twisting Neil's and Matt's arm for a shot at this TARGET.

In the meantime, the bulletin boards at local colleges and music stores are still a good source for finding workshops and guitar camps in your area.


Bill Image


tovo
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Sat Jun 18, 2011 3:25 pm

Hey Jay.

Guitar camps seem pretty easy to find through web search. I did exactly the same as you after Den talked about his camp, I checked out some options. Obviously the ones here in Australia aren't worth telling you about....unless you are REALLY keen to combine an expensive camp with an expensive trip. I'm sure Den will be happy to give you some further information, he will be back soon. Surely others have some insights?


dennisg
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Tue Jun 21, 2011 7:12 am

There are two camps that are familiar to me, one of which is because I attended it last summer, and the other because many of the attendees had also gone to the other one.

The one I heard very good things about is the California Coast Music Camp: http://www.musiccamp.org

The one I attended is the Puget Sound Guitar Workshop: http://www.langston.com/PSGW
I just checked the web site, and it appears that this camp is totally full.


jimcjimc
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Tue Jul 26, 2011 2:28 pm

Last week I attended the 2nd week of the 20th year of the California Coast Music Camp in the Sierras outside Foresthill, near Auburn, California. I was encouraged to attend after reading about Dennis' experience at Puget Sound Music Camp last summer. It was a beautiful setting, with great weather, and a blast to spend time with some great musicians and music lovers. I think there were 88 student attendees with 33 of us first-time music campers and 16 instructors, the camp staff, some volunteers who run the camp program, and a California brown bear who ate from the dumpster at night and was seen a few times during the day also :)

The fellow attendees were what I would call mostly "white people of a certain age" :), but there were about 5 mother-daughter attendees, a grandfather/grandson, several 20-something girls, and, did I say, a bear.

I brought my guitar, an ukulele, and a couple of harmonicas. The most common instrument, besides voice, was the guitar, of course. I was amazed at how many people brought along an ukulele. There were also several mandolin players, about a half dozen stand-up bass players, some violinists, a viola, etc.

A lot of the instructors and return campers brought tents. I would probably do that next time as there were lots of nice places to pitch a tent. I stayed in a cabin with four other randomly-assigned male campers and that worked out pretty well. We got along fine and shared some beer, red wine, and scotch in the afternoons and evenings. Four of us had brought ukuleles and the five of us joined together as the Cabin 38 Ukulele Band and performed Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue and & Please Don't Talk about me When I'm gone at the student concert.

On Sunday evening, the instructors all give a sample of what they will offer in their classes and are available for questions. As a student, you pick a first period class, a second period class, a third period class (after lunch) that you want to attend (out of 6 choices for each time period.) That may be the hardest part of camp - selecting which classes to attend. If you don't like your first choice, you can switch to a different class. Some of the classes were held inside, but most were held outside under the trees. The choices ranged from Intro to Ukulele, how to play Stand-up Bass, Beginning voice, Performance coaching, and repertoire classes and technique classes.

After reading the brochure, I had been thinking of taking technique or skill-building classes, like "Intro to flat pick leads", "Intro to swing chords", or "right'handed finger picking bootcamp". I ended up taking classes more about learning songs and playing with others, namely, "Your First Band", "Building your Jam Repertoire", and "Irish Session Repertoire". The first two were about playing with others, arranging songs with leads, listening to other instruments, and learning a lot of cool songs. The Irish session I took on a whim (I am 100% Irish and 3 of my 4 grandparents were born in Ireland). The instructor played mandolin and would spend about 20 minutes teaching other mandolin players and a violinist how to play the melody of the song (we learned a horn-pipe, some jigs, and reels) and then I would play chords to back the melody. Four of us from the Irish Session class performed the RossCommon Reel and Anything for John-Jo at the student concert. And about 12 of us squeezed on stage with the Jam Repertoire class and did a cool version of "White Sport Coat and a Pink Carnation"

There were plenty of opportunities to perform. They had a coffeehouse on Monday & Wed nights, you could sing or play with the band at a dance on Wed night, and the big event of the week is the student concert on Thursday. There was also a Teacher Concert on Tuesday night that was great as they all were very accomplished musicians. Some of the students were amazingly talented. Many of the students had CDs to sell or played regularly at open mikes or were trying to break into the music business. I was happy to perform 3 times with a group and will save my solo debut for next time :)

There were also workshops in the afternoon and plenty of jam sessions to join at all hours. It seemed like each day at the first period, I would hear about a jam session at the teacher's hall that lasted till 3 or 4 in the morning, but I was happy to get some rest. They also had a pool that was open each afternoon.

Most of the students were from Northern California, although we had some from Alaska, Washington, Oregon, So California. One of the cool things about camp was meeting a half dozen guitarists that live within 10-20 miles of where I live and we talked about getting together in the future to play.

This camp costs $800 if you tent and $925 if you stay in a cabin. So, it's not cheap. I was thinking do I go to camp, or buy a second guitar? So, I did both :). I bought the Taylor GS-Mini and took it to camp! Image


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daryl
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Tue Jul 26, 2011 2:39 pm

WOW. Sounds like a great time. Any videos of your performances?


dennisg
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Tue Jul 26, 2011 2:43 pm

That's a great report on your camp experience, and it sounds very much like what I found last year at the Puget Sound Guitar Workshop. I suspect that's not a coincidence, because I'm pretty sure several of the organizers work on both camps.

One of the benefits of going to camp (aside from all the stuff you learn and the great people you meet) is that it totally energizes you to take your guitar playing to the next level -- whatever that may be. For me that meant learning songs that employed some of the techniques I learned at camp.


lueders
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Tue Jul 26, 2011 3:30 pm

Jim, Sounds like you had a blast! I am happy or you, yet quite jealous at the same time. ;)

Cori


dsmarion
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Tue Jul 26, 2011 3:48 pm

Jim,
Yeah that does sound like a lot of fun and certainly a wothwhile trip (especially meeting some new players that live near you) - although I am totally down with you about maybe having to decide whether to go to camp or get a second guitar instead - you pulled off both??!! I think I am very jealous about that!! Glad you had a good time and thanks for the description of the camp.

Scott


jimcjimc
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Tue Jul 26, 2011 3:50 pm

daryl wrote:
WOW. Sounds like a great time. Any videos of your performances?
Hi Daryl,
No videos that I am aware of. They do audio recordings of the concerts. The ukulele band did not get recorded for some reason. I will try to attach mpes of the other two to this post.

And, of course, the bear would have been a black bear, not a brown bear.

Jim


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