Great Jim, I think those camps are amazing,, thx for the foto, what a great memorie for Shel it is,, a great thing for the IGC too,, win a ,, mmm a somethingNot sure why I couldn't attach the file, but I tweeted it also:
A quick update on my recent camp experience.
I enjoyed the three classes I took for the week, with each class focusing on various right hand techniques:
1) A class called the daily groove where the teacher introduced lots of different strums, including pop strums, rock strums, reggae, soul, bo-diddley, hootenany strum, shuffle beats, etc, etc - This is what I will work most on over the next few months.
2) A basic fingerpicking class covering arpeggio and travis picking - lots of ideas for practice
3) A basic intro to flat-picking class - focused on holding the pick and up-down technique and learning songs like arkansas traveler and turkey in the straw by ear a measure at a time - listening to the note and finding it on the fretboard. This is something I had not really done before. I hope to continue to work on it - just not my highest priority at the moment
I did a duet at the student concert with a fellow student who played the banjo. This was something I had not done before and it was a good experience to perform on stage with another musician - you need to work out things like starting, stopping, breaks between verses for leads, and instrumentals. It went well. It was a comedy routine/musical performance around the old Loudon Wainwright song, "Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road".
There was also a lot of opportunities around camp to join jams and music circles. I didn't really take enough advantage of these as I need to work on a lot of other things first, including having a repertoire of songs when it's your turn in the circle, being able to recognize chord changes without looking at other people's fingers, playing leads, just more confidence in my musical abilities, etc.
Thx for sharing 'cos thats all I get out those camps.
Willem