Letters Home
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j BMN: Next year, I think it would be great if student's received a confirmation letter in the ma…
jBMN: Next year, I think it would be great if student's received a confirmation letter in the mail notifying them of acceptance into the camp along with a note from us regarding expectations, what to bring, what to expect the first day, daily schedule.....
BMN: Also, in the feature, if we had access to their emails then we as the instructors could email them to introduce our self before the camp. Personally, I did not want to call my students with my personal phone. I did not want my personal phone number floating around. If we had access to a district phone then great!
BMN: Lastly, I would like their addresses or emails for a closure letter expressing how excited I was to have them be apart of the camp.
typical day
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... professional musicians. ( BMN: This is something that would give a more "music camp&quo…
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professional musicians. ( BMN: This is something that would give a more "music camp" feel verses a "band" and "choir" camp feel. Let's do this next year!)
Students will be assigned to an ensemble based on their audition. Each day they will rehearse with the ensemble to prepare for their final performance at the end of camp.
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their skills. (BMN: For band this could have been done on a large scale due to staffing. If it is the same staff then perhaps you seperate in woodwind/ brass/ percussion. For voice, when we grow more then it would be wonderful to separate into male and female voice. This year it was not justified.)
Lastly, each
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theory classes. (BMN: Vocal did this but we did not use computer to enhance the learning. Also, in vocal music unless they have had piano instruction they are all novice level.)
Mid-morning a
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musical learning! (BMN: Due to time, our breaks were only 6 minutes long and backed up against activity time. I think it worked well.)
Vocal Camp Break-Down
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Vocal Camp Break-Down This is in response to David's email:
Good Morning,
On the choir side....this was a learning …
Vocal Camp Break-Down This is in response to David's email:
Good Morning,
On the choir side....this was a learning camp with a culmination of all musicianship learned in the final concert. I would not consider this a performance camp by any means....again this is the choir side.
Every day I planned a specific master class at a very high level of engagement. Knowing that the parents paid $200 (a GREAT price for what the choir students got out of it) we made sure that every minute was spent in a productive, meaningful, and yet uplifting way.
The schedule of the day started promptly at 8 with stretches followed by breathing and then warm-up. We only worked on our actually concert music for 50 minutes each day; however, we used that music to teach music theory, solfege, and phrasing for example.
The day looked like this:
8-8:30 (stretches, warm-up, & goal defined for the day)
8:30-9:30 (master class)
9:30-9:36 (bathroom break)
9:37-10:00 (activity)
10:00-10:50 (engage in music goal for the day)
10:50-10:55 (recap, debrief, and plant seed for the following day)
10:55-11:00 (students wrote what they learned or had fun doing that day on our choir board - Steve has now at the D.O.)
Our master classes consisted of:
Week 1
1. Purposeful Breathing
2. Vowel Pronunciation - differences between open and closed on each vowel
3. Diction towards consonances
4. Music Notation
5. Music Theory (dynamics, road maps, accents, score reading with choral music)
Week 2
1. Fixed Do
2. Movable Do
3. Performance Pride & Etiquette
4. Improvisation
5. Focus on team.
Being that this was a camp, I made sure that all activities were FUN and in some way related to music, team work, or enforcing that day's master class. My objective was to make it an environment for the students to want to come back to.
I have to say that the age range was a challenge but nothing that couldn't be worked out and embraced. I wouldn't change that aspect in subsequent years. It was a rewarding experience no matter the age.
Being the first year from the choir side, I think it went extremely well. I am a very critical person and I can honestly say that the "concerns" I had were very minimum and minor in nature. There were some break down in communications among us (community schools, facilities, & staff) and small details such as resources that were just a matter of "first year woes."
I have no complaints, just look forward to bringing it to another level next year.
Thanks for the opportunity.
Brenda
*Please know that I understand the band side had demands that I did not have. The voice is much easier to work with than an instrument when it comes to various levels. Further, it was just me so figuring out who was going to do what and how was not an issue. In all honesty (please don't hate me!) I agree with David in respects to making sure we are asking the question of "what is the best thing for the students?" verses "what is the easiest for us?" I believe there were times when frustration boiled over on the band side and it resulted in the path of least resistance instead of thinking outside of the box. With that said, EVERYONE has immense passion for music education and is more than willing to do whatever it takes.*
Handbook
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Handbook Hello Everyone!!!!
I'll see you all in an hour or so but....we never quite got moving on the hand…
Handbook Hello Everyone!!!!
I'll see you all in an hour or so but....we never quite got moving on the handbook. Here are some suggested headlines that we can fill in as we go:
1. Mission & Vision Statement (Something like "Deer Valley Unified and Community Education thrive to provide opportunities for young artist to become vibrant stewards in fine art education. Music Rocks Music Camp will allow upcoming musicians to begin their musical journey through our band pilot program and also provide music enrichment to our intermediant and advance vocal and band students.")
