Welcome to Butler Vocal Jazz Camp’s 2013 Blog!
Please see Mr. Lee Cheng or Dr. B for guidelines and suggestions on how to get the most out of your blog writing. Taking time to reflect on what you’re learning helps accelerate your learning, and sharing what’s happening helps others reflect on your discoveries! Be sure your blog includes some facts (what’s happening?), your feelings (about those facts), and the future (what’s upcoming up?). Be sure to include things you’ve learned, and at least one thing you really want to learn.
Highlights of our camp activities thus far include
MONDAY EVENING:
- checking in,
- touring the Butler campus,
- eating together (pizza!),
- taking theory and voice placement tests,
- discovering what we have in common!
TUESDAY:
- We began vocalizes, sectionals and rehearsals with Dr. Brimmer & Ms. Gordon
- We had our first full rehearsal with our rhythm section: Nathan (piano), Cam (drums), Daniel (bass).
- We had our first music technology session with Mr. Lee Cheng,
- After we blog today, we’ll:
- Do an improv session with our amazing staff
- vocal techniques with Ms. Gordon and Dr. B
- wrap up our day w/ a rehearsal in Schrott with our rhythm section
- Commuters will dismiss, dorm folks will go to dinner and evening activities.
So far, we’ve…
- begun to tackle sight reading any composition (Dr. B’s Six Steps: 1. Text, 2. Rhythms, 3. Text in Rhythm, 4. Pitches, 5. Text in Rhythm w/ Pitches, 6. Memorize and bring to rehearsal!
- experimented with four jazz styles (Blue Skies, I Sing You Sing, The Look of Love, 12 bar blues…
- Soon, we’ll explore the jazz ballad, more improvising on the blues (continuing with 12-bar blues), and the history of vocal jazz.
Work hard. Play Hard.
I cannot believe that our first full day has come to an end!! I can very confidently say that we have all come so far since the moment we all stepped into LH 120 last night. The transformation in one day is amazing, which gives me even higher hopes for the rest of the week.
I am surprised that Dr. B did not ask us what the best part of our day (BPOD) was today. Even though he did not ask, I will willingly share. I actually have a few, but anyone who knows me, or has ever heard me give my BPOD should not be surprised. 😉
1. CIRCLE SINGING – I am so happy with how everything turned out during improv today. Even though I asked some of you to step outside your comfort zone…you did it willingly, and you got results!! 🙂 The more that you do that, the more you will learn!
2. BRAZIL RENUNION – Just as we will all realize when we leave this camp, musical experiences create a bond like no other. Reunions of old friends who you share music with are the best kind, and I hope that we can experience a VJC reunion some day. I was really excited to see people from our Brazil tour today!
3. CAMP ACTIVITIES – I am so happy about the activities that Magdelena planned for us tonight. The paper that everyone wrote on will be something that I cherish for a very long time. I have a “teacher file” where I put all of the cool stuff that I get when working with people, and that is definitely in there now! I thank you all for your kind words! mm goi sai!!! Thank you!!
I cannot wait to see where this week goes.
…but a piece of advice…
BLOG
BLOG
BLOG
BLOG
BLOG EVERY SINGLE DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Camp goes by so fast, and you don’t want to forget anything you learned or experienced. I promise, you will if you don’t BLOG!!!
….so what will EVERYONE do tomorrow?!?!?! — I hope its BLOGGING! 🙂
I’m glad everyone is enjoying the camp so far! We have quick learners, great sight-readers, and beautiful voices all working in harmony (getting into puns already). Janie Gordon and Dr. Brimmer both are great directors and Mr. Cheung has been very helpful in his theory and technology sessions.
I’m really liking our bossa nova piece, “The Look of Love.” It makes me want to fly down to Brazil again (as if I didn’t already)! Those Latin rhythms make for fun motion. Once we polish up that piece, we’ll really have a crowd favorite.
Everyone has been trying their hand at improvisation and it’s coming along nicely. The singers are picking up on chord structure for scatting and making nice sounds.
This has been my first year helping out at Vocal Jazz Camp and I’m loving it – especially getting to hang out with the JJ Fam while adding more family members! I have high hopes for this group and I know we’ll have an amazing performance set ready for Friday!