Music Camp Goals

Bradd (our band director) and I began to plan by considering what skills we thought needed the most attention.   Bradd was very definite about wanting to spend a large portion of time working on rhythm.  We decided that we would have some rhythm exercises and games at the beginning of camp each day and end up with a rhythm performance type of activity at the end of each camp day. 

Bradd had started a "high school trash can group" that performed often at athletic events in place of some of the pep band numbers.  It was always a bit hit...........no pun intended.   The kids were all eager to try it so we thought that this would be a great way to get them interested in polishing their rhythm skills.  We were right about that being an exciting prospect for them.

Our goal was to teach music concepts long enough for the campers to "get it" but not go long enough for them to get restless with that part of camp.  We then planned to use games and activities to drill those concepts.  That turned out to be a successful way to address the camp.

Note Values
After introductions and sharing our basic goals with the campers, I began with introducing note values and explaining how we count.  Since some of the students were new to reading music we divided campers into two groups.  We felt that everyone would benefit from that presentation even though it would be a review for some of them.  Bradd then took the campers who were already in private lessons and worked on subdividing beats and eighth notes while I did easier counting exercises with the beginner group.  Bradd used the Rhythm Riot game to drill while I used the Rhythm Riot game cards with some drums and other rhythm instruments to help the new students. 


The Staff and Note Reading
After the rhythm section of camp, we went on to introduce the staff and note reading.  We had decided to present the grand staff and to teach them to read notes on both treble and bass clefs.  The goal was to give them a better understanding of why they don't all use the same staff.   It worked really well, although later we did concentrate on the staff that they used for their chosen instrument.   When we had them doing the note name sheets, all notes were presented on a grand staff.  If anyone is interested in seeing how the sheets were set up, just let me know and I'll post them.  We did some note name relay races and other games using note identification during camp.


Music Terms and Symbols
We moved on to music terms and symbols with an introduction of basic terms and again did some games.   I'll go into more detail about what games we did and how we used them in a future blog.


Snacks
We gave the students two breaks during the three hour camp and had told them ahead of time that they could bring a snack and something to drink for those breaks.  We felt that it would work better that way rather than to increase the cost of camp to include snack items.  This way the campers had things they liked and we kept the cost down.


Rhythm
As planned, we ended up with rhythm for the last 30+ minutes of camp.  We weren't sure what rhythms we could pull off so were prepared with many different rhythm cards, enabling us to take them as far as possible.  Since the drum circles and trash can groups would require them to be very independent with their rhythm combinations, we knew we would have to get them very secure before putting them together.  The first day was a little tenuous but they soon adapted to counting aloud and were having a great time with it.


At the end of each day, we detailed plans for the following day of camp and discussed which things went well and which didn't work the way we had planned.

Sally Ritchie