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By David Zimmerman
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Take off for guitar camp this summer and you'll not only improve your playing but also meet like-minded guitarists. Web exclusive! Printable camp packing list
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| | A scene from Fur Peace Ranch: Jorma Kaukonen (of Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna) observes a student's technique.
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Downloadable Guitar Camp Checklist!
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In between the family visits, vacations, and other obligations this summer, how about taking some time to do what you really want to do—play guitar. Maybe you can find a week to get in the groove, maybe just a couple days, or even only an afternoon. But you might find that attending a music camp or workshop will not only help you to leap over your personal musical hurdles but also introduce you to an entire community of people who share your passion and challenges.
What Do You Want To Learn?
Music camps take many forms—from multiday musical immersions to all-day symposiums to half-hour talks during a dinner break at your favorite music festival—and cover all genres. Say you want to learn more about blues improvisation and honing your skills with other musicians in a pickup band? Find a weeklong camp that balances classroom sessions on theory and technique with jamming. By week’s end, you’ll have developed a solid skill set and a completely new repertoire with your classmates.
Or maybe you’re looking for an opportunity to get up close to one of your musical heroes and ask that burning question about how he gets his cross-picking so fluid. Many (but not all) of the great players are great instructors, and you can often find a camp or workshop where they will be teaching. Sessions with these players can vary from completely interactive group lessons to mini-concerts with time in between songs for questions. Either way, you’ll have a great opportunity to learn some of their secrets and to ask them questions or for demonstrations
It could be that you just want to polish up your picking skills as festival season approaches. Many bluegrass festivals, such as RockyGrass and the California Bluegrass Association’s Father’s Day Festival, offer you the chance to attend music camps all week and then sit back and watch while your instructors demonstrate their talents on the festival main stage. Not only will your early arrival assure you some prime real estate for camping, but you’ll already be warmed-up for those late-night picking sessions while everyone else is still turning off their BlackBerries. Check to see if your favorite festival offers something similar.
Meet Your Fellow Campers
As you arrive at camp, it will dawn on you that everyone’s walking around with guitar cases, notebooks, and minidisc recorders, and you’ll realize that everyone is there for the same reasons you are: they love music and want to learn more about it. They want to talk about it. They want to play it. And from the less-than-subtle headstock scrutiny (the dog-park butt-sniffing of the guitar world), they want to talk about instruments.
As with any group of people, you are likely to find a variety of personalities. Sure, you’ll meet some people mostly interested in demonstrating how much they know or how well they play. But even more likely, that person sitting next to you will be someone who can help you figure out on which fret the instructor just played that lick or who might ask you for some help with that chord progression you just learned. Often, it’s helping someone else with a tricky passage or seeing someone use a lick from a workshop session in an informal jam that solidifies the idea in your mind and helps you integrate it into your playing.
Learn More Than Just Guitar
A big chunk of a typical day at camp will be devoted to guitar, but many camps also offer electives on specific topics (songwriting, accompanying a vocalist, instrument setup, etc.) or open jamming periods. Evenings may be filled with group dinners, jams or band scrambles (pickup bands made up of campers), or instructor or guest artist concerts.
Even outside of the scheduled sessions, there’s plenty to do. Many campers would love to meet up with you around a picnic table during the dinner break so you can back up each other while trying out what you learned. Grab a couple more people and put some material together for an open mic at the end of the camp. These spontaneous connections with other musicians can be the most valuable experience of the camp.
You Don’t Actualy Have to “Camp”
Camps run year-round all over the world and in a variety of settings. While it can be a great bonding and jamming opportunity to pitch a tent next to a new friend, it can also be nice to have a clean, quiet spot to collect your thoughts (and get in some practice) between sessions. Plenty of camps are held at universities and private ranches with more comfortable accommodations. If you’re the type who likes to ensconce your Huss and Dalton in 600-thread-count Egyptian cotton every night, you might want to stay at a nearby hotel or even rent an RV for the weekend. Of course, you might even be able to find a workshop at your local music store and sleep in your own bed.
Whatever your musical goals and interests, there’s a music camp or workshop out there filled with talented instructors and students just like you who love the music and want to get together to learn and play it. Some focused time will not only improve your playing but will likely result in great friendships and collaborations. After attending, the biggest problem you’ll have might just be discouraging your friends from making the obvious “This one time… at band camp…” reference.
Find a Camp
To find a music camp, consult the ads in your favorite guitar magazine, the Acoustic Guitar Summer Study Guide (www.acousticguitar.com/search/summer), and the bulletin board at your local music store. Not sure what level you are? Most camps offer guidelines in their FAQs and are willing to move students to the level that fits best. Here are five great camps to consider:
Fur Peace Ranch. Owned and operated by Jorma Kaukonen (of Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna) on his ranch in Ohio, Fur Peace offers weekend workshops with the likes of folk-rocker David Lindley, roots multi-instrumentalist John McEuen, and Kaukonen himself. www.furpeaceranch.com.
RockyGrass Academy. Held in Lyons, Colorado, RockyGrass Academy has instructors from top-tier bluegrass acts like the Del McCoury Band and Nickel Creek and precedes the RockyGrass Festival. www.planetbluegrass.com.
National Guitar Workshop. These weeklong sessions, held in various locations around the country, cover acoustic and electric guitar as well as drums, bass, and keyboards with classes in blues, country, jazz, and rock. www.guitarworkshop.com.
Rock ’n’ Roll Fantasy Camp. Rub elbows with rock heroes like Paul Stanley (Kiss), Brian Wilson (the Beach Boys), Bret Michaels (Poison), and Steve Vai for five days in either Hollywood or London. No face paint required. www.rockandrollfantasycamp.com.
Power Chord Academy. Grouped into bands, teenage musicians perform, record, and make a video at workshops offered across the country. www.powerchordacademy.com.
Q&A Confidential
Q&As offer a rare opportunity to get a new perspective on your favorite player’s playing, steal some secrets, and get inspired by the masters. But if you’ve ever been to one, you’ve seen “that guy”: the person who would rather talk about his own playing than the instructor’s.
When you ask a question, try to keep it concise and general enough to apply to the entire group. Asking for an explanation of how one might use a minor scale over a major chord progression for a bluesy feel will be more productive for the instructor and the workshop attendees than asking how you could spice up your grandmother’s Peruvian sheepherder/acid rock fusion project with jazz chord inversions (unless of course that’s the focus of the session). If you’re truly dying to know the answer, pull the teacher aside after the workshop and ask if you can schedule a one-on-one session or lesson.
Be Prepared
To get the most out of your camp experience, do a little prep work before you leave:
•Learn a few songs from start to finish. There’s nothing worse than being in a group where everyone wants to play but no one can think of a song. Know the key and tempo, and practice them with a metronome so you can keep steady time. Avoid “jam buster” songs (songs with tricky timing or chords) that might be great tunes but aren’t the best for teaching to a large jam.
•Think about your goals for camp and some questions you might want to ask the instructors or other campers.
•Put on a fresh set of strings and make sure your guitar is in good playing condition. You’re going to be playing for up to 12 hours a day, so make it as easy on your fingers as possible.
Don’t forget to bring:
•Your guitar
•For electric camps, a small amplifier and power and instrument cables
•Tuner and extra batteries
•Picks, capo, strings, and clippers
•A backpack-style gig bag for carrying your instrument around all day
•A recording device
•Notebook and pen or pencil
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Printable Version
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