Just got back last night from the summer workshop. This is the one in which we pre-selected our members, tunes, and study topics. It didn't quite go as I expected but it went very well. Three things, in particular, helped a lot: preselecting our members and ensuring that we're all about the same level, preselecting our tunes so we were all familiar with most of them, and preselecting our study topics. I'd guess that we're all functioning at an undergrad level, maybe sophomores or juniors. My experience is that grad students are usually better than us and freshman usually a little worse. There were six of us, drums, DB, piano, guitar, alto, and trumpet. A variety of ages, from 40's to 70's. We were definitely the most-skilled group again at the camp.
Out of the six groups - fifty-four campers - three were early beginners, two were a mix but mostly beginners with one or two strong players, sometimes that strong player was the drummer who was a grad student at the UofL, and then us. I realize that the host has actually adapted the camp quite quickly the past three years from Jamey's camp. First, he made it only for adults, no kids allowed, mostly - there has been one each year, but they're the exception. That's a huge change considering that in the early years - 1960s - Jamey's camp was mostly high school and college kids. Next, they're focusing on adult beginners which is probably smart because that's where the bulge in the population is and is great for all of those beginners, but really miserable for that one intermediate or advanced player stuck in with 6 newbys. They're effectively using the intermediate player as a TA for the group, but instead of paying the intermediate player, the intermediate player is paying for the camp! In my case, I've learned how to support beginners and those skills don't need any further refinement at this point so if I'm going to play with a bunch of beginners, it should be because I'm doing a friend a favor or I'm getting paid to do so.
I said that it didn't quite go as expected. About 70% as expected. The rest of the group aren't as anxious to learn new things, so no complex meter tunes nor altering the form. We did work with a singer, double-time feel, interacting with the rhythm section, and playing with the pros. I had to move the "pros" session off-site after the host said I couldn't do that activity at his site. But, four of us got to play with Chris Fitzgerald, Gabe Evens, Marlin McKay, and Mike Hyman. Hyman's time is exceptional but he played it very straight and I didn't get to experience the real Hyman. Probably for the better, I don't think I can handle it. The other three did well but I was so nervous that my palms were so sweaty that I couldn't get any friction on the string and, super whimpy tone, almost like a whimper! I wasn't the only one that was nervous, the pianist told me that she'd been having nightmeres about the gig the week before. Still, each of us played a tune with them and then got 12 minutes of coaching so it was a very worthwhile exercise and I plan to do it again. Doing so taught me a lot about the difference between their more sophisticated playing, and mine, kind of like providing a vague map of what I need to do to get to the next level.
We asked our leader this year, Sean Parsons from Ohio U, to be more critical and helpful and he gave us notes after each tune and we were all pleased with his diplomatic but wise advice.
I don't know what will happen next year. The host won't decide until October if he'll do the camp again next year or not. If not, I'll do my own thing, either with the folks in Louisville or back here in LA and I'll probably go to Port Townsend next year, either way. I do think I'll make some changes to the format, but they won't be big changes, more refinements on this first proof of concept. For instance, I'll probably have each camper be the "boss for the day" and call the tunes they want, in their keys, with their arrangements, at their tempos. The arrangements can't be too complicated, something we can all play well after one reading, but we burned up too much time this week working on our recital tune because we didn't write down the intro and outro and we took turns messing it up. We nailed it for the recital though so, it worked out. Everyone played well at the recital, except our sax player called Oleo about 100 bpm faster than we'd rehearse it so we were all holding on for dear life! Funny after the fact!
If we do decide that we want to work with a singer again, I'd consider either a) hiring a more developed singer who has their own arrangements or b) working with the same or a similar singer and hiring an arranger to teach us how to make the arrangements. I think that'd be win-win-win. The singer would get arrangements that she can use with her group, our group would get a more professional experience with a singer, and I'd learn something about arranging charts for singers. I got the idea when Marlin McKay helped our singer develop an arrangement of Alone Together on the spot.
So, overall, a wonderful experience. I improved by working those complex meter tunes and just preparing for the workshop, then improved again, playing five hours a day with folks about my level, and our instructors were all highly skilled as musicians and instructors, Sean Parsons, Marlin McKay, Jerry Tolson, Terry O'Mahoney, and Scott Wendholt.
