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Choir Camp – not just for band

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I’m doing something different this year before school starts – choir camp.
 
That’s right, I’m taking a cue from the university marching band and bringing my kids early to campus.  It isn’t costing my budget anything – the school is letting them move in early at no cost.  I’m feeding the students with donated meals from churches – ministries that would love to have our students as participants in their music program.
 
The best part:
I’m getting about six hours of rehearsal a day – two 2-hour rehearsals (morning/evening) and then 1-hour sectionals with men/women in early afternoon.  When we start school next Monday, I will have had about 20-25 hours of rehearsal with the group.  That is about the same number of rehearsal time I had with them last year – by October 15!
 
It may not work for your program, but I have found something new and will plan for it again next year.

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Comments

  1. Philip:  A terrific idea, IF you can make it work given student jobs, last minute family vacations, etc.
     
    I did it from the first year I took over the show ensemble here at Virginia Tech.  I inherited the idea from my predecesor, the differences being that he had close connections to 4-H and held his pre-school Workshops at 4-H facilities, and his students had to pay a fairly healthy fee for room and board to participate.
     
    We eventually moved on campus, both saving money for the students and putting them into a familiar environment with access to important facilities for our technical and public relations staffs, and we charged a small fee that covered about half the cost of meals.  I’d guess that we averaged about 10 contact hours a day for 10 days, and that allowed us to put on our first shows of the season the day BEFORE classes began, to welcome incoming students (and incidentally to recruit new members).  But of course that wasn’t all choral rehearsals, since they had to learn choreography and staging as well.  And those 100 contact hours made a HUGE difference once classes started, and we could concentate on smoothing the rough edges.  Attendance for the Cast and Showband was mandatory, and highly encourated for the Techs and PR kids.  The amount accomplished was huge, the bonding experience wonderful, and the sweat flowed freely!
     
    We couldn’t get on-campus housing for them, so as part of the overall orientation to the group our Rookies stayed with Veterans who had off-campus housing, and that worked quite well.  In many cases those were their Big Brothers and Sisters, so they had an early chance to bond between Bigs and Littles. 
     
    All the best,
    John

  2. Great questions, everyone.  This is my top choir and I expect to have 62 in the group once classes begin on Monday.  So, I have 58 students participating and 4 not:
     
    1 is in training to be an RA
    2 basses are in training to be orientation leaders
    1 new freshmen couldn’t make the trip due to previous family commitments.
     
    The choir camp drove my numbers higher than normal – because I wanted to have the camp I couldn’t audition right before classes began like I did last year.

  3. Did it last year with my select vocal ensemble.  Produced the best version of that ensemble to date (although with my customary optimism, I think this year will be better).  Not doing it this year because my whole music program is moving into a new building and we’re going to barely get in in time to begin classes.  Me and the students will be moving chairs and libraries and equipment on Sunday and Monday.

  4. Thanks for the update.  I am curious to know how many of your students participated, and how you encouraged/motivated them to make the time commitment?  And was this for all of your choirs, just your top choir, or ??

  5. Hi Philip,
     
    I did a similar thing when I conducted a non-auditioned children’s choir.   I had the group for about ten years and the first few years, I was frustrated with the lack of retention of just basic stuff from spring to the following fall.  At a holiday concert’s reception, one of the moms spoke to me about Day Camp choices for her daughter and wished we had a Choir Day Camp…..I spoke to my superviser and we got started.
     
    Because these were 5 to 10 year olds, we structured it much like a regular Day Camp with time for fooling around (two days before our concert, it became ‘tradition’ to get ME with squirt guns!) as well as lots and lots of singing.  We began each morning with body warm ups and solfege and ended the day with singing Lowell Mason’s, “O Music”, holding hands. Moms signed up to provide lunch for us for the two week program. It worked very well and we continued Choir Day Camp until I left the group. Great times we had…I miss those kiddos! Another friend of mine has “alto boot camp” during the summer. 
     
    We can learn a lot from other types of programs, such as the FOOTBALL teams and marching band and day camp.  We can “hit the ground running” with our programs. Sounds like you’re having a good and productive time, Philip!
     
    Marie

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