Lumberjack Music Camp News
Well as you can see, we are launching our very first music camp. This has been a dream of ours for many years and we finally have much of the resources in place to help make it a reality.
On Sunday, June 12, there was a huge grand opening of Cabine Soleil Retreat Centre. It was also Estelle’s (president of Les Bûcherons) 50 th Birthday Party. This building has three levels for facilitating workshops and also accommodations for the overnight programs.
Down through the years I’ve attended many music camps and festivals:
1995 Beg. Banjo (BCBW) British Columbia Bluegrass Workshops
1995 Int. Banjo (Blueberry Bluegrass Workshop)
1996 Int. Banjo (BCBW) www.musicworkshops.ca
1997 Adv. Banjo (BCBW)
2000 Vocals (BCBW)
2001 Int. Mandolin (BCBW)
2002 Beg. Dobro (BCBW)
2003 Adv. Guitar (BCBW)
2004 Riverdale Bluegrass Band (Winner of amateur Band Competition)
2008 Calvin Vollrath’s fiddle camp (St. Paul, AB) www.calvinvollrath.com/
2008 Johnny Arcand Fiddle camp (Saskatoon, SK) www.johnarcand.com
I’ve also taught a few times:
1998 Beg. Banjo (BCBW)
2009 Banjo and Guitar (Hotchkiss Guitar Camp)
2010 Banjo and Guitar (Hotchkiss Guitar Camp)
From all my experience, I believe the power of the immersion program is paramount in most anything. It’s very inspiring and the group settings and circles allow for an accelerated growth that is very enjoyable.
I’ve never taken weekly lessons, the yearly camps, generally inspire me and teach me to teach myself.
For those of you who know me, you know I love music and sharing that love through teaching is a big part of my purpose and line of work. Over the years, I seen many teachers and teaching styles and have distilled an effective system and philosophy of teaching with interesting techniques and strategies.
The Lumberjackcamp acts as an outreach program, bringing in beginners and intermediates, but most importantly bringing in the starters, an important category of students who must get off the runway in a supportive and encouraging fashion.
If you or anybody you know may be interested in this unique and fun opportunity, please feel free to share this information with them.
We look forward to seeing you and supporting you in your musical ventures down through the years.
Once again, thankyou for the support and have a great Summer 2010
Ian Porteous
The Lumberjack Music Camp at Cabine Soleil was a Big Success! In a 5 day event, We taught 12 students how to get rolling on the fiddle, banjo and guitar using the “O Brother where art thou?” soundtrack. This is an excellent start to introduce people to playing and making music for themselves.
At Cabine Soleil Retreat center, our students learned about their chosen instruments, the set up, the tuning and the absolute basics of technique in a completely supportive environment.
By being immersed in the rhythm of simple songs done at a very slow speed, our students contributed exactly at their level, confidently. This happened repeatedly all day long, allowing the students to accomplish an accelerated growth that may otherwise have taken months or not happened at all.
After playing for ½ an hour, all the students are paired off to practice certain small phrases, or “woodshed” portions of the melody, sometimes hundreds of times while we stroll from group to group, sharing learning concepts, strategies and techniques that are universal to most stringed instruments.
The week ended with a big presentation where the students were featured in front of friends and family with many other special guest performers inspiring the students along the way.
I just got back from the British Columbia Bluegrass Workshop, yet another mild initiation for myself and countless others who attended the beautiful Sorrento Centre in the Shuswap Valley of British Columbia.
Life at the camp is an array of programming including lessons, afternoon workshops and many other activities including, instructor performances and slow pitch jams. Meanwhile, scattered about the campground is a smattering of jams from beginner to super advanced, expert even. The BCBW workshop is an obvious Mecca for the Pacific Northwest, somewhat of a tribal gathering of people driven towards musical mastery and personal relationships.
Stepping into a jam circle can be an interesting experience, seems as though there is an invisible etiquette and a timeless hierarchy that must be realized, acknowledged and honoured. So many different personalities, repertoires and levels of accomplishment make it seem that making music would be impossible. But not so! One of the beauties of Bluegrass Music is that it is a system and once internalized, brings a most rewarding personal experience one can have no matter what level you’re at.
Anybody can step up to a jam with a childlike wonder if you come from a place where you are first a listener and observer. To “listen more than you play while playing” as quoted by Chris Sharp, is the beginning of pure growth and learning
As you approach a jam where others are playing at a higher level, there is often a sense of discomfort. I have felt this discomfort for years and still find myself trapped in that awful feeling. Make note of the discomfort, rather than judging your own ability, simply come from that place as a listener and an observer. Let your hands fall from your instrument and breath and smile, knowing well that all those players were in your shoes at one time or another.
Every time you successfully go through this process of sharing a song at the Wednesday circle or approaching the jam in the campground, you transform yourself and the people around you. Come from a place of care. Be careful. Come from a place of wonder, be wonderful. Embrace the Musical Initiations.
Hi Ian and Braden,
Sorry I did not get to see you when you were in FSJ. I had to attend the Open House at the school where I teach so missed your visit. Dale was very pleased to be able to come and jam with you. He is working on learning more fiddle tunes from cd’s and is playing them with his Grandma. She plays the mandolin and he keeps working on the fiddle. Thank you again for inviting him to join you. I have been asking the principal to have you come to our school but he is waiting on word for his budget. When he gets back to me I will be in touch with Estelle or you. Sorry again to have missed you. Enjoy your tour and we hope to see you at a festival or show again soon if we can not get you to come to the school. Sincerely, Alma McEachern.