Register for one of these early morning classes

You can also find out about the afternoon sessions.

Swing Piano

—Michael Creber 

Students must pre-register for one of these seminars and must bring portable keyboards and headphones to camp. If space permits, afternoon students will be welcome to join the morning class.

Beginner/Advanced This course is for swing pianists of all levels. The morning class will concentrate on the foundation skills: basic jazz harmony, understanding chords, working with lead sheets, building 3-note jazz voicings, and the pianist's role in the band. This would correspond to the first three chapters of Mark Levine’s The Jazz Piano Book (highly recommended!). As always in swing camp we are working on skills to help you have more fun playing in groups with other players!
 
Intermediate/Advanced This is a special class offered Monday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoons. As in the morning class, we will tailor the material to fit the levels of the players, so expect to dive into soloing over changes, Bill Evans, left hand voicings, inner voice movements, and all that really fun stuff!

Vocal/Guitar Duos

Guitar and voice duo is an intimate and challenging musical situation. Join Kate Hammett-Vaughan and Ron Peters for a week of intensive duo work. Improve your performance, interaction and musical experience. Singing with only a guitarist requires a special musical sensitivity. Kate will work with vocalists on style, listening, performance and interaction. Being a solo accompanist is one of the most challenging endeavors guitarists can undertake. This seminar offers you an opportunity to learn how to musically interact with your partner: Guitarists will work with Ron, learning how to stay out of the singer’s way while keeping a good groove, thinking like a band, and playing effective fills and solos while keeping the tune “going”. You will work with your partner all week with a new tune and style daily. Lots of playing in class.
 
Open to 7 duos (Pre-exisitng duos or 7 singers and 7 guitarists and we’ll pair you up.)

Woodwind and Brass Workshop

—Tom Keenlyside 

Students will not need to register separately for morning and afternoon horn classes.

This course will provide in-depth look at numerous aspects of playing brass and woodwind instruments in a collective jazz setting. Techniques to be discussed and practised include jazz phrasing, articulation, expression, and sound production on all wind and brass instruments. We will also focus on playing in tight ensemble. In addition, we will study various aspects of jazz improvisation - playing through many different types of chord changes and the blues. We will create a fun, supportive environment in which all players will be encouraged to improvise.
Special Afternoon Class for Advanced Players
This course is intended for more advanced horn instrumentalists, with a focus on effective soloing on various chord changes, chordal substitutions, altered modes, and usable pattern playing. We will also discuss soloing subtleties such as spontaneous improvisation through composition and motif playing. Effective and efficient practice techniques and tone production will be a constant theme.

Advanced Improvisation 

—Bill Coon 

Find the next level in your soloing ability by looking at how the great jazz guitarists use musical motifs in their improvising. We’ll learn new scales and arpeggios, study swing, bebop and modal styles, and have a good time too!

Advanced Comping 

—MikeRud 

Accompanying other musicians presents the swing guitarist with a considerable array of options and responsibilities. How do we comp differently in the presence or absence of a bassist? How do we create a swinging, solid groove with a drummer? How do we keep from tangling with another comping guitarist or pianist? How should we best consider the needs of a vocalist when playing chords for them? Mike will be exploring a number of useful, rational ways to approach these challenges with thoroughness and spontaneity. Come join him and discover why so many musicians love comping every bit as much as they love to solo!

Fingerstyle Swing Solos 

—John Knowles 

We’ll choose some tunes and go through the process of arranging them as fingerstyle solos. We’ll explore topics like choosing guitar-friendly keys, voicing chords around melodies and bass lines, and establishing/implying groove. We’ll develop some techniques for freeing the melody from the rest of the arrangement and we’ll learn some lyrics to give our arrangements a vocal quality. I’ll provide some solos in notation/TAB that we can use for reference during the week.

Putting It All Together:
Intermediate Soloing & Comping 

—Neil Fraser 

Participants in this class will want to have some knowledge of chords and scales. You should be comfortable with one or even two different voicings for maj 7, maj 6, dom 7, dim 7, min 7, min 6 , and min 7b5 chords. Knowledge of two or three different major scale patterns would also be an asset. We will play tunes as a complete group and will also split into smaller groups of two or three players so that everyone gets lots of opportunity to play rhythm, play the melody and to improvise. By using just a few tunes and keeping them simple we hope to maximize the music making and fun aspects of this course.

You Are A Soloist 

—Joe Vinikow 

We're all improvisers. We speak, hum, and whistle as effortlessly as we breathe. So why should wrangling up a little riff freeze us with fear? This class will use simple techniques to build confidence and fluency in creating short melodies on the fly. Using easy rhythmic devices, we'll create effective improvisations using very few notes. And with a few basic chord forms, we'll learn to find arpeggios and scales, for weaving melody lines over simple chord changes. Most of all, we'll experience the fun and exhilaration of making our own music up as we go. So let's roll!

Beginning Comping 

—Craig McGregor 

You've learned basic swing chords and you can play some songs. What's next? First, we'll learn four inversions of the basic chords on two sets of strings. Then we'll learn the "Common Chord Progressions" that make up most standards. We'll play them in lots of keys and learn to spot them in songs. We'll use the "Number System" to memorize and transpose those progressions and songs and work out the 3-note voicings from the 4-note chords you already know.

Beginning Swing Rhythm Guitar 

—Nancy Thorwardson 

Expand your playing with this lively guitar style that sounds great with standards and western swing music. Learn swing chord forms and strum patterns, explore swing chord progressions and substitutions, and grow familiar with reading and playing from chord charts. Become a strong yet subtle rhythm guitar player, and you will be welcome in any jam session!
 
Ukulele players are very welcome to join this class!

Vocal Improvisation and Musicianship 

—Jennifer Scott 

Let's explore the wonderful world of interpretation and improvisation! Using swing, jazz, latin and ballad repertoire we will practice the many techniques in making a song your very own by 'using your ears' to improvise a melody and 'scat sing' through the chord changes. We will work on recognizing a variety of song forms, implementing rhythmic riffs, finding your 'scat' language, hearing scales, modes and altered melodies. Become more confident in expressing yourself — thinking and reacting better while playing or singing with others. This class will give you the tools to take your vocal performance to a higher level.

Vocal Jazz Repertoire 

—Karin Plato 

Learn how to build a varied and fun repertoire. We’ll explore swing, bossa, bebop, ballads, and blues. Create a repertoire that will continue to expand and develop with time and experience. We'll sing the tunes and discuss the merits of each. This class will be helpful for novice vocalists and experienced singers alike.

Get the Most Out of Your Voice

—Colleen Savage 

All the best musicians go back to basics on a regular basis. Those basics are tone, tuning and time. This means using the fully relaxed and natural resonance of your voice, the inner hearing that is the foundation of your confident pitch, and listening to the rhythmic pulse that is your body’s natural way of doing ... everything! Singing integrates the body, mind and spirit.

If you are a ‘just beginning’ singer or if you want to strengthen the foundation of your technique you will get a step-by-step method for creating your unique, best sound, along with the conceptual understanding of basic melodic structures and plenty of singing including gospel, blues and ‘Doo-wop’ harmonizing.

Bring your ears, heart and guts.

Swing Mandolin 

—Radim Zenkl 

The main focus of this class is on improvising over the standard swing chord progressions and playing backup rhythm. It will include: scales and arpeggios covering the whole fretboard, a step by step method for practising an improvisation, basic and advanced chord forms organized into 'good voicings', strumming patterns featuring the 'bounce' swing feel, chord chart reading and writing, arranging a tune, ear training and standard swing repertoire.

Swing Violin

—Mike Sanyshyn 

The Swing Violin class will cover the basics of how to play both western swing and jazz standards. The focus will be on bowing, phrasing, harmony, and learning how to improvise using scales, arpeggios, and chord changes. During the week we'll explore legendary swing fiddlers and expand our repertoire.

Swing Bass 

—Rene Worst 

This will be a fun and informative class that will appeal to all levels of bass playing. Whether you are a beginner or a more advanced player, this class will hone and develop your skills.

The most important thing for a bass player is getting a great feel and a great sound. By using a different musical example every day (transcriptions and a CD will be provided), we will learn important tricks of the trade to achieve this. Walking lines, skip tones, hand positions, classic licks, and other important specific techniques will be covered. In addition, we will ‘use our ears’ and a little math to create confident, cool bass lines. Different swing styles (eg: western swing, big band, modern & jump) will be addressed — we’ll also have a latin groove day. Some basic bass clef reading skills are an asset, but not mandatory — my goal is to have everyone leave camp a better player, ready to take on new challenges!

Percussion 101 

—Phil Belanger 

This hands-on class will explore what it takes to play rhythms that "lock in the groove"—putting smiles on the faces of you and your band mates! We'll look at how rhythms are built over a pulse, get into beat-subdivisions, and work on exercises designed to strengthen our sense of time. You will learn the basic techniques for playing some of the most common percussion instruments—shakers, bells, tambourines, and other "toys", snare drum (using brushes and sticks), and the world of hand drums—congas, djembe, doumbeck, et cetera. We will also create some great group energy playing dynamic Brazilian and Cuban grooves. Bring your enthusiasm, instruments, and tunes that we can all listen to and play along with.

Special classes – open to all students registered at the BC Swing Camp

(note: the classes listed below take place in the late morning, following your main course;
they are open to as many participants who wish to join in; and Do Not require pre-registration)

Swing and Beyond Choir

—Brian Tate 

Lift up your voice with fellow vocal enthusiasts in exploring and performing swing, bebop, and the roots of swing: gospel, blues, African and Afro-Cuban music. All levels are welcome: music reading skills are not essential. There will be lots of opportunities for soloists.

Jazz Blues Band 

—Rueben Gurr 

This workshop will focus on blues with a swing feel. All instruments and singers are welcome. With simple, easy to negotiate charts, we will sing, play, and even compose a little through cool variations on the twelve bar form, as well as some classic jazz/blues standards. Horn charts, lyrics, harmony parts and choreography will be supplied as well, although there will be plenty of room for improvisation. Our focus will be on the groove, but soloists will have more than their moment in the sun. There will be a session on how to “swingafy” a tune and lots of ideas for those who wish to solo through the changes. All levels are welcome.

Swing Dancing for Beginners

—Kristina Olsen 

Did you know that one PE class is required at camp? Thank goodness for that dance class! Musicians are used to moving small muscle groups in precise rhythm. Come and learn to move large muscle groups in precise rhythm. We'll learn universal lead and follow techniques and try them out with swing/lindy, waltz, Cajun and Argentine tango. If you play dance music, come and learn the other side of the music by dancing to it! All levels are welcome.

Swing Dancing—Fancy Steps 

—Toby Chernoff
&
Tonya Lewis 

Morning session: Balboa
Balboa is a very close dance that is excellent for dancing to any tempo, even on crowded dance floors. There are lots of interesting variations on the basic step, which makes this a fun dance for students of all skill levels. Because Balboa takes some time and practice to master, each lesson will be a continuation of the one before it. Students should plan to attend most or all of the classes rather than treat it like a drop-in lesson.

Afternoon session: East Coast Swing
This dance goes by a lot of names, including East Coast Swing, Jive, and Jitterbug, but whatever you call it, it’s a simple, fun dance that most people can get comfortable with after only a few lessons. As always, we’ll address a few basics of leading and following, but because the basics of this dance are fairly straightforward, this class will focus on building a repertoire of moves. We’ll run this like a set of free-standing workshops, so you can drop in, whether or not you’ve attended any of the previous sessions.

Don't forget to find out about the afternoon sessions.