Class Descriptions


PENNY NICHOLS Harmony Singing and Vocal Technique

HARMONY SINGING

Have you ever wanted to learn to sing in harmony better, how to do it and where it is appropriate in a song? You will have a chance to experience for yourself the fun and unique qualities of singing in harmony and how to begin to master the skills needed to sing in harmony well. You will learn listening techniques, how to recognize chordal relationships and how harmony fits into a melodic landscape. Join us for a fun and empowering experience!

VOCAL TECHNIQUE

I will be teaching basic singing skills for anyone who would like to explore singing in a relaxed and friendly setting. You will learn exercises to relax your body and prepare for singing, to work with pitch perception and tone as well as exercises to strengthen your voice and to use your body to resonate sound. You will leave with a whole new set of tools to help you become the singer you want to be!

KRISTINA OLSEN Partner Dance & Tone Production (guitar)

PUSH-ME/PULL-YOU - THE PHYSICS OF PARTNER DANCE

Learn universal lead and follow techniques so you can dance with anyone to any music! This class is appropriate whether you are a total beginner or an experienced partner dancer. We will explore where the lead comes from and how the follow can best react to the signals from the lead and move as one body instead of two separate ones. You do not need a partner to come to class!! You just need a flexible mind and a desire to dance! This class has been the surprise hit at swing camps in Canada and the States.

TONE PRODUCTION FOR GUITAR

Let's look at how to make the guitar really sing, screech and howl. Often we focus on the left hand and forget completely about the right hand, so we play all the right notes but they don't sound great. We'll learn different pieces with the focus on how the notes sound using lots of different right hand techniques.

COSY SHERIDAN Songwriting and Guitar

SONGWRITING GAMES FOR ALL LEVELS

Whether you've never written a song or written lots of them, this class is a chance to flex your songwriting muscles. Each day we'll have an in-class exercise to help us explore melody or lyric, or both. We might cut-and-paste other songs together. Or play melody cards. We'll have a guided meditation. We might try co-writing. This class is all about loosening up and just having fun with our creativity. If you've never written a song, never fear! We will discuss the various songwriting tools that we'll be using in class.

DAVID ROTH Story Songs & Introduction to Open Tunings

STORY SONGS If a picture’s worth a thousand words, perhaps a song can tell a whole story. Join us as we examine musical narrative and how to extract key elements – plot, character, conflict, theme, and setting – from stories that move us, and blend them together with melody, rhythm, and chord progression into compelling songs that do the same. Bring a story that moves you and we’ll see what we can do to focus, condense, describe, stimulate, and “songify” it. We’ll also use one session to do a group co-write of a custom-made song for a sick child and his/her family for the Songs of Love Foundation in New York...very meaningful and powerful.

INTRODUCTION TO OPEN TUNINGS Welcome to the orchestra of your fingertips – six beautiful, bendable, and RETUNE-able strings! We’ll start by changing one string at a time and gain instant access to a road well traveled by the likes of Gordon Lightfoot, Joni Mitchell, Cat Stevens, and more. We’ll take a look at DADGAD and ”Open G” for starters, and the good news is you don’t have to be a guitar wizard to take this class (but it IS helpful if you play enough guitar to negotiate basic chord changes). Importantly, we’ll have fun doing this together, you’ll love finding fresh voicings to some of the standard chords you’ve been playing up til now, and you may fall in love with the guitar all over again.

ANKE SUMMERHILL Beginning Guitar

3 EASY CHORDS AND A SONG
We will learn a few basic beginning guitar chords and an easy song. This class is for the very beginner, who would like to explore the instrument as a means of accompanying themselves while singing.

BILL McGINNIS - Ukulele

Aloha! Do you already play ukulele? Great! Do you play some guitar and would like to play uke as well? Fantastic! This class will build on what you already know and create a solid foundation of ukulele skills using songs in the Hawaiian tradition as well as tunes from ukulele movement currently sweeping the modern music scene. Topics will include ukulele scales, chord structure, strumming and picking pattens and maybe even some alternate tunings for the mighty uke, time allowing. Aloha shirts are not required but sure would be fun!

DAVE STEWARD - Guitar

SWING STYLE RHYTHM GUITAR

Are you curious about what drives the music of the Big Band era, the Western Swing of Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys or the Gypsy Jazz of Django Reinhardt? If so, you’ll want to learn the fundamentals of playing swing style accompaniment. This class will give you the tools to enable you to back up anyone from a vocalist or fiddle player all the way to a small combo or even a big band.

Students will learn the basic strum unique to swing using three-note chord forms. These simple shapes move up the neck enabling the player to break out of the first position without the fuss of difficult bar chords. We’ll learn some classic swing tunes and also touch on a variant of this style used by Western Swing players.

Spice up your music with some hot swing. It’s guaranteed to get toes tapping!



CHAD NIEHAUS - Open-Air Art Class

Again this year the folk camp is offering something unique to music camps - a non-musical course.

Chad's plan this year (weather permitting) is to paint the Colorado River from the vantage point of the pedestrian bridge just north of Moab. The bridge location offers easy access (maximizing our art time) and a variety of subject matter. It will be fun!

You will need the following supplies to get the most out of the plein air painting class:
- a sketchbook (small and cheap OK!)
- a Sharpie Ultra Fine Point marker (or other fine-tipped permanent marker/pen)
- a simple watercolor kit (a kid's Crayola kit works fine) with a brush
- a 12 or 24 pack of SOFT pastels (not oil pastels)
You should be able to buy all of the above for around $25. FYI, the only thing that is NOT available for purchase in Moab is the pastels. To see some of Chad's art, follow THIS LINK