THE BLUES: From Shouts to 12 Bars  $225

July 7 – 12, 9 am – 4 pm (extended care available)

Pics from The Blues week 2013

Besides the tonne of musical games and other fun-in-the-park activities we do every week, Blues Camp 2014 explores the roots of the blues through the pentatonic scale, African American shouts, work songs and gospel tunes as well as the blues itself – from its swingin’ roots to present day R&B.

Campers will also:

• build and compose on their own instruments (and explore some ideas about acoustics)
• learn and improvise on the pentatonic scale, African American shouts, and work songs
• vocalize rhythms and chord progressions of the blues
• write lyrics to, compose, improvise and sing over 12-bar blues.

From the pictures above of Blues week 2013 you can see some campers making Diddley Bos (the precursor to the slide guitar). The plan is to make more of those this year but we’re also toying with the idea of building modified washbasin basses! We’ll be taking some time during March break to experiment and see if it’s doable.

In the meantime, click the picture below and have a listen to what a Diddley Bo sounds like (it’s so bluesy):

Check out our Gallery for more pictures of previous camps!

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