The Course

What is Bluescamp all about?

Bluescamp is a weekend learning experience of blues rock and jazz for:

Bluescamp is a unique opportunity to live, eat and breath music in the company of like-minded people, playing, learning, developing, chilling out, and ultimately having a great time. We have use of the excellent facilities at Cranbrook School in Kent and we will assess your standard of playing to ensure you gain the most from your time at Bluescamp.

The important thing to remember is this is not a definitive list of areas we cover, and nothing is written in stone! We wish to be flexible to cater for your needs, and are only too pleased to structure the days to your pace to make it as relaxed and enjoyable as possible. So much more than guitar school, this is the blues after all!

Guitar

For guitarists the course is intended to cover everything from an introduction to simple and easy 12 bar blues chord progressions to playing riffs in the style of Eric Clapton, BB King, Carlos Santana and more. On the theory side, we shall build up a practical use of pentatonic minor and blues scales, use of dominant chords, and extended chords for those 'jazz'moments.

Keyboard

For keyboard players, beginners with no musical training can follow the easy to understand tuition. Our Blues Piano lessons include: Basic 12 Bar Blues Introduction, 7th Chord Theory, Chords in left hand, improvisation in right hand, Introduction to Swing Rhythms, Melody and Chords in right hand & Walking Bass in left hand, etc.

Drums

Drum tuition will include playing simple rhythms, learning to keep time with the bass player and understanding a drummers' role in the band. We also cover such areas as practice tips, note values, shuffle patterns, slow blues patterns, alternate cymbal patterns, hi hat exercises, bass drum variations and more.

Bass

Bassists are often the unsung heroes in bands, but their job is working alongside the drummer in the 'engine room' keeping everything tight. We will show you how to keep a simple rhythm together using root and 5th, use of appropriate scales for walking bass patterns and improvising, understanding harmonics and chord theory.

Vocals

Vocal techniques including:

• Breathing & phrasing
• Vocal warm up
• Learning to master the "passage" articulation, pronunciation, harmonics and tone
• Refine pitch tuning, individual style and vocal interpretation of songs
• Working towards performance
• Putting into practice techniques within a song structure