Today the students at Bethany Band Camp not only listened to fantastic lessons filled with rich content, but were able to apply those lessons in practical ways.
Music theory was led today by Nick Allen. Students were greeted by four empty chairs at center stage when they entered the sanctuary. During class, brave volunteers were called to sit on the chairs and hold up cards with rhythms on them. Everyone participated in clapping out the rhythms, and what started as individual pattering ended as one unit in unison.
In Sandie Goldstein’s Vocal Technique Class, students began with vocal warm ups. While the lip trills and sirens may seem silly to those looking in, they’re very important to ensure that the singers don’t strain themselves and have the best sound possible. They later used these warm ups to discover their voice parts, with Braeden Moyer being a tenor and Mercy Shih being an alto.
Noah Dion’s Improvisation class was no exception to today’s theme of hands-on learning. While yesterday’s lesson focused more on the crucial theory elements of improvisation, today students stepped up to the plate and tried it for themselves. The lesson ended with a proud look on Noah’s face as he accompanied Ranitha Kota on the lower half of the piano while she improvised a melody on the top half. We hope to have many more moments like those with all of our students throughout the week.