Voice Camp for Teens

Sing Montana! is now pre-registering (bottom of this page) for one or more offerings of an intensive five-day summer day camp: Voice Camp for Teens. These sessions are designed for the beginning or intermediate teenage singer who already has pitch-matching competency. The primary goals of the camp are for the singers to:

  1. Discover their own natural singing voices, and
  2. Learn how to achieve a rich and pleasing vocal tone that they can enjoy for a lifetime.
  3. Be introduced to the adjustments that a choir director might ask them to make in order to blend in well with a choir. That is, adjusting from their natural/preferred vocal style as a solo singer to a more uniform choral vocal approach.

QUICK FACTS ABOUT VOICE CAMP

  • For ages 13-18.
  • Target enrollment is 12-16 singers each week.
  • Five-day day camp in Billings (location TBA).
  • Camp weeks are not yet decided, but will fall in June, July, or August.
  • Five hours per day (10:00am to 3:00pm), Monday-Friday.
  • Campers provide their own lunch.
  • Week ends with a 7:00pm Friday night recital/demonstration for family and friends.
  • Camp T-shirts included.
  • Must pass a telephone interview with the director. This includes a simple pitch-matching pre-test.
  • Tuition is $200.
  • There’s a link at the bottom to a pre-registration form. (You’re not committing or paying now. Rather, you are declaring your interest for the record, to get the planning process started.)

THE GOALS (In No Particular Order)

Voice Camp is aimed at achieving several specific goals. Here are the main ones, in no particular order:

  • To discover and to optimize one’s own natural vocal qualities.
  • To learn to produce a pleasing vocal tone that is well-suited for the type of vocal instrument each singer has by nature.
  • To overcome the fear of singing in front of others. (We provide a fun, friendly, casual, and safe environment for this!)
  • To build some new and great friendships based on singing.
  • To learn to sing high and low in one’s range, keeping that same characteristic vocal tone throughout the range.
  • To learn how to sing at will with either a “bright” or a “dark” sound.
  • To learn how to sing at will with either an “open” (“spread”) or a “covered” sound.
  • To learn to sing out loud, without being afraid you’re going to crash and burn.
  • To learn the standard vowel sounds, and to avoid lazy mixed hybrid sounds as a rule.
  • To learn excellent diction, overcoming the common “lazy mouth” habits that are common in everyday spoken English.
  • To learn how to avoid “scooping” the notes, when the style doesn’t call for it.
  • To learn how to control what amount of breath noise is included in the singing voice.
  • To learn to sing without the excess tension that so often hinders vocal resonance.
  • To discover one’s natural vibrato, and to learn how to minimize it as necessary to suit stylistic choices.
  • To maximize singing resonance in the chest, throat, mouth, nasal cavities, and cranium, creating the richest possible tone.
  • To learn how to give the kind of breath support that makes all of the above possible.
  • To learn the best practices of singing posture.
  • To learn to sing stylistically, with artistically-sound phrasing.
  • To learn the standard terminology so that we can talk with one another about the particulars of the singing craft.

THE METHODS

The following activities (in no particular order) are typical of what goes on at Voice Camp. Generally, there’s a strong mix of individual activities and group activities.

  • Solo Singing. Students will arrive at camp prepared to sing short songs from a pre-approved list. They’ll be coached by the director, working the songs line by line and repeating sections as requested. (Such sessions normally last somewhere around 5 minutes per student, and will happen more than once a day, as spaced repetition is the concept we’re shooting for.)
  • Group Repetition. The whole group will be asked to stand and repeat (all togther) certain challenging sections from the solos, with very specific technical goals in mind. (For example, “Can you make this large leap smoothly?” Or “Can you get the same quality of sound on the high note that you did on the low note?”
  • Breathing Exercises. We’ll be doing some breathing exercises that are aimed at making you the master of your own singing. Most of this is group work, though we may occasionally isolate individuals to spot check how they’re doing.
  • Vocal Warmups/Exercises. We’ll learn several typical vocal exercises that not only warm up the voice, but exercise it in various useful ways. They will incorporate various syllables, such as mee-meh-mah-moh-moo, do-re-mi… (Solfege), and 1-3-5-3-1, as well as lip trills.
  • Microphone Skills. During class each day, as well as during the week-ending recital, the students will introduce each other’s solo songs, using a microphone and PA system. By the end of the week, each one will have done this several times, getting a good amount of microphone experience. We will not be singing through the microphone, but only announcing the songs through the microphone. This is a useful skill, and it will come into play in our recital/demonstration at the end of the week.

THE REPERTOIRE

Because it’s often difficult for students to pick out what song/songs to perform for voice camp, we’ll be providing a pre-approved list of about 30 songs in various styles. Just so you know what we’re aiming for, they are all songs that:

  • are melodic and singable.
  • don’t have awkward breaks in the melody, where accompaniment is required to fill out the song.
  • don’t have morally objectionable, suggestive, troubling, or “borderline” lyrics.

Songs that tend to satisfy these requirements are readily found in these categories: ballads, “standards”, hymns, and patriotic songs. This does not rule out other song types, mind you.

We will provide rehearsal aids on our website for our pre-approved songs. This will include sheet music, audio tracks, and lyrics. And we’ll provide the audio in several different keys for each song, to accommodate singers from each voice part. We will also provide accompaniment tracks, which we may or may not use in each singing session in class, but which we will most likely use in the week-ending recital/demonstration.

All rehearsal aids will be posted at least 30 days prior to camp, so the students can select two or three songs each for their solo work throughout the week (and for the final performance).

DAILY SCHEDULE

MONDAY
9:30am Doors Unlocked / Student Drop-off / T-shirts / Name tags, etc.
10:00am Session 1. Welcome, Introduction, and Ice Breakers.
10:55am Break. (Restrooms, water, stretching, etc.)
11:00am Session 2. Group Exercises–Stretching, Warmups, and Breathing Exercises
Noon Lunch & Leisure. (See notes about Lunch & Leisure below.)
1:00pm Session 3. First solo singing (and coaching) session.
1:55pm Break
2:00pm Session 4. Solo singing/coaching.
2:45pm Harmony Time! (15 minutes of fun, ear-training Barbershop tags)
3:00pm Class over / Clean Up / Student Pick-up
3:30pm Doors Locked.

TUESDAY
9:30am Doors Unlocked / Student Drop-off / Informal pre-class icebreakers
10:00am Session 1. Group Exercises–Stretching, Warmups, and Breathing Exercises
10:55am Break. (Restrooms, water, stretching, etc.)
11:00am Session 2. Solo singing/coaching.
Noon Lunch & Leisure. (See notes about Lunch & Leisure below.)
1:00pm Session 3. Solo singing/coaching.
1:55pm Break
2:00pm Session 4. Solo singing/coaching.
2:45pm Harmony Time! (15 minutes of fun, ear-training Barbershop tags)
3:00pm Class over / Clean Up / Student Pick-up
3:30pm Doors Locked.

WEDNESDAY
9:30am Doors Unlocked / Student Drop-off / Informal pre-class icebreakers
10:00am Session 1. Group Exercises–Stretching, Warmups, and Breathing Exercises
10:55am Break. (Restrooms, water, stretching, etc.)
11:00am Session 2. Solo singing/coaching.
Noon Lunch & Leisure. (See notes about Lunch & Leisure below.)
1:00pm Session 3. Solo singing/coaching.
1:30pm Recital Blocking / Announcement Practice
1:55pm Break
2:00pm Session 4. Solo singing/coaching.
2:45pm Harmony Time! (15 minutes of fun, ear-training Barbershop tags)
3:00pm Class over / Clean Up / Student Pick-up
3:30pm Doors Locked.

THURSDAY
9:30am Doors Unlocked / Student Drop-off / Informal pre-class icebreakers
10:00am Session 1. Group Exercises–Stretching, Warmups, and Breathing Exercises
10:55am Break. (Restrooms, water, stretching, etc.)
11:00am Session 2. Solo singing/coaching.
Noon Lunch & Leisure. (Video Interviews Day!)
1:00pm Session 3. Solo singing/coaching.
1:30pm Recital Blocking / Announcement Practice
1:55pm Break
2:00pm Session 4. Solo singing/coaching.
2:45pm Harmony Time! (15 minutes of fun, ear-training Barbershop tags)
3:00pm Class over / Clean Up / Student Pick-up
3:30pm Doors Locked.

FRIDAY
9:30am Doors Unlocked / Student Drop-off / Informal pre-class icebreakers
10:00am Session 1. Group Exercises–Stretching, Warmups, and Breathing Exercises
10:30am Session 2. Solo singing/coaching.
10:55am Break. (Restrooms, water, stretching, etc.)
11:00am Session 2. Recital Dress Rehearsal #1
Noon Lunch & Leisure. (Shirt Signing Day!)
1:00pm Session 3. Solo singing/coaching. (Fine tuning after the dress rehearsal.)
1:30pm Recital Blocking / Announcement Practice
1:55pm Break
2:00pm Session 4. Solo singing/coaching.
2:45pm Harmony Time! (15 minutes of fun, ear-training Barbershop tags)
3:00pm Class over / Clean Up / Student Pick-up
3:30pm Doors Locked / Dinner Break
4:30pm Doors Unlocked / Student Drop-off
5:30pm All singers due! Final show prep/adjustments
6:30pm HOUSE OPENS FOR AUDIENCE
7:00pm RECITAL/DEMONSTRATION PERFORMANCE
8:30pm Show’s Over! / Final goodbyes
9:00pm Doors Locked

LUNCH

There will be up to an hour each day set aside for lunch. Students are to bring their own food and beverages. And we ask that you avoid foods that may tend to produce excess stomach acid or gas, as these provide nuisances to the singer! At the last few minutes of the lunch period, students will be expected to help clean the area thoroughly.

Other than for eating, the lunch hour remains casual. Some students may prefer a quiet time to rest the mind, whether reading or listening to music in earbuds. Others may prefer to socialize or play games (cards and such). All students are required to remain on location during the lunch hour.

On Thursday during the lunch hour, we’ll shoot some videos, casually interviewing the students about what Voice Camp is like and what they think about the experience. And the Friday lunch hour is where the campers can sign each other’s T-shirts if they’d like.

T-SHIRTS

T-shirts will say “Voice Camp 2023” on the front and “singmontana.org” on the back. The cost is covered in your camp fees. Students are required to wear them for class each day and for the Friday night recital. (Frequent laundering throughout the week is most appreciated!)

ABOUT THE STAFF

At least two Sing Montana! staff members will be on location at all times during the camp week. This will include the director, Jack Pelham, and various assistants yet to be named. You can read Jack’s bio here.

MORE INFORMATION TO COME

To be published soon are the following:

  • The Voice Camp 2023 Code of Conduct. To be signed by each student and one guardian.
  • The Pre-Approved Song List and the online rehearsal aids for them.
  • Dates for Voice Camp Sessions and for Registration deadlines.
  • A Video/Audio/Image Release Form, to be signed by each student and one guardian. (This allows us to use media captured during the Voice Camp to promote more Voice Camps in the future.)

PRE-REGISTRATION

Since we don’t yet know how much interest there’ll be, it’s crucial for us to get information about interested parties as soon as possible. We anticipate that we’ll run the camp for at least two sessions (five days each), but if demand will exceed the two sessions, we really need to know about that ASAP! We’ve built a pre-registration form at Google Forms. Please fill it out and submit it. Or if you’d like to have a discussion about Voice Camp first, feel free to contact us here.

CLICK HERE TO PRE-REGISTER

Want to see it in action first?

If you’d like to get a live sampler of what the Voice Camp coaching sessions will be like, you’re welcome to come visit our Freedom Choir rehearsals on Mondays at 6:00pm. The first half of our rehearsal is quite similar to what we’ll be doing in Voice Camp. Please contact Jack Pelham to give us a heads-up if you’re coming to observe.