We regret to announce that Voice Camp 2023 has been canceled. We hope to give it another shot in Summer 2024. If you’d like to be informed about that, please contact us.
Here’s the flyer! Please print it and post it wherever you think it will help spread the word! (You can read the same text, along with further descriptions below the flyer.)
To register, read this whole page (please!), and then
follow the registration directions at the bottom.
What the Flyer Above Says!
What: A 5-day, intensive summer day camp for teen choral and solo singers.
Why: To help you become the strong singer that people want to hear!
When: July 24-29, 2023, Monday through Friday, 10am to 3pm, with a 7pm recital/demonstration on Friday. (We could possibly run a second camp after this if there’s enough interest.)
Where: St. Andrew Presbyterian Church. 180 24th St W, Billings, MT 59102
For: Singers, 13-18 years old, who can match pitch. Soloists or choir singers. Limit: 16 singers.
Cost: $250. Includes t-shirt and lunch on Friday.
By: Voice Camp is an educational outreach of Sing Montana! The camp is hosted by professional director and vocal coach, Jack Pelham. (Sing Montana! is not affiliated with St. Andrew Presbyterian.)
MAIN GOALS
∎Discover your own natural singing voice, and find out what it can do.
∎Achieve a rich and pleasing vocal tone you and others can enjoy for a lifetime.
∎Learn to overcome anxiety about singing in front of others.
∎Increase your harmony kung fu with daily Barbershop tag singing.
∎Learn to make the adjustments a choir director might ask you to make to blend with a choir.
DESCRIPTION
This is a super-fun, high-humored, hard-working workshop with lots of group activities and exercises, as well as lots of master-class-styled singing instruction as each participant sings for the class. Yes, that can be scary, but it’s so worth it, and by day two, most have pretty much conquered the fear, and are having a blast! If you’re like most, you’ll make improvements in your first 5-minute solo session that you never thought you could make! And we’ll get some great harmony experience learning several Barbershop tags. We’ll perform those, along with your solo pieces on the Friday night recital. There’s a 60-second pitch-matching test to qualify for Voice Camp. Get a new t-shirt and make new friends!
TRY BEFORE YOU BUY!
Sing Montana! Freedom Choir will be having a few one-night voice class sessions quite similar to this over our summer break, on most* Monday nights from 6:00 to 8:30. You can come observe (or participate, if you like) to see what it’s like before you register for Voice Camp 2023! (201 East Main Street, Laurel, MT)
*Contact us before you come!
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 fear of crashing and burning!
- To learn the standard vowel sounds, and how to avoid lazy/mixed vowel sounds when you want to.
- 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. And we believe that this method of teaching is superior to private voice lessons for beginning and intermediate singers.
- Solo Singing. Students will arrive at camp prepared with three or four memorized songs, which they will sing unaccompanied. (See more about the song selection below.) 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 strategy we’re shooting for.)
- Group Repetition. The whole group will be asked to stand and repeat (all together, or sometimes one by one) 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 fun, low-pressure 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, as the students will help to emcee the event.
THE REPERTOIRE
The idea behind the song choices is simple: We want basic songs that are good for working on the fundamental skills of singing. We strongly recommend that you avoid highly-stylized renditions because many students have a hard time differentiating between the basic song and the rendition they have memorized. We may have cause to ask a student to alter a line here or there—for teaching purposes, and not necessarily for artistic ones—so we need you to remain flexible in your view of the songs you pick.
So what we are aiming for are 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, but it explains why we’re steering you this direction.
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.
2:30pm Harmony Time! (30 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.
2:30pm Harmony Time! (30 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.
2:30pm Harmony Time! (30 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.
2:30pm Harmony Time! (30 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.
2:30pm 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.
CODE OF CONDUCT
It is the Director’s job to ensure the best-possible experience for everyone in the camp. To this end, we have to agree on what is and is not good behavior. Every student (along with a parent) must read and sign the following Code:
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!) We’ll have a t-shirt signing time at lunch on Friday for those students who might wish to autograph each other’s shirts.
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.
RELEASE FORM
We will soon make available 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 Sing Montana! events in the future.) A signed form will be required for registration and attendance.
FOUR-STEP REGISTRATION
- Fill out the Google-Forms pre-registration form here.
- We’ll contact you and set up a short telephone chat to be sure we’re all on the same page, and to administer the simple pitch-matching test to your student over the phone.
- Once the pitch-matching test is done, you can hold a seat with a $125 deposit. (The deposit is only refundable if we cancel the camp.)
- The final payment (of $125) will be due on or before the first day of camp.
So, to get the ball rolling, either
CLICK HERE TO PRE-REGISTER
Or if you’d like to have a discussion about Voice Camp first, feel free to contact us by phone or email here.
Want to see it in action first?
Freedom Choir is having a few informal voice class sessions this Summer, and they won’t be exactly like voice camp, you should be able to get a really good idea of what it would 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.