This summer each two-week session will create a music video to a popular song. Past songs have been from artists such as; Imagine Dragons, Coldplay, Taylor Swift, Vampire Weekend, Ellie Goulding & The Beatles. Students learn to perform, record and edit musical parts, incorporating keyboard, bass, drums and vocals. Mini-classes and Game Shows are used to teach students instruments, learn songs and build musical knowledge.
Free Time – Students rotate between group time and free time where they get stamps for the tasks they complete from their goal sheets. Each student is assigned tasks and parts tailored to their interest and level. designed so every level of student can participate and grow their skills. Tasks might include such things as practicing an instrumental/singing part or doing a note reading game at a ipad / keyboard station.
Mini Classes – Reading, Singing, Keyboard, Drums, Guitar & Bass are taught in short classes designed to be flexible and tailor to student’s individual level so that everyone learns something new. Students all grow or build reading and keyboard skills while getting to also explore other instruments.
Game Show – Students are divided into teams where they battle it out with game show buzzers to answer music notation questions and perform/count out rhythms and drum patterns for points. This is a really fun way to drill on information that they need to know to play and read music. It’s amazing to watch them get super excited competing while they’re actually learning!
Music Studio Recording – Students each record at least one part that goes into the song recording that we build from scratch. We record vocal, keyboard, bass, guitar and drum parts. After it is edited and mixed it is sent to the video portion of the project
Creating the Music Video
One of the earliest things we did in camp was to analyze some music videos. We discussed the various types of video styles, from documentary to fantasy, how music videos can be themed with the music or in juxtaposition to the music. As a group we counted the number of scene changes/edits and discussing the amount of time necessary to set up and shoot each scene for a group of currently popular music videos. After analyzing them for style, composition and editing, we began to plan out our own video. The documentary style we used incorporated a small compatible narrative in line with the lyrics of “Ready or Not” as well as moments from our time together meant to reflect their experiences together these last two weeks. A little over four hours of footage and almost 500 pictures were shot in order to build the 3-minute video. Learn more information on Park Slope Music Day Camp when you fill out the contact us form!