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| Ken Perlman & Stan Werbin Directors |
You now can also find us at MySpace: www.myspace.com/midwestbanjocamp |
We are moving to charming
-- and air-conditioned --
Olivet College in Olivet, Michigan
Midwest Banjo Camp will take place on June 6-8, 2008
2007 Midwest Banjo Camp Group Photograph
The Midwest Banjo Camp IV will take place June 6-8, 2008 at the Olivet College Campus in Olivet, Michigan. Come study old-time or bluegrass banjo with some of today's best players and teachers in both styles. Our program features hands-on classes, demonstrations, two faculty concerts, and still leaves lots of time for jamming with your fellow banjo enthusiasts.
General Program:
MBC offers nine class sessions over the course of the weekend -- two on Friday, four on Saturday and three on Sunday. Each session is one hour and fifteen minutes long. There are staff concerts on both Friday and Saturday evenings; over the course of the weekend you'll have the opportunity to hear our entire staff in concert. Rounding out each evening program are staff-led bluegrass and old time jams at a variety of skill levels.
To get a better idea of what we're about, check out our Preliminary Schedule for 2008. You can also access programs for former MBC's; 2007 Schedule, our 2006 schedule and our 2005 schedule.
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See a collection of photographs from the 2007 Midwest Banjo Camp
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Check out what students said about the 2007 camp.
Check out what students said about the 2006 camp.
Here's what students had to say about the 2005 camp.
Instructors:
More than anything else, MBC prides itself on the strength of our teaching staff. Our instructors are not only great players and brilliant teachers, but they genuinely care about student progress, and are eager to lend a helping hand. See the right-hand column of this page both to find out who is teaching at MBC this year, and to access their career details.
Classes:
In the tradition of the Tennessee Banjo Institute and the Maryland Banjo Academy, our camp is committed to offering highly specialized classes with subjects tailored to the expertise of our faculty. Most of our classes are "hands-on," meaning that teachers have a set of skills or a tune or two in mind to impart, and that students should have their banjos in hand during class. Here are some classes that were popular at last year's MBC:
Old Time: |
Bluegrass: |
Demos: Some of our class sessions are devoted to demonstrations. Demos are essentially presentations or mini performances combined with explication and Q&A sessions. Somewhere in between hands-on classes and demos are those classes labeled "demo-instructional." Following are a few examples of the kinds of demos we might offer:
- Old-time finger picking styles
- Unusual Tunings
- Banjo-duets
- Playing Behind a Fiddler
- Improvisation and Variation
- Singing with the Banjo
- Fiddle Tunes on Banjo
New! More Detailed Grading of Classes
Although we offered three tracks last year Novice, Intermediate and Advanced many students requested an even more detailed system for rating class levels. This year, therefore, we are offering four tracks Novice, lower intermediate, upper intermediate, and advanced.
Novice track: We have novice programs in place for banjoists with under a year's playing experience, in both bluegrass and old time genres. Recognizing that novices have unique learning requirements, we offer a systematic course of instruction that starts from scratch, and which is designed to impart both needed skills and effective practice-attitudes.
Lower Intermediate Track: The lower intermediate track is for those players who are above the novice level but not quite up to our more specialized classes. The focus here is overwhelmingly on acquiring the skills you'll need to grow as a player. Our best guess is that students who have been playing between nine months and two years will feel most comfortable here.
Upper Intermediate Track: This track is for students who have been playing at least two years. Classes in this track are not necessarily technically demanding, but they generally require that students have considerable familiarity with the instrument.
Advanced Track: These challenging classes offer our instructors the opportunity to offer students the full depth of their expertise and experience.
Jamming: Needless to say, enabling a successful jam when the available crew is made up only of banjoists presents a special challenge. We've pretty much risen to the occasion, however, and here's how we'll organize things. First of all, we have Camp accompanists and a number of other guest musicians on hand to assist our jam leaders by playing a variety of other instruments - such as fiddle, guitar, mandolin, bass, etc.
By the way, at MBC we call our guest musicians "musos" (pronounced "mew-zoes"). Ken Perlman picked up this expression in Australia where it's an affectionate nickname for "musician" and it's more or less stuck.
Here's the kind of jam sessions we offer:
- slow jams for novices
- jam workshops for those who can play pretty well but just don't know how to play with others.
- intermediate jams: moderate tempos and common tunes.
- open jams: pretty much up to speed, but leaders will be instructed to keep tempos under control.
Or, organize your own jams -- there's plenty of available spaces -- either during the scheduled jams, immediately afterwards or at any other suitable time.
Concerts. We now split the faculty concert into two parts; half the staff plays on Friday evening and the other half plays on Saturday evening. Given that our staff contains a hefty percentage of the best banjo pickers in creation, these concerts come pretty close to achieving banjo heaven. Here's how some of our students described our staff concerts: "The best banjo concerts in the world", "As good as any bluegrass festival", "None better! What a ride!" And finally, "Either half of the faculty concert was worth it [coming to camp] alone. But both!"
Fiddle and Guitar Program: For those so inclined, we offer special classes in both fiddle and guitar, taught by our support staff. On the schedule, these are listed under "Special Events".
New for This Year |
New! Orientation/Meet the Faculty moved to Friday afternoon. For previous MBC's, both Students' Orientation and Faculty Introductions were conducted Friday evening after dinner, when we were sure of a full house. We now figure it makes more sense to hold these events prior to the very first class session, so that first-timers are not "flying blind" on Friday afternoon.
New! Pre-Camp Program on Thursday Evening and Friday Morning (at no Extra Charge for Registrants). We have noted that roughly half the staff and a few dozen students have come to town on the evening prior to camp and taken up residence on site. This year we're going have some of these early-bird instructors to run a few events on Thursday evening and Friday morning for the benefit of students who want to jump start their weekend of banjo immersion. On Thursday evening, we figure to have a social "mixer" followed by a few faculty-led jam sessions. Among the ideas we're tossing around for Friday morning are round-robin demonstrations, "clinics" on banjo technique and set-up, teachers offering advice on class-choices, and an Introduction to the Banjo sessions for total beginners. There is no extra tuition charge this year for MBC Registrants who take part in pre-camp events. However, there is a charge for lodging at the Olivet dorms on Thursday night, and you are on your own for all meals prior to Friday dinner. Be aware that as things now stand there will be no cafeterias open at Olivet College during the pre-Camp program, and that obtaining meals requires walking a couple of blocks to restaurants located in the Olivet town center.
New! More Detailed Grading of Classes (see above)
New! The Jamming Track. Two frequent requests we have gotten over the years have called for more faculty-led jams, and for holding some faculty-led jams earlier in the day. To meet both sets of demands, we're going to have a special jamming track as a class-option. Essentially, on both Saturday and Sunday, we'll offer jamming options during some class-sessions. For example, on Saturday at 10:45 am we might offer an intermediate old-time jam; on Saturday at 2:00 pm we've scheduled an intermediate bluegrass jam, and so on.
Use of Recording Devices at MBC
Many of our instructors prefer to teach by ear and example rather than by tab or other notation. Consequently, we encourage students to bring along compact recording devices, so that recordings made in class will be available after camp to serve as memory aids. As a courtesy, however, please ask each instructor at the start of class whether he or she permits the use of such recording devices.For more information, see the Accommodations and Fees page.
Read the March 26, 2005 article on The Midwest Banjo Camp from WCFCourier.com.
MBC Flyer Available to Print Out
Please help us out with publicity. Here is a pdf file file of a flyer for Midwest Banjo Camp. Print it out yourself, or ask us and we'll be glad to send you a batch.
We are pleased to present our 2008 t-shirt, designed by Ron Ault. Shirts will be available in standard sizes at the camp store on the Main (2nd) floor of the Mott Classroom Building.
MBC 2008 T-shirt Unveiled
Click on an artist to see a bio.
email: info@midwestbanjocamp.com
We are also now on MySpace: myspace.com/midwestbanjocamp
Camp Directors:
Ken Perlman
Stan Werbin
If you have any questions or concerns that you would prefer to address by phone, send us an email with your phone number and suggested times to call. We'll then get back to you as soon as we can.
Would you like to help us out with publicity? Here is a pdf file of a flyer for the camp. You can print it out yourself, or ask us and we'll be glad to send you a batch. If you have an appropriate place to post or distribute it (coffeehouse, festival, music or record store) then we would appreciate it. Thanks!
