• have fun making music and rocking out with other eager folks.
• be expected to learn and practice your parts throughout the week
• become better at making music with others, and that will feel great.
• likely forge new friendships.
• be in a safe place where you will feel encouraged and where you, yourself, will encourage your bandmates.
• find yourself in an intimate group that meets for many weeks on end. Be mindful of your shared goals, this is a team effort. Give your bandmates the respect they deserve.
Even for those of us who play professionally, it is a privilege to be able to make music with others. We all come to this shared goal with our own unique set of experiences and ideas, but suddenly we are all depending on one another to get there. Let's simply get to it.
Read On...
There are numerous benefits to doing these band camps; and our students love to remind us of them. They summarize them like this:
It's Drama-Free, comparatively speaking.
This is so much easier than trying to start, run and organize a band on your own. The benefit is this is a class. You sign up to join a particular group. There is a teacher there to lead the way. All of the equipment is there and it works. You show up on a specific day once a week, go home and practice in between. There's a camaraderie among—and a responsibility to—your bandmates. So, you share the goal of learning your parts and knowing how to play a song together from beginning to end.
And, ultimately, you put those songs together to form a set, that you all then learn how to perform from beginning to end.
Finally, you get to showcase all that hard work for your community, family and friends, when you play your final show at BMF or at a venue like Dogwood or Quinn's or the Elks' Lodge here in the community.
It's quite a high. And deeply satisfying.
And then, like any good class, that camp is done. What an achievement. You learned those songs. You're better at your instrument. Maybe you picked up a new instrument or skill along the way. You've solidified and probably made new friendships.
So, now what? Keep playing! Take some lessons. If you're a guitar player take drum lessons. Seriously. Or keep playing on your own. Or with these same people. Join another rock camp. Join one where the music feeds your soul. Or let your next rock camp challenge you in some new way. Go out on a limb. It's a great environment where you can grow and become more musical and where everyone cheers you on.
Your boot camp's performance can be a pretty thrilling moment, so much so that you'll have trouble coming down from and going to sleep that night. You'll be trolling social media for days looking to relive it through photos and videos captured by friends and family at the event.
It's likely you're going to want to 'DO IT AGAIN!!' We appreciate your enthusiasm. And we'll do what we can to help you make that happen, but please know at this point the class has officially ended.
There is a flat $250 fee (per band) to play an additional post–Boot-Camp show.
This includes:
- One 2.5 hour rehearsal at BMF with your instructor.
- Instructor's time the day of the show, from load-in to load-out.
- The BMF engine that books and promotes the show, provides gear
- BMF will also facilitate and handle all production/load-in backline & sound check logistics, as we do with any BMF show.
- Admin/Insurance
A couple of secondary show opportunities you can consider*:
—Your band can request being added as an opener for another boot camp band that's occurring in the same cycle as yours.
—Also, there are myriad other opportunities that come up as well within the greater BMF family of performers and performances, so simply keep your finger on the pulse of what's happening here.
As much fun as it might be to run your show all over again, you should know you've already accomplished some
