Kaylee Iacino
Mr.Stewart
Capstone Essay
November 20th , 2018
Camp Chords; The Music Camp That Is More Than Just Music
The eyes light up, pupils enlarge a smile spreads across their face. This is what happens
when someone talks about something they are passionate about. People are more open and social
when doing something they love. Kids need a place to be comfortable and express the love for
what they are passionate about. They also need a place to comfortably socialize. Having a music
camp for kids with a passion in music will help build them musically and socially.
Tony Davis says that “stage presence is all about comfortability.” When he was a guitar
teacher at a local music camp, he noticed after a few seconds that these kids open majorly. “the
more opportunities one has to be on stage the closer one will be to being comfortable.” With
Camp Chords, kids will learn how to be more comfortable on stage and open up, when you put
your kids in this camp they will open up and be better socially. Some might say putting your kid
in this situation and basically forcing them to socialize will make these kids shut down more.
Tony Davis said “the kids really start to open up after a few seconds on stage. The applause after
is really a huge ego boost and will spur students to continue to learn.”
Experience is the most vital thing in the music industry. Most professionals value
experience over degrees because in the college setting the give you the most perfect setting and
do not show you the bare basics of things. Some people with degrees might say that having a
degree gives you more money, in some industries that is true but in the music industry knowing/
having a real life experience is way more valuable because when you have experience you know
how it happened and why.
Music helps with education too, so by learning music in this camp not only will help the
kids will progress with their social skills and their education. They say that especially classical
music is especially helpful with helping kids remember things and concentrate better. Even
though they performed an experiment and found out that the kids remembered better without the
music I have gathered data that shows that music has helped kids focus, using this information,
you can see that music does help the brain focus.
Most of the members from the band Reason Define met at a local music camp in North
Carolina called Ballantyne School of Music and they said the most important thing they learned
in this camp was how to communicate, this shows how important social skills are in the music
industry. Now there are musicians and professionals who think that talent is way more important
than communication, but without communication you could not be successful. Communication is
the most vital thing in everyday life we would have nothing without it. So it is never a bad idea
to have your kid strengthen their social skills.
Since social skills and communication go hand and hand, having your child progress in
social skills could be extremely effective in the long run. Having a child that has valuable social
skills could help them follow their dreams, land that job or do whatever their heart desires. Now
some might state that not all jobs and dreams require social skills but, no one wants to be lonely
and you don’t want your child to miss out on an opportunity just because they don’t have good
enough social skills.
Camp Chords offers a wide range of classes for your child to take. These classes will help
your child progress in so many ways, along with building up their confidence. I know some of
you may have concerns about building up their confidence over the summer just to send them
back to school. It’s a promise that once these kids get this confidence and make these new
friends they will feel so much better as a person.
The fact that we have a communications class will really affect how they grow socially.
We will have them first present something they are passionate about to just the teacher and then
slowly add more people. There are some concerns about the presenting part but I can promise
that it might be a struggle at first but once we teach them how to present to a crowd and then mix
in things like having them preform music like they present something you all will be thankful in
the long run.
This survey I constructed will show you how much these kids and your kids love the idea
of this camp. This survey I had kids take at the beginning of the summer in the middle and at the
end. As you can see the kids were excited about the camp but nervous to break out of the box,
but the more they did the more they enjoyed themselves.
*Insert Graph*
This camp will help your kids with every musically need imaginable, Losing Streak
mentions in their interview, that “having people around you who are passionate about the same
things makes you really comfortable and relaxed because its just like making a bunch of friends
who are just as passionate as you.”
Work Cited
“Four Ways Music Strengthens Social Bonds.” Greater Good,
greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/four_ways_music_strengthens_social_bonds. Accessed 10
Nov 2018
“Summer Matters: Benefits of Summer Camps for Teens.” Evolve Treatment Centers, 12 Apr.
2018, evolvetreatment.com/blog/benefits-summer-camp-teens/. Accessed 28 Oct 2018