[Harp-L] Harmonica Jam Camp, Anaheim 2004

[Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>]

I attended Jon Gindick's Jam Camp this past weekend as an instructor,
and had a great time.

We had about 40 campers together in a hotel for a long weekend of
large and small group classes, one-on-one lessons, small jam circles,
and a big jam at the end with a band in a restaurant/bar.

This was my first Jam Camp and it was a really great experience. I've
known Jon Gindick for 10 or 12 years and I've always been impressed
with his enthusiasm for the instrument and his willingness to help
anyone involved with the harmonica to further their goals. When he
invited me to participate in this one, I was really jazzed.

Jon is the guiding spirit and keynote speaker at Jam Camp. Dennis
Gruenling, Allen Holmes, and I were the three other teachers, with
Harmonica Bob and another guy whose name is escaping me as
the "guitar slaves" - guitarists whose sole function was to accompany
the playing of campers and teachers (though Harmonica Bob is an
accomplished harmonica player with plenty of good information at his
command). Nicolas "Froggy" Fouquet came from southern France to
participate as part of his monthlong harmonica tour of the U.S. and
helped campers with workshops on harmonica repair and adjustment.

Keeping everything running smoothly was the cool, adroit Mark Wilson,
who always had his eye out for who needed what and how best to put
people together in activities at any given moment.

Jam Camp is true to its name. After all, a jam is a freewheeling
event that evolves according to circumstance. In real life, a jam can
be brilliant, a train wreck, or anything in between. A big part of
Jon's genius lies in creating an atmosphere that is very flexible,
but never gets out of control. This allows for an extraordinary
degree of individual attention to students while allowing for a broad
array of subjects and levels from which the student can choose.

The teacher-lecturing-to-students-according-to-a-syllabus is kept to
a minimum for a couple of reasons: every student has different needs,
and most will benefit more from actually playing than they will from
a lecture environment. Accordingly, Jon's goal is, in his own words,
keeping the harp in their mouths.

Along with the circumstance and the philosophy come certain formats -
a full gathering at the beginning, middle, and end of each day, a
presentation to the whole group by each teacher (with the others
chiming as appropriate), smaller classes for whoever is interested
(music theory, amplification, repair, etc.), small jam circles guided
by a teacher, and one-on-one lessons with a teacher.

Every camper was guaranteed at least one one-on-one, and there were
often several informal follow-ups. A student might have a burning
question on a particular topic. They could approach whichever teacher
they felt was best to help with that question and either deal with it
on the spot or arrange to do it later.

I remember doing my first spate of one-on-ones. These were supposed
to be about 15-20 minutes each but I always found myself spending
longer, so as to really dig into what each student needed. Nearly all
said something like, "I want to learn more licks and riffs." This is
a little like "I want to plant a garden - what are the best plants?"
OK, what sort of garden - floral, decorative, herbal, vegetable? What
sort of climate, what kind of soil, sun or shade, etc.? Usually what
the student really needed involved something a little easier to
pinpoint than the vast sea of riffs and licks. Often it was possible
to identify what the student most needed and give them something
concrete that was immediately useful; other times it was a matter of
helping them make sense of certain concepts like positions.

After awhile, Mark asked me if I needed a breather from the unbroken
succession of one-on-ones. Five of these in a row can be fairly
intense - you're getting to know five people for the first time and
trying to figure out what they really need and then how to convey
that in a way that they can both understand and implement - all in
under half an hour. The funny thing is, I found it energizing - and
so did Jon. When I answered Mark that I was OK to continue, Jon
passed by, his face aglow with exultation as he commented, "You get
to teach ALL YOU WANT!" like it was an amazing dream come true.

After awhile I switched to jam circles. This included a guitar
player, six or seven campers, and a teacher. We'd jam a little at
first, passing solos around the circle, giving me a chance to assess
each student. Then we'd have sessions where someone might ask about
something in particular. We'd discuss it as a group, then work at
actually putting it into practice in the next round of solos. Then I
might set a task - like playing a solo utilizing only two notes,
making them work with rhythmic phrasing and expressive devices. After
the first time around I'd up the ante - campers could make a noise
when a soloist used a note that wasn't part of the two-note set.

I think the small jam circle is a great teaching tool and learning
environment. Concepts can be demonstrated, then put into practice.
Each participant can hear how the others approach the concept, and
can get further feedback from each other and the teacher.
Opportunities, difficulties, and ways of understanding all can be
addressed both in discussion and in action.

It was great seeing Dennis and Allen again. They are both friends
that I see far too little of, creative and original players who are
constantly evolving, and really fine teachers with unique approaches -
whenever possible I tried to take in what they were teaching.
Froggy, with whom I roomed, was both great fun and also amazing in
his own way. Only 22 years old, already a highly accomplished player
in several styles and a very good customizer, he has a very high
level of intellectual curiosity and like everyone at Jam Camp, a
burning desire to communicate good information. We had a lot of fun
contrasting American, Canadian, and French language and cultures.

I was a bit worried about what to do in my own presentation to the
full group. One of the problems of teaching harmonica is that
everything can quickly turn into a swamp of numbers - "In first
position, the fifth degree of the scale is in Hole 2. However, during
the V (five) chord it becomes the 1, while in third position, it
becomes the 4. Got that?" All quite true and useful to know, but a
bit hard to keep straight if you're hearing it for the first time.

So I decided to do something purely participatory, remembering Jon's
goal of keeping the harps in their mouths. But at the same time, I
wanted to change the focus from the harmonica player as soloist to
harmonica player as member of an ensemble, like a choir or a horn
section. So I came up with four different blues riffs that, as luck
would have it, all interlocked. I kept my fingers crossed that they
were easy to learn quickly - everything depended on that, and it's
hard to predict. Turned out everyone took to the riffs very quickly;
they were a great group.

First thing was to teach everyone the hand-cupped response riff - Wah-
doot!-wa-Doot! Then the left side of the room played the high,
plaintive first question riff while the right side of the room
answered with the wah-doot riff. Then the right side played the low,
vigorous second question riff and the left side got to answer. Then
both sides got to play their contrasting riffs against each other
with the instructors playing the answer. Then everyone learned a
simple two-note rhythmic lick. Then we harmonized it in two parts,
then in four. So now we could alternate between high question/answer,
low question/answer, contrasting questions, and locked rhythm in
harmony. And at certain points, anyone who wanted could play a solo
over the ensemble sound (there were some takers, but most seemed to
be having fun as part of the big sound made by this ensemble).

I was a little worried that it wouldn't work, but everyone picked up
on the parts really quickly and in a short time, with Jon's help on
guitar and Allen on bass guitar, we had the Count Basie harmonica
orchestra!

Jam Camp ends with a flourish - a big "live" jam with a band on the
afternoon of the last day, giving all who want to the opportunity to
get up on stage.

The Sunday afternoon jam was in a restaurant across the street from
the hotel, crammed with old-West paraphernalia. Harmonica Bob (a fine
harmonica player who served in a mostly guitar role) hosted a band
anchored by Southern California blues legend Bernie Pearl, and
everyone got to strut their stuff. It was a purely voluntary act -
nobody was forced to get up in front of an audience. For some, this
was a big and unfamiliar step that meant swallowing hard and toughing
it out. To make it less intimidating, the tenderfoot players got to
go first. That way they wouldn't be intimidated by having to follow a
more polished performer.

Most of the Jam Campers did in fact get up and blaze away to hearty
rounds of applause from fellow campers, friends and family members in
some cases, and one or two folks who just happened to wander in.
Later on in the afternoon, Jon, Harmonica Bob, Allen, Dennis, Froggy,
and I all got up and performed in various combinations. Dennis did
some killer work both solo and accompanying a hot female blues singer
who showed up, Froggy and Allen did a slow blues together, and Dennis
and Allen pulled out some super low-pitched harps (low Bb and double-
low F) to play horn section harmonies behind my vocals and Bb-harp.
It was nice to cut loose at the end of a satisfying but exhausting
weekend of communicating the love and the knowledge that make blues
harmonica such a fascinating obsession.

Jam Camp happens three or four times a year, each time in a different
part of the US. Jon is trying to limit enrollment to a manageable
number - the target of 35 ended up being more like 40 this time
around, and that was after some last-minute cancellations. I can see
why it's getting so popular.


Winslow


		
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