Music

Music Camp

Music Camp for 2019 was held at Camp Oasis from Thursday 1 to Saturday 3 August. This year’s camp was different to previous camps with the Year 7 music students joining in the many activities. Students were involved in clinics throughout the camp that teachers ran to enhance our musical abilities. The clinics included junior funk, rhythmic & improvisation tools. A stage band workshop was also held as well as a ‘Learn a piece by ear’ workshop. Participants chose two clinics each to improve music skills further. We also worked in instrumental groups to develop skills and work on smaller pieces to perform later at our camp concert.

To break up each day, everyone had the chance to try many of the activities that Camp Oasis had to offer. This included the flying fox, fuse beads, archery, low ropes, crate climb, climbing wall and the games room. This was valuable time to relax our fingers and mouths after playing and singing for most of the day.

Everyone also took part in the evening activities that included a games night and the talent show. On Thursday, at the games night, everyone rushed to finish “minute to win it” games to win the most points for their team. The Wild, Wild West team won over a series of games that included hangman, bucket head, spray balloon racing and pencil bounce. Ruby Wang put in an amazing effort to win the whole competition with her exceptional biscuit eating skills. On Friday night we had a large number of students who participated in the talent show. The acts included, tap dancing, singing, a very unique version of the karaoke pokey, a video made by students while on camp, and a reading from the Year 11 Charles Dickens text. Also, we can’t forget the small bands that performed for us all. A huge congratulations to everyone involved, with Maisie Taylor winning this year's competition with her amazing opera singing.

Much of our work on camp built up to the final public performance to our friends and families. We prepared an instrumental piece “Crazy in Love” as a whole camp ensemble and a vocal piece of a traditional African song. We also split up to work in groups - the Year 7 instrumentalists, intermediate ensemble and vocalists and guitarists. Hours of work were put into these groups, paying attention to every detail to make sure that we presented a show to be remembered.

Overall, the camp was an enjoyable experience and the effort put in will have a significant impact on our future musical studies. On behalf of all the students who attended the camp this year, I would like to thank all the staff involved in making this another great experience for everyone who attended.

Samantha Martin (Year 9)