Fiddle Camp

I am exhausted after two intense weeks of Fiddle Camp but I had an amazing time.  Hours of improvisation, jamming, accompaniment, singing, and concerts as well as the regular classes.  I took the piano class with Neal Pearlman, learning the Cape Breton accompaniment style.  Neal is an amazing pianist and a really good teacher.


Before I go on, here are recordings of some jams and performances I was a part of at Fiddle Camp.  Don't miss the last track (I put it at the end because it is 10 minutes long).


1 Improv with Will on Mandolin (love that cord progression)
2 Audry's Song (This is quite the epic tune!!!  Audry can rock that fiddle!)
3 Strangers Once More -- stage recording (Chris, Jeff and I)
5 IMPROV with Greg Boardman!!  (Try to ignore the background noises.)

I did a bit of jamming and improvisation at Fiddle Camp in the past but this year I spent hours between classes playing music with other talented musicians.  One of the days I suddenly realized that I had been playing for two hours straight with a few different people and had missed lunch.  I played with cellist, Chris Moriarty, during the first week; doing a lot of improvisation and accompanying an epic tune he wrote.  We practiced his tune for the coffee house along with Jeff Lewis, a mandolin player, but we didn't sign up quick enough and all the concerts were filled up.  Instead we had someone film us playing on the stage.

In the second week I jammed with quite a few different people and accompanied some of the fiddle jam sessions with the Cape Breton stuff I had been learning.  We performed an epic song that Audry wrote on the fiddle for one of the camper concerts.  I also did some improv performances during the weeks and sold a bunch of CD's.

One of the most incredible jam sessions I had was with Greg Boardman who I had improvised with years ago at Fiddle Camp.  The moment we began to play I felt the connection between our instruments.  I have never improvised with someone so receptive who can play my style of music.  I wasn't playing too repetitive of a cord progression but our melodies and harmonies blended seamlessly.  I felt drenched in the music, caught up in the downpour of notes.  Our improvisation was like dancing: we lead each other into different cords, emotions, dynamics with a gentle pressure to steer the other in the right direction.  As I was the leader of the cords I used the direction of the melody to hint at the next change, Greg would pick up my messages and we would flow into a new progression as if we had spent hours practicing the piece.   It was one of the most incredible musical experiences I have ever had.

Hila and I did intense Kroka training during the first week of Fiddle Camp.  We got up at 6:45 every morning and hiked for an hour with our 40 pound back packs (we also did a hike in the afternoon).  We were practicing posture which is way more difficult than it sounds.  The trick is to stand up straight and tuck your butt in so that you are holding the weight with your core strength so as to not stress your bones.  It makes what would be a breeze of a hike into an hour long sit up.  After a good week of building up those muscles I was able to increase my backpack weight back to the usual 50 pounds.


Well, soon I will post more about my financial situation and my thoughts about leaving but I need to get back to packing.
Thank you all,
Clayton