Song Camp Intensive Review

Paul Reisler and Julie Portman's Song Camp Intensive was more impressive than I ever could have imagined! The quality of writing as well as the quality of people was extremely high, especially for the wide range of styles that were demonstrated.
Personally, I was able to learn some new writing technics as well as accompany most of the 25 participants. This was a heck of a lot of fun! At the end of every day, everyone gathered in a circle in the "music barn" so to speak and present something
original to the group. As a percussionist, this was a great exercise. It forced me to pull a lot of different tricks out of the hat. One had to be an entertainer as well as a composer or writer. With having played no less than 7 or 8 'solo" presentations, it served as fertile ground for developing a solo percussion show. As some of you know, I have been in the process of trying to get that idea in action for a while. The camp made me realize that I could do a real stripped down version, with a hand full of
instruments and come up with a lot of creative ideas. This is very exciting to me! To Paul's credit, everyone was encouraged to create to their fullest potential. I have never seen such as diverse group that was as supportive of each other in the way that this group was. We even did a concert at the end presenting our best origianl material. I highly reccommend this camp to anyone remotely interested in writing. You can't go wrong and I'm sure you will have the experience of a lifetime as I did. Paul and Julie are world class teachers and performers. John McCutchin was also a guest for one afternoon. Another great experience.

The camp also offered me a chance to do some teaching as well. Paul and I did a rhythm workshop one afternoon. Again, this forced me to pull out some old things out of the hat. I also got a chance to teach a "mini" class. I taught on another of my passions, "goal setting, motivation and Napoleon Hill. Soon there will some information on the site about Mr. Hill. His book, "Think and Grow Rich" helped me change my life in a very positive direction. I was very grateful for both of these teaching experiences. I will have more on Napoleon Hill on this site very soon - stay tuned and visit often. I will return the first week in August after a much needed rest.
Peace - JIM