Music Camp in the Hamptons, Unique Approach to Learning • Rock Camp

Students in our summer music program in Bridgehampton, Rock Camp, close to South Hampton, Sag Harbor, and East Hampton, learn music with an approach we have used for years with great success. It boils down to this.

The song comes first, and technique and theory then follow.

This means whether you are a beginner or an advanced student, within the first five minutes of class you are playing a tune with your fellow musicians. By the middle of the lesson after you are playing, we then take the time to learn about technique and theory (scales, chords, harmony, reading, and more).

We find this approach resonates with students because after one is inspired, you have the desire, curiosity, and focus to then dig deep and learn more about your instrument. If we were to use the metaphor of riding a bike, we want you cycling away right away and then we later learn how the gears and the mechanics of it all work.

Once a student is inspired by that initial spark, the rest falls into place!

Teamwork, The Music and Sports Connection

There are definitely many similarities between sports and music. The importance of teamwork is what first comes to mind. Musicians in Rock Camp, our music camp in Bridgehampton, New York, rehearse and learn the music together, and adjust in real time to what everyone is doing on stage.

Basketball legend, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, says it best. 

"The whole idea of teamwork for a basketball team and a jazz group is basically the same.  You have to work within a tight structure of time, space, and rules, and you have to find room for personal expression while supporting each member in time and reacting to what they do in time and space.  Jazz shows how these constrictors can be liberating rather than confining."

 Here is a short clip of the basketball legend, Kareem Abdul Jabbar talking about attending his first music concert, Duke Ellington and the jazz-like quality to his playing.  Here is another clip of him speaking at Lincoln Center.  So good!