In order to determine the optimal content for Giant Steps Day Camp as well as the best class assignments for each student, SJW faculty will conduct placement evaluations at Braun Music Center in June, on dates to be announced. The evaluations are easy and fun, and they give our faculty a chance to get to know students and their level of musical experience.
The Giant Steps Day Camp placement evaluations take about 20 minutes and consist of the following:
- Instrumental technique: Students will be asked to play a piece of music, which can be nearly anything: a piece from school band, an etude from an instruction book, a song, or even just some scales. Students may bring sheet music or play from memory.
- Learning by ear. Faculty play simple musical phrases and ask students to play them back by ear to the best of their ability. Learning by ear is an important part of learning to play jazz, and it’s one of the things we work on a lot at Camp.
- Reading music. Students will be asked to sight-read an easy piece of music. This will help our faculty choose the optimal music for all Camp participants.
- Improvisation. Students who have previous experience with improvisation will asked to improvise to a recorded accompaniment.
Students who do not have experience with improvisation should not be concerned! This is what we’ll work on most at Giant Steps Day Camp.
Once you’ve registered for Giant Steps Day Camp online, SJW staff will contact you via email in with instructions on how to schedule an appointment.
If you’re not available for placement evaluations on the dates noted above, you may create and submit an audio or video of yourself playing our evaluation music. Please visit this link here for instructions on how to to create and submit a placement evaluation for Giant Steps Day Camp.
