!! Attention please, session 1 of Garage Band Camp at the Downtown location will start on Tuesday June 29th instead of the 28th !!

Age: 12 to 17 years old.

Now 3 locations: Downtown, West Island, and in the East End with the CME!

New way to audition!

At Garage Band Camp, guitarists, bassists, keyboard players, singers and drummers 12 years old and older learn about all aspects of making music in a band. The goal isn't to learn to play an instrument (rather, campers should in principle already be proficient on their instruments), but to get together in groups to learn and jam with each other with the sound cranked to the max!

Over the course of each two-week session, Garage Band Camp-ers will touch on every aspect of life in a band. The "Style of the Day" activity covers a different musical style each day through a multimedia presentation including photos and video/audio clips. Campers are thus exposed to a huge variety of styles of music such as: blues, classic rock, punk rock, soul, funk, world music, heavy metal and more!

Each day, a different aspect of band life is discussed, for example: communication between band members both on and off stage, compromising as a necessary tool for group work, how to find places to practice and perform, how to get the first gig, how to put together a show, the ethics of performing - what to do and what not to do, how to get known, life on tour, how to assemble a press kit, how to interact with the media, what does an agent do, and more!

Campers also come up with their band name and logo. They design a website and posters. A few days before their show, we hit the streets downtown posting the ads and spreading the word!

Warning! Sensitive ears may wish to stay clear!!!

At least three hours are dedicated to supervised practice each day. Each band gets it's own rehearsal space and the specializes counsellors rotate between them to help, direct and offer a ton of suggestions. Band members are given help deciding which songs they are going to learn. So, even if the "Style of the Day" is heavy metal, it doesn't mean that all the bands necessarily have to learn a heavy metal song… kapisch? Every two days, a few of the bands play what they've been working on for all the other bands to hear.

What's more, depending on scheduling and availability, Garage Band Camp campers may get the chance to learn Apple's “GarageBand” software, to make a video clip in collaboration with the Video Camp campers, to have a photo session, to make a recording in a professional studio at McGill University's Schulich School of Music (formerly knowned as the Faculty of Music of McGill University), to discover the possibilities and accessibility of an amateur studio, to meet professional artists, to watch DVDs of concerts given by great musicians and discuss what they observe with their teachers.

At the end of two intense weeks, the whole session culminates in a show performed in a professional hall, for parents and friends who are floored to see their precious little darlings on stage, singing, dancing, playing their instruments and expressing loud and clear what they feel in their guts.

The young participants in Garage Band Camp finish their sessions saturated with music, having had an out of this world experience, and leave with a better idea of how bands work and a few tricks on how to get their first break.

Everyone interested in the Garage Band Camp must do an audition. Following the auditions, participants will be subdivided in 3 groups: "Initiation" (beginner) "Reloaded" (intermediate) "Tour"(advanced)

Garage Band Camp offers you two choices:

• register as an individual and form a band at camp (first registered, first served!! Be ready to compromise, as all the members of a band formed at camp may not necessarily groove to the same kinds of music… catch my drift?!?)
• or register as a group (the majority of the group's members must participate).

Click here to find out how much you'll have to ask your parents to pay to participate fully in this great program!