Someone requested I cross post my piano camp review on this forum.
I am writing this as I lay in bed the morning after the recital at Rocky Ridge adult piano camp in Estes Park, Colorado.
It was a great experience. I sh#t the bed on the recital because I have severe stage fright and the piece is fast out of the gate. My previous playing at the Vermont ( Bennington, Sonata). camp went much better but I had chosen pieces that start slower at the beginning.
That was a learning experience for me.
The faculty is top notch and the food was excellent. That was the case in Vermont as well.
The level of talent among students was amazing.
I started learning piano as an adult and have had lessons only the last 2 years. Thus I don’t have a good ear for classical music. Therefore when playing a Bach invention for a Juliard trained professor I’m about crapping my pants.
Overall I am well out of my league here. I don’t know if I’ll be back but that’s is a reflection on me and not the camp. Also I just failed really hard at the recital, like a scale of 11/10. I was so mentally blank that I played an incoherent first 1/3 of the piece and improvised an ending because I hadn’t even got to the more difficult part.
That’s on me.
The first year I went to Vermont camp I hadn’t yet started real lessons and also felt intimidated (though I played the recital well.). So it took me 3 months to decide that I would come back.
Overal I felt more comfortable being a beginner at Bennington, though both camps have supportive and non judgmental students and faculty. Also the Vermont camp is monthly and this is just once a year. I don’t want to take a spot from someone more advanced than me that would benefit from this experience.
One thing this camp has clarified… I am not and will never be, a classical pianist. I don’t enjoy playing most classical pieces and growing up my brain was wired on pop, jazz, and country. From here on out I will choose good arrangements of music that I like. It’s neurological I think.
