DRUMLINE SUMMER CAMP 1 - GO!

Well hello and happy summer to y’all!

Last week, my dear friend Connor Murdock and I had the pleasure of hosting a week long drumline camp here in Kelowna. It took place at the BTN Studio with 14 kids in attendance, ages ranging from 11-15.

We had students walk in Monday with varying degrees of experience, some having played for many years, and others who had only played for kicks. This was a pilot project intended to show a few investors that a Local Drumline was not only doable in Kelowna, but that it would be exciting, fun and worthy of doing more. We had some pretty decent gear from Yamaha that included a few snares, bass drums and vests. Otherwise, we had to create DIY quad toms and piece together a few things to have enough gear for everyone.

The week was full of laughter, learning, play and practice as the students learned the meaning of unity and becoming one sound and one body with many working parts. It was so cool to watch as the kids began understanding there roles in the drumline and how that knowing affected their overall playing. With a strong yet loving push from Connor, we were able to learn 6 pieces by Thursday. On Friday, we packed up all the gear into a trailer and hauled it down to the city where we performed the set twice for a crowd of at least 100 people for 45min. In the crowd were parents, grandparents, siblings, cousins and strangers. The kids decided that they wanted to busk for ice-cream so thats exactly what we did. in 45min the kids made well over $350! We celebrated in the Okanagan sunshine with melting ice-cream and it was glorious.

Big thanks to our supporters and sponsors, KCS Music, Heartbeat Percussion, BC Sportswear, Axe Monkeys, Studio9, Latin Fiesta, Parlour Ice Cream and Festivals Kelowna.

Enjoy the photos that were taken by our official BTN photographer Steven Wickenheiser and keep an eye out for our second week of camp taking place Aug 12th-16th.