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I have been very busy with the summer session in my college and did not have time to tell. I’m attending a piano summer school called piano week in UK from 7/10 to 7/17. I booked it when I was still working - thinking it would be great to immerse myself in music whole day. I attended US ones (summer keys) before and immensely enjoyed it.

Well little did I know, I already immersed myself in music everyday. Homework, quiz and exams for both theory and ear trainings takes at least four hours a day not including 3 hours of classroom lectures everyday. (It is because I’m taking short summer sessions. During the ordinary sessions I need to study only 1 to 2 hours for theory. ). Anyway, the charm of “immersing myself in music” kind of wore off.

The school sent me duet music to be played and also encouraged me to bring my own composition. So it sounds like a great school. I know it will be a great experience but I’m a bit overwhelmed. I will report back what it’s like once I go out there. I have to study theory at night because I will have to take the final exam when I come back (hahaha). My mom used to tell me “honey, you are smart but not wise. “. It’s so true (sighed). Well I will do my best to learn the new duet, bring up my 3 pieces to performance ready(dodgy, that is). Wish my luck.

Dear FarmGirl!

You don't have to go.

When you booked your summer camp you didn't know that you would feel this way now. From the way that you write, it sounds as if what you need is not a week of more piano immersion, what you need is a holiday. You need to rest.
I think that you have probably paid quite some money for this summer school, and airplane tickets and a place to stay, yet you can decide to accept your loss and stay home, and take your time to study theory.

Alternatively, you do go, but you cancel your classes and your duet, you enjoy being there but you only participate in relaxing activities. When the others practise, you go for a walk.

You are free to do as you please!

Where in the uk is this out of interest?

It is held at Tudor Hall School Banbury Oxfordshire. I’m not sure if I spelled correctly but it should be close.

https://pianoweek.com/tudor-hall-school-uk/

And this is the link.

Good luck in Oxfordshire, it is a lovely county. Hope you will have time to visit Oxford where Blackwell's book shop also used to maintain a good music department.

How exciting. Yes, a lot on your music plate. That said, breathe and prioritize. You can still go and enjoy it, and some things you just wouldn’t do ‘perfectly’, but that is okay. I think you are perfectly wise, maybe work on ‘less perfection’ and more enjoyment once you have prioritized.

Sounds horrendous to me. What is the point of this examination? I would skip that.

The exam is for my college. I’m currently taking summer session at my community college. I attempted to drop it because I knew I have to miss the last week but my teacher said he would record the lectures for me. These are theory 2 (out of 4) and aural perception 2. We are learning figured bass, tonic expansions, embellishments and various cadences, chord progressions with dominant, subdominant, diminished chords. I love it but it’s a bit intense. I have the mid term on July 5th for both theory and aural perception. The latter involves sight singing with solfège, rhythmic, melodic and harmonic dictations.

Ok good luck then 😉

I have been scoring high A’s for both classes and I don’t want drop it now. I will try to do everything (lol). At least I’d learn something. I looked at the duet piece this morning. It’s Debussy’s Petite Suite first movement En Bateau. Not so bad. It has tricky rhymes and leaps with staccato. But doable. I felt very relieved. I composed 18 bars of music with accompaniment last night in Theme and variation style. It has 4 beats in a bar. At 60 beats per minute I need about 15 bars of music to fulfill 1 to 4 min composition requirements.
Now i need to practice my 3 pieces.

I looked at the piano camp link you provided and it looks pretty fabulous! It might be a lot of a good thing at this point, but if anything made it all worthwhile, this summer course might. If you signed up for the most lesson packed level (can't remember the terminology) maybe they would let you "take it down a notch " after you get there. Can hardly wait to hear about it.

The website says that all participants will benefit from:

Master classes
One-to-one & duet lessons
Jazz improvisation
Harmony, pedalling, fingering and memorisation classes (adults)
Composition classes (with a chance to perform their own composition)
Seminars on how to practise
Sight reading classes
Talks on stage presentation & history of the piano
Informal concerts and discussion forums
Multiple performance opportunities
Free entry to all faculty & guest artist recitals

All that in one week? It reads like sensory and physical overload to me. What about practice time?

Of course one has to have confidence in the programme and hope that it is well organized and thouightfully put together, but I do wonder how much one will get in one week and be able to absorb from such a crammed programme. At roughly $2,000.00 US for the Standard Programme, it's a considerable investment - adding in travel costs - and one would hope it would all be worth while and provide some long-term benefits.

Regards,

FarmGirl
I hope you will have a great time! The other pisno camps I have been to have made classes optional—so if you need to practice or take a nap, you can skip 😊

Please provide an evaluation when you get home - and have time to do so

Bruce, the price includes room and board. Compared it actually comes even compared with Summer keys. I don’t have to rent a car there and my flight $1,000 was cheaper than flying to Main. I was actually looking for more relaxed piano holiday type event in Southern France. But it was already booked up when I checked it in March. I booked the same French one 2 years ago and had to cancel it due to CoVid. The French one is probably double the cost of this one. It sounded good though. Playing piano in the morning and hang around drink unlimited amount of wine (next to a local winery) at the pool side of the French castle. I frequented UK for years on business. I can get around by myself without my hubby (he cannot come due to his work). That’s how i settled on the UK one. I’m meeting with my old friends in London and York before and after the event as well.

I am not looking for deep long term improvement from this trip alone. I don’t think anyone can teach this old girl to fly so easily (lol). That would be a manic. I am currently pursuing a music degree diligently (would be my third degree lol). Anyway I wanted to travel overseas badly after 2 years of no travel. Of course I had to admit I was a bit surprised by the strict schedule at the beginning. It was a shocker😊😊😁. But I got over it. As my hubby says I could get to go to England for vacation with piano. What was I complaining about😊😊. All’s good.

My duet partner contacted me and she sounds very nice. I would focus on making friends and enjoy. I might pick up one or two new things in the process.

Thank you everyone, I will report back to you. It sounds like I’m placed in a dorm of the girl’s school. It’s an independent school for girls (6-13) that is close to what we call private boarding school in US. They have music building! I went to private girls school 4-18. My hubby said i would fit in well then😊. I looked at some pictures and indeed those pictures reminded me of my childhood. I was not a boarder though. They do have swimming pool too. We could swim 4 pm to 5 pm!

@Farmgirl,

I live here in the UK and in our county we have two excellent Independent school. Both run summer music schools too and I can assure you that you will be in great hands. My two kids went to these school one Uppingham School and the Other Stamford School but Oakham School is also fantastic for music Scholars. These summer events are the best! - The Staff are the very cream of their profession. Have a great time over here ,, you will love it and only want to come back again and again.

Farmgirl, this all sounds very exciting!

Intensive summer programs, in any field, are always intense and often stressful. I did summer intensive language programs two summers in a row as an undergrad, and I have also taught those courses recently as a prof. In the middle of it, you hardly know if you’re learning or retaining things. But when it’s all done, it’s incredibly satisfying to have made it through and the learning continues to percolate in the weeks and months after.

So it’s understandable that you (Farmgirl) might want to (even need to) vent here, but that doesn’t mean you want to or need to drop out of your current classes or cancel your UK class.

I think it will be intense the whole time but you will be really glad to have completed both programs! You can do it!!

Killometer
Thank you for the UK insider information. I felt much better.

Shirokuro,
Thank you for your kind words. It’s been so time confusing. It left me only a couple of hours a day to practice. That is the reason for my complaining. I love my summer classes. I cannot describe it in words very well but these classes are teaching me what I exactly needed or unconsciously wanted. For example, the day after we studied Cadential 64 in my theory class I noticed several cadential 64’s in my Mozart score. The knowledge of cadential 64 changed me to play those spots differently (slightly accenting the common base notes with cadential feel). Then I realized that music came alive. For the rhythm section of the aural perception, we just went over singing and clapping compound meter with super triplets (3 notes in place of 2 note value) and duples (2 notes in place of 3 note value). Guess what I found in Debussy’s piece. Super duple’s!!! I never played them correctly before. It was more like broadway duple. Now I’m metro correct. We get tested on singing, clapping rhythms and dictating those rhythms sprinkled in 8 measures. So in short, I’m super happy about my summer classes. I will write more on this separately but it made me happy that I could learn those rhythms too. I used to think I was a tone deaf and rhythm retard. I hope I can learn something in Uk and enjoy company of old girls😁

You will be 59 miles away from me😁