Midwest Uke & Harmonica Camp 2018 – Overview

The 3rd Midwest Uke & Harmonica Camp (MUC) has entered the history books.  And it was as epic as the previous two years and getting larger!

So let me start with the general and move to the specific items to share with you.  I’ll share my workshop and instructor info in a separate post.

Attendance has grown, there were 100 more people than there were at the first camp, getting close to 200!  Which means more people to jam with, more folks to share with and more opportunities to learn!

Olivet College is simply beautiful this time of year!  The campus is green and lush and there are well kept beds full of flowers and perennials.  The classrooms and most areas are air conditioned to help with comfort.

Workshops are diverse and full of choices!  This year featured six ukulele tracks, Beginner, Confident Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced Intermediate were joined by a Baritone and an All Levels track.  There was also the harmonica track and a variety of other options, including music theory and vocal classes so each camper had to select from at least 7 workshops in every time slot!

The event kicked off at 1 in the auditorium.  Ben Hassenger and Stan Werbin hammed it up as they went through the schedule and overview of everything going on for the next 48  hours.

The concerts are pretty amazing.  The Friday night concert features the ‘newbies’ that are at their first Midwest Uke Camp.  This gives the students a chance to see these new individuals and encourage them to take their classes.  Friday night this year featured Jim D’Ville, Victoria Vox, Neal Chin, Melissa Sigh and Heidi Swedberg and Daniel Ward.  There were also a handful of other instructors pulled in to play with them for various numbers including Bass (Frank Youngman), Gerald Ross, and Andy Wilson on both harmonica and suitcase!

The first concert was followed by a group work up of the disco song, Funky Town, with Sarah and Craig teaching us three different parts to do the disco.  And then a strum along led by the always great Strum Master Mike Heffran.

Saturday’s concert included Sarah Maisel and Craig Chee, L’il Rev, Marcy Marxer and Cathy Fink.  The concert culminated with a Unrehearsed Band of Frank Youngman, Andy Wilson, Gerald Ross and Sandy Weltman.  Each of the four picked three songs, they revealed their list to the others and they had 30 seconds to pick one of the three to play. Not knowing what songs were going to come up, they each had staged a variety of instruments to hedge their bets and be prepared for anything!   It was great fun to watch them pick a key and get started, passing the melody back and forth.

I also had a couple of really cool things happen that really made my week.  One was walking to breakfast and a woman introduced herself. Her face was familiar, but until she reminded me, I hadn’t realized that she had attended a workshop I had given a year ago to a small group of ten folks.  She was at Uke Camp because of that workshop and the confidence level it gave her!

Challenges:

You WILL suffer from FOMO.  Fear Of Missing Out is a very real malady, almost as bad as UAS.  The simplest solution is to make sure you block off the weekend so you can come back next year!

You are staying on a college campus in student dorms.  They aren’t the Hilton. They are spartan but functional.  And there are no elevators, so if stairs are a problem, make sure you let them know when making your reservation.

I found the food to be pretty good, certainly above the quality I remember in most college cafeterias.  Good enough that I actually put on a few pounds over the weekend! The staff were all friendly and able to accommodate special dietary needs without issue.

Bottom Line:

GO!

While the initial price may seem a bit steep, when you break it out, the value is certainly there!  Most workshops will cost you $35 to $40 for an hour and a quarter class. You get eight workshops at MUC!  There are two concerts with some of the top musicians in the ukulele and harmonica world, easily a $50 value.  Add in a bed, six meals, a Saturday night snack, numerous strum alongs, impromptu stairwell singing and you have yourself a terrific weekend!