Most youth with fantasies of pop stardom don’t reach the upper echelons of fame overnight. It takes time, lots of practice, and commitment. Talent is important too, but that can come later on.
“You could argue that some people sing better than others … but the whole thing is to expose (kids) to the whole music process and to be involved in singing,” says Jim Kwan of Creativ Music Centre in North Vancouver.
He is keen in his belief that most people, especially youth, can become confident, proficient singers if they have the will to give it a shot and the platform to make it happen. This summer, Creativ is offering a Pop Star Day Camp to help foster musical interest.
“As long as they have interest in it they’ll likely have some ability. That’s the best thing about the voice: there are lots of people that sing great that have never taken a lesson and haven’t had any previous training. It’s kind of a more natural feature that everybody has,” explains Kwan.
Though he can’t guarantee that Creativ’s one-week summer camp devoted to giving young, budding pop stars a platform to sing will lead to them becoming the next Kelly Clarkson or Justin Bieber he does hope the camp will serve as a conduit for sparking a lifelong passion for music and performance. The program gives participants the opportunity to express themselves in a fun and musical environment, while placing emphasis on singing because of its low-barrier entryway into the world of popular music.
“The main thing is to really have it be fun and have it inclusive and because it’s voice it’s very easy to participate as opposed to, ‘OK, well who’s going to play drums?’ If you’ve never played drums it’s going to be hard to pull off in one week,’” Kwan says.
Pop Star Day Camp instructors aim to sharpen a young singer’s toolkit when it comes to vocal technique and will let them sing their favourite pop songs. But the camp is more than just practising musical performances – the emphasis is, after all, on being a pop star, meaning a big part of it also involves recording music and shooting video.
“Throughout the week we’ll work on choosing a song, performing a song and then recording that song,” Kwan says. “Once we’ve recorded that song, then kids will actually storyboard their own video to that song. There’s lots of creative elements in there that they can have input on.”
Throughout the week, youth will be able to shoot different scenes for the video and on the last day of camp they’ll get to watch their edited, finished music video, he says. Kwan says he expects it’ll be mainly tweens between the ages of seven and 12 who’ll sign up for this year’s Pop Star Day Camp, a vital age range for kids to discover and be influenced by the world of music.
“When they’re that age maybe that’s where they find, ‘Gee, I really like that. I want to pursue singing more,’” he says. “They’re getting into listening to popular music and maybe starting to outgrow some of the young kid-type activities. Obviously music is such a big part of – everybody – but kids seem to always gravitate towards singing along with their favourite songs.”
Kwan also suggests that with the prevalence of technology, there is something in music for everyone. He says that the technical side of recording, such as producing music or making and editing music videos, is a major aspect of pop stardom – and the camp – that youth will get the opportunity to dig into.
“With technology now, which is a big part of what we do obviously with the recording studio and video editing … we have students that have their own YouTube channels. Just this past weekend we had another student release an original song on iTunes and Apple Music and Spotify. We have that whole kind of range, from teens doing quite serious music of their own and all those kids started when they were young,” Kwan says.
He adds that all participants in Pop Star Day Camp will get to do things at their own comfort level and the most important part will be having fun and learning some new things.
“If you like music and you’re in that kind of age range, there’s a good chance you’d fit in perfectly,” he says.
It might not be pop stardom, but it’s a start. Pop Star Day Camp runs at Creativ Music Centre every week from July 17 to Aug. 25. creativ.ca
