Editor's Note: This week, on the campus of Girard
College, Girls Rock Philly! is holding their summer Rock Camp for girls
ages 9-17. The campers get their choice of concentrations in guitar,
bass, drums, vocals, keyboard and DJ'ing. Our beloved neophyte rock diva, 14-year-old Jenn W. (Roxborough represent!), is on the scene and will be sending us dispatches from Rock Camp all
week. She's also our niece, and for that reason alone, totally rocks our socks.
Monday, Aug. 4
Monday, Aug. 4
We started of the day in the auditorium of the Elementary
Building, with all the girls filing in to sit. I came to camp with my
best friend C., so I
already had someone to sit with, but you could see some other brave
girls who had come to camp alone and were sitting alone -- but not for
long. A girl came
and courageously sat a seat away from C. and me. Of course, we
started up a conversation with her. Next, after all the girls arrived and we received our
name tags, Beth Warshaw-Duncan, the director of GRP,
spoke to us about
camp. All the girls and the counselors did a few exercises, like
getting
in to different orders depending on birthday months, ages and height,
which forced us all to talk to each other and find out which girls were
our ages.
After that we received papers to interview each girl to find out their
ages and what sort of music they
listened to. After speaking with most of the girls, everyone had to
write down four or five people they wanted to be in a band with. While
the volunteers went through the names and formed the bands, the girls
over
age 13 were grouped as The Legends, and we went to a workshop on
songwriting. The under 13s, The Up-and-Comers, went into a workshop
about the
history of Women in Rock.
After the workshops, it was lunch. Then everyone split
up into the class they were taking. I went with the group learning
Vocals. Finally, the time we had all been waiting for, the announcement
of the band formation. Luckily, I ended up in a band with my best friend,
the girl I’d talked to in the morning, a good drummer, and a cool bass
player. Our band is made up of two guitarists, a drummer, a bass player
and the singer -- me! The instruments and amps were organized and the first
real band practice took place.
It was a really cool day. I am in my first real rock
'n roll band, and have awesome people teaching me and learning with me.
I look forward
to tomorrow and to my next Letter from Rock Camp.
xo
Jenn
Tuesday, Aug. 5
xo
Jenn
Tuesday, Aug. 5
Today at Rock Camp, we
went to some workshops. We started the day off as usual, in the
auditorium of Girard 
College’s Elementary School building, with a
morning assembly. After that, we went to instrument practice. At camp,
I am taking vocals, so I stayed in the auditorium to sing with my group
along with the piano.
When instrument practice was over, we had a choice of two workshops, History of Women in Music or 'Zine Making. I chose History because that is a topic that I find a very central part of creating my own music. In the workshop, Sara Sherr told us about about women who made an impact on music in the '30s, like Billie Holiday, all the way up to the '90s. Afterward we ate lunch and then had a second choice, of a Sound and Recording workshop or 'Zine Making again. I selected the Sound and Recording. It was great. The instructor, Kim from WXPN, taught us about sound boards at radio stations and showed us how they work. The last thing of the day was band practice. My band and I got together and continued working on our song for the showcase on Saturday. We talked about our band name, the song and what we were all going to wear for the band pictures on Wednesday.
Today at GRP camp was really fun. I am already excited about tomorrow, for making T-shirts, buttons and band art.
xo
Jenn
