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.
Monday, Aug. 4
DEAR PHAWKER,
We started off 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