Girls Rock!

Friday, July 31. Day 5.

The day before the showcase. We decided to rotate the girls through a plugged-in band practice, instead of 2 hours of instrument instruction in the a.m. So each band got 20 minutes to practice with karen (bass instructor) and sara (drum instructor). I think this worked well, considering that the girls were having a hard time keeping focus for 2 hours in instruction classes. Also, it gave them an added band practice in front of some new eyes. I sat in the bass class for those 2 hours and had the girls run thru their parts. Several times, we went to the playground for some fresh air.

In the afternoon, Trouble at Midnight had their loud practice upstairs in the drum room that was lined with mirrors. Seth ran them through the song and spent particular attention to the last line of the song, "I want my life to rock!" This is where the rest of the band was going to join in. But they weren't very enthusiastic about it. They were told to shout it loudly. But for some reason, that didn't come easy to them, so we told them to do it while looking at themselves in the mirror to show how uninspired it was. After awhile, it finally sounded loud and we ran through the entire song 3 more times. Luckily we had some comedy relief after an hour of a pretty focused practice. To start the last song, Bella was about to count everyone in but realized her drumstick was upside down. And after the song, Sadie asked the band whether, when raising her arm during the I-Want-My-Life-To-Rock line, she should hold it like this (slightly bent) or like this (straight). I don't know why Seth and I thought that was so hilarious, but we did. I guess it's easy to forget what young girls tend to focus on.


After practice, there was an hour of showcase run-through. Each band was going to have the chance to play their song in front of the rest of the camp. Finally, I got to see the other bands and it was not disappointing at all! I just can't get over how great it was to watch each girl get to this point. What a treat. During our afternoon practice, Seth asked each girl what they did well during the run-through and what they needed to change. We also got our t-shirts back with our band logos on them. I was so impressed with TaM's logo, considering how quickly they threw it together. I think it was Tuesday when the girls got to work on designing their logos. During this workshop, the managers & coaches had a meeting. When I walked into the logo workshop with only 10 minutes to go, I saw that each girl was doing their own drawing. After realizing that they had not agreed to any one thing, they voted on each of their drawings. There were 2 that got the most votes so they worked on putting them together. They didn't have much time to work on it, but it came out so great nonetheless. Maggie May's moon saying "That's Ms. Trouble to you," was so very appropriate!

Finally, at the end of the day, the lovely Marni (guitar instructor) gave a kickass workshop on how to work with male musicians. The girls seemed to really like this workshop. At one point, Marni told them that if they're not moving their own gear, the boys aren't going to take them seriously. So she enacted a scene of how to do that even though they might not be able to lift gear. She got down and lifted one end of an amp and shouted to fellow female volunteer "Hey Joe, come help me lift this. I want to move it right over there." This way, girls can convey a self-confidence that proves that they are in the band and that they are as strong as the guys, which is important as a female musician in a male-dominated industry.