Girls Rock 2010!

July 13

The second day of camp is always a mixed blessing. By now, the girls have a group of friends they now pal around with and they also have a task, which is to write a song with their band. But it's also different from the first day since they sometimes seem to be more content to run around with those new friends, rather than focusing on the task at hand. They seem to forget why they're here, as they make up games and chase each other in between workshops.

But I recall this from last year, so I'm not as freaked out. Today there were a couple of workshops about assertiveness and playing in bands with boys. Really great stuff and I always wonder how much of these things sink in with the girls. Then the bands got to practice for the first time. They each got a practice without instruments and a practice with instruments. For Black Candles' "soft" practice, we talked about the song some more and the girls decided that they wanted the first verse to be quiet and the chorus to be loud. We also talked about stage presence and what they wanted to look like onstage. Most agreed with black lipstick and the t-shirts they're gonna put their logos on tomorrow, but the spray-painting the hair so that it looks like a flame bit.......well, that remains to be seen. Again, it was great that we had Anna's lyrics and I gotta tell you, that girl wrote really profound stuff. I think as we get older, we forget how amazing we were at that age. I can't wait to see what they all do with the song.

The first loud practice is always interesting. We have to remember how new it is for the girls to be holding instruments and microphones, sometimes for the first time. So there has to be some space given for them to experiment with the sounds they're creating. But at a certain point, there has to be some order. After all, there are only four days to write, practice and perform this one song before they're playing it on a very big stage in front of a lot of people. So the balance to strike with that is sometimes hard to find. And the chaos can be exhausting. Luckily, I'm not the band coach. They're the ones who have to guide the girls through the songwriting task. I'm just there to "manage" and as with last year, I find it sometimes difficult to not interject my opinions about how the song should go. Heather, our coach, is great. Anytime the girls say "Maybe we should do this here and then do that there.....," she'll tell them those are great ideas. And the girls continue to play different beats from each other. While I look at the clock and wonder how the hell all this is going to come together (and sound like a cohesive song) by Saturday! I suppose this is what it's like to be a parent. You've gotta let your kid go out into the world and experience it all from their point of view and make mistakes without you trying to pack their heads with your own opinions and perspectives right? And sometimes you stand by and watch them clearly out of sync...but you just gotta encourage them to move forward.