2008 Woodie Awards
MTSU summer camp brings out inner rock star
Byron Wilkes
Issue date: 7/16/08 Section: News
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The SGRRC is a week long day camp in which the participants, comprised of girls from ages 10 to 17, learn how to play a variety of instruments, and then form bands with one another.
The bands will play in a showcase at 7 p.m. on Saturday in the Boutwell Dramatic Arts Building for $8 per ticket.
Kelley Anderson, an MTSU art education graduate, founded the SGRRC when she was 18, after seeing a similar camp with all-women volunteers in Portland, OR.
"When I was at MTSU, I noticed there were plenty of girls in marketing and public relations fields, but not that many doing technical work, producing or recording," Anderson said. "At shows, there would be plenty of women there but none on stage and there's no justification for that difference."
"I knew I'd either be moving to the Northwest or starting a camp here in Murfreesboro, and MTSU is the place I wanted to stay," Anderson said.
This year the camp consists of 90 girls, who take classes to learn and rehearse their choice of guitar, drums, keyboards, vocals, bass and electronic music.
"The first year my daughter came to this camp she did the drums. Then she learned guitar the second year, and this year she's doing electronic music," said Kelli Morris, mother of SGRRC camper. "We got the idea to come to the camp from someone's T-shirt and thought it would be a cool thing to do."
"I love that it teaches girls who usually listen to pop music more about rock'n'roll music and what it's about," said Karyn Knecht, SGRRC volunteer beginner guitar teacher. "The camp lets the girls feel more comfortable with who they are and their personality, and learning to play musical instruments lets them discover even more about themselves."
"After I was too old to be a camper, it was a natural decision to come back to camp as a volunteer," Knecht said.
"It's very neat to see campers come back to be volunteers," said Alexa Games, SGRRC volunteer. "The showcase shows off the progress these girls make, and year after year they continue to impress."
After a morning assembly, the campers rehearse their instruments before lunch. Following lunch, a performance by a different band takes place in the Wright Music Building every day.
"I think the camp gives the girls an opportunity to be themselves and provides a cool atmosphere for girls to be creative," said Heather Moulder, front woman for The Screamin' Jacks.
Moulder has been involved with SGRRC as a camper since she was 17 years old and is currently a volunteer at the camp by performing with her band and fusing together old and new music, including blues and country as well as old-school heavy metal and experimental.
After the daily performance, campers go to panels that cover various topics ranging from how to plug instruments into amps to alternative instruments used in live performances.
Campers get a hands-on experience with the workshops that follow the panels, including their choice of band photography, screen-printing, recording, songwriting and music HERstory, which is a look at women and their accomplishments throughout the history of music.
"It's a generation of young musicians teaching to a whole different generation of young musicians that could be any where from five to ten years younger," said Chris Freeman, SGRRC volunteer.
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