Young musicians form makeshift bands at IMG’s Rock Camp.
Entering Island Music Guild Hall at midday feels like walking into a symphony warm-up – except the violins are electric guitars, the piano holds a steady blues line and the trumpet punctuates a thumping drum beat.
It’s the first day of Rock Camp. And as instructors Justin Davis and Steven Newton dart from room to room, plugging in amps, setting up drum kits and merging students into performing groups, they can barely contain themselves.
“We’ve been talking about this camp for three years,” Davis said.
IMG has held contemporary and orchestral music camps for some time now, and with a recent takeover of the second suite of its Rolling Bay facility, Executive Director Dave Bristow says the organization is building momentum toward its fall course roster and beyond.
Classes, as in past years, will include everything from hands-on ensemble instruction to music and theory courses.
But this is IMG’s first foray into pure rock, and judging from the businesslike demeanors of the 15 students – four girls and 11 boys, ages 8 to 16 – everyone is ready to get down to it.
Longtime instructors Davis and Newton are both formally trained, Davis in classical guitar and Newton in jazz. Yet each of them joined a rock band at a relatively young age, before they began their studies.
And they agree that when it comes to developing and maintaining a passion for music, learning rock first, to get a firm grasp on what Davis calls that “punk rock primalism,” is often best. Or certainly was for them.
“We fell in love with it first,” Davis said, “without anyone telling us the right way to do it.”
So their approach to instruction, while not absent methodology, remains purposely informal. Save for having students jot down a few bars to refer to as they get their bearings the first morning, the instructors don’t provide sheet music.
“You have to be able to play,” Newton says. “If you write it down, it becomes like homework. You crumble it into a ball and then forget it.”
Sixteen-year-old guitarist Amanda Rogers has taken lessons with Newton for two-and-a-half years and signed up for rock camp at Newton’s behest. One of the benefits, he told her, would be the opportunity to learn how to work with other players. That ability, far more than learning how to read sheet music or fly solo, is the essence of a true band.
The theme of “playing well with others” emerges again and again. Brendan Silk, 15, attended a rock camp in Port Towsend last year, and found collaboration to be one of the best parts.
“It’s fun because you get to play with a bunch of different people,” Silk said. “You learn different people’s playing styles. You learn to be versatile.”
Newton and Davis mix and match the owners of six electric guitars, two bass guitars, three sets of drums, one trumpet, one sax and two pianos, the goal for the day being to form three bands that the players will stick with for the week.
In the main performance hall, drummer Asia Black and bass guitarist Cara Woggin, both 12, form a rhythm section at the back of the stage. They join Rogers along with Liv Smith and Alex Branley on guitar.
As they jam, Newton listens in as the guitarists trade solos, Woggin and Black setting the pulse. As Newton stops them to demo a new drum beat, he hears a sound coming from another rehearsal room that makes him break into a huge grin.
“There is some young boy testosterone going in that room, and they are going for it,” he said. “They are hitting it.”
After class, the three adults debrief. Davis declares the first day “awesome.”
All the numbers worked out: each band gets a drummer; eight guitarists are split among the groups; and Newton will add his bass to the band with the least experienced members, including the eight year-old keyboardist.
They’ve also chosen six tunes to develop over the week. Students will bring in CDs and iPods and spend time the next day listening to individual parts.
“The whole thrust for me as far as doing cover tunes is that it gives them a baseline and an established structure, but we can also do a minimal analysis of it,” Davis said.
He also points to the confidence to be gained by deconstructing the bars and notes of a famous rock song and finding out that “none of this is so complicated that I can’t do it myself.”
Newton, meanwhile, reiterates the sheer, goofy joy he wants to impart to students. For him, a lot of the fun is about seeing students name their bands, get to know each other and start to gel.
He also decides to prepare a guitar pose lecture, an idea that sends the three of them, even the dignified Bristow, into a series of outlandish rock-god stances worthy of AC/DC’s Angus Young.
Camp will culminate in a group performance and barbecue this weekend.
“On Saturday, when we do our concert, it’s quite surprising what we can do,” he said. “Some of the bands start to sound like real bands.”
That moment beckons like the glow of a thousand Bic lighters at a Rolling Stones concert.
“Just give kids the chance to play rock music,” Davis said.
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Chamber Camp
Find Island Music Guild at 10598 Valley Road. Spaces are still available for next week’s Chamber Music Camp, which runs from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Aug. 20-25. For a complete fall class lineup, see www.islandmusic.org.
