Note for Note

Music Schools Offer Summer Camps for Kids

By Collin Breaux and C. Jayden Smith

On a Saturday morning, the sound of The Cult song “Fire Woman” fills the air.

Kids are up on stage, singing and performing the hit song. They variously speak into a microphone, pound away on a drum kit, or strum guitar strings as they cover the rock hit.

So weekend rehearsals go at Los Rios Rock School in San Juan Capistrano, one of several South Orange County music schools that teaches kids how to perform rock music.

For teens and pre-teens taking a break from school this summer, they can spend the interim as a rock star at various musical camps—including with Los Rios Rock School. Six camps will be offered this year for students ages 6-17, in June and July.

“Our summer camp is a way for people— especially who aren’t doing the normal yearly membership here—to get a taste of (the school),” School Director Philip Allen said. “They’re really fun weeklong crash courses in what we do. Kids show up. They learn a song or two, rehearse it with their band, and then put on a concert at the end of the week.”

The cost is $399 for new students and $299 for current students.

“It’s a really cool way to get involved with playing in a band if you’re an instrumentalist and you’ve never played with anyone before,” Allen said. “You can see what that’s like. You get to hang out with the directors and have that immersive experience.”

Kids practice during the morning, from Monday through Friday.

While the school’s focus is on rock, instructors also guide students with general musical compositions.

“We all come mostly from rock backgrounds, but we teach music as a language, as our philosophy,” Allen said. “One of the most amazing things about our culture and campus here is that we encourage everyone to bring their own styles in.”

Kids are welcome to explore their interest in learning country songs, for instance.

“There’s always this sort of ‘I’m not a country player, I don’t want to do that’ (feeling) and then, by the time they learn the song, they’re like, ‘Maybe I l kind of like country now,’” Allen said. “We do try to encourage everyone to push everyone’s boundaries a little bit. We’ve done everything from heavy metal to disco to a cappella.”

The students choose a song to learn and play together for the week and are then assigned specific instruments and parts to perform.

“There’s two parts: learning their individual part on their instrument, but the more important part that we bring is then learning how to apply that in a band situation,” Allen said. “One thing we’re sort of trying to combat a little bit is the idea that there’s a lot of people who can play a song on their instrument when they’re playing to a track or YouTube.”

“That’s great, but a lot of people don’t realize that’s a safety net because you’re playing to a prerecorded track that is never going to be wrong,” Allen said. “You have this thing guiding you along. When you have four people playing together with no safety net, you realize there’s a whole part of it knowing the song by heart, being confident in the next section, and being able to communicate with each other in a musical sense.”

Performing as a band helps teach kids patience and interpersonal skills, Allen said.

“You get in a band, and you realize you’re trying to please four people. When they learn this at an early age, it’s kind of fun because camp in June and July. The cost is $325 per week.

A visit to Danman’s on a given night will find kids practicing on piano and guitar.

“The camps consist of about, usually, six to 10 students,” founder and owner Dan Lefler said. “We have two types of camps, rock camps and vocal camps. The rock camp gets together, figures out the music they like, picks the songs they want to do, start working out their parts. The next day, they’ll generally do a photo shoot. They’ll do a poster.”

Posters of past camps are hung up at the school.

“Many times, they’ll do T-shirts. They create a band shirt as part of the project,” Lefler said. “They come, Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. There’s a little snack period. On ally livestreaming it (so) it’s like a music video,” said co-founder and owner Biff Cooper. they have this communal vested interest in this song,” Allen said. “You do start to realize that if someone’s a weak link or if someone’s falling behind, it’s on everyone to help bring them up.”

From Monday through Wednesday, the children will learn the songs, before recording and filming in the facility’s studio on Thursday and Friday. At the end, the students will receive a copy of their video to share with friends and family.

Cooper added that he is unsure whether the video process will be livestreamed or be recorded separately before ending up on YouTube this year, but the camp has been done in previous summers.

The music school staff do try to help children still in the beginning phase of learning music, but overall, the camp is tailored to those who have reached a specific level of intermediate or higher.

Beyond the camps, the Beach Cities Rock Club is an afterschool program that teaches students to perform cover songs whether by singing or by playing the bass, drums, guitar, piano or ukulele. Monthly memberships are $185 per month and include weekly private 30-minute lessons and band classes.

After his five-year foray into giving music lessons independently, Cooper partnered with another record store in 2013 to start the school. A series of personal events showed him and his wife that they needed to continue on their own.

“The concept was that we would do music lessons in the back of a record store, because that was a way—through osmosis—that kids could get interested in music and look through a record store and have that experience of learning about different genres,” Cooper said.

Now, the school utilizes its own recording studio to help students and artists acclimate to being in a recording environment and put out songs.

Even if the students never pursue music after the camp, they can carry that camaraderie and team skills over into their adult lives, Allen said.

“We don’t expect everyone to be best friends, but you still have to figure out a way to work,” Allen said. “As adults, you go into the working world, you realize—joining a company or starting a business or whatever it is—you can’t always be in the workplace with everyone you love, but you still have to make it work. Being in a band situation, there’s something very conducive to that and something that kids can grasp onto early because they are all part of that team.”

Over in neighboring town Dana Point, Danman’s Music School is also offering a summer

Friday at 12:30, they do a concert on stage for parents and friends (next door at StillWater Spirits & Sounds).”

Music education and performing in front of an audience enable kids to learn how to think under pressure, Lefler said.

“When you play music, you have to recall information in a precise order,” Lefler said. “A lot of kids that are super shy, once they do a few performances, they’re not so shy anymore. Other than that, it’s really fun.”

For those who play on a level above most, San Clemente’s Beach Cities Rock Club offers a fun summer alternative that will help children hone their musical talents.

The Music Video Summer Camp will occur from Mondays through Fridays during the weeks of June 19 to June 23, June 26 to June 30, and July 24 to July 28, at a cost of $299 per camper.

“Basically, the kids are going to learn a few songs in a set, and then we’re going to be virtu-

Even during the summer, the afterschool times remain the same, as students and parents are accustomed to the classes’ place in their schedules. The music video camp classes will take place in the mornings.

Cooper enjoys the positive impacts music lessons have on those that take part in the school, as he looks to give students a constructive outlet to express themselves and heal. That sentiment follows the Rock Club’s mission statement as an organization that seeks to guide students toward achievement in a “safe, creative and goal-oriented environment.”

“To me personally, just giving students that purpose, artistically, and (for them) to be inspired by art and to show them that (art) is inspirational,” Cooper said. “That’s probably it for me.”

More information about the various rocks schools can be found online at losriosrockschool.com, danmans.com and beachcitiesrockclub.com.