Rock Camp students go quickly from strangers to band mates

It could be a reality TV show, only this one would be worth watching.

Take a bunch of kids, fifth- to eighth-graders. Some musicians, some not.

Divide them into four groups - rock groups.

Have them learn songs from the classic rock canon. Have them work together to write original songs.

Have them learn a big dance number. Then put on a show.

And, oh, yeah, do it all in a week.

The Patel Conservatory's inaugural Rock Camp at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center took kids from "hello" to rock show in four days. By that Friday, the four groups, UR, Nitro Rockers, Careless and Zombie Puppies, were playing before a crowd of family and friends, banging out credible versions of tunes by Green Day, the Doors and Joan Jett, as well as debuting songs they'd written during the week.

It's an offshoot of the conservatory's Rock School, which covers much of the same ground over its 12-week sessions. This was the hothouse version.

Lee Ahlin, the lead instructor for Rock Camp, wondered if he and his staff had bitten off more than they could chew when Monday morning rolled around in late July.

But by Friday, he says, "the kids rose to the occasion."

So did the staff, which had the Herculean task of focusing summer vacation-dazed kids on several tasks at hand.

Ahlin coached the 20 boys and seven girls on vocals and filled in on a variety of instruments. Paul Stoddardt taught how to play in a band. Jennifer Jones taught movement and choreographed the dance number. Natalie Rios held songwriting sessions.

There were individual success stories.

Tuesday morning, Nitro Rockers lead singer Lauren Lehner, 10, was hesitant and shy as she and the band ran through Jett's "I Hate Myself for Loving You" time and again. By Friday, she was strutting in front of the band, pointing into the crowd and obviously savoring the spotlight.

Come together

Just as importantly, there was a spirit of cooperation.

Ages 10 and 13 are galaxies apart on the kid spectrum, but there was an admirable lack of bullying, or even overt shows of age superiority.

"The social experiment of putting fifth- and sixth- and seventh- and eighth-graders together was much more successful and much less of an issue than I thought it would be," Ahlin says. "The older ones took the younger ones under their wings."

Along with the spirit of cooperation, there was a spirit of openness, most amazingly evident in Rios' songwriting classes.

Ahlin says that the goal of each group performing an original song at the concert was one he didn't expect the students to achieve. But they did.

For that, he credits Rios, who in turn credits her students.

"I'm still on a high," Rios says, days after the concert. "I was floored by the product. Each of the pieces was so different and really reflected the personality of each group."

To Rios' surprise, each group wrote about feelings.

"Write about experiences you've had," she told the class.

"I had them examine what they were collectively thinking about: How does this make you feel?" Rios says.

"They worked as a group to put these feelings out there for each other to hear," Rios says. "They were very raw in their sharing. It helped build their camaraderie, discovering that they weren't experiencing these intense feelings by themselves."

Room for debate

Of course, there were the occasional squabbles. The members of Careless spent a sizable portion of one songwriting session debating whether "soon to" or "about to" was the way to go in a song lyric.

Drummer Andrew Solgut, 11, quit beating tattoos on the carpet long enough to voice his frustration: "I just want to play drums!"

Daniel Wilson, 13, who has played guitar since he was 8, likely expressed the feelings of a lot of the boys when he said he would have preferred swapping the dance class for one on setting up a concert stage, a sort of Roadie 101.

But on Friday, each and every student gave their all, even during the dance number.

And the final note of success? Leslie Shepard, Patel's director of academic affairs, grabbed Ahlin after the concert and declared, "We're doing it again!"

Rock Camp is over for this year, but several Patel Conservatory summer camps are still open. Also, registration is under way for school year courses for 2009-10. Visit www.patelconservatory.org or call (813) 222-1002.