Hip Hop Already A Big Part Of GRAMMY Camp®

When applying to GRAMMY Camp® many of the Campers were surprised to find out that hip hop was not a career path to choose considering that rap albums are the second most sold in the U.S. I'd like to see it added for next year's Camp because not only is it a popular style of music, it would also allow more people to have the opportunity to make it into GRAMMY Camp.

While waiting at LAX airport for our ride to Camp, the Bass track's Satarra Troutman was asked to rap with the Keyboard track's Jack Rodenburg, who supplied the beat boxing. Troutman even mentioned how at her dinner table each night they go around the table and rap four bars about their day, everyone from her grandmother to her little brother.

Giovanni Quattrochi, who is in the Electronic Music Production track, shocked everyone with his rhyming skills at the first open mic night. Quattrochi answered whether or not he would be interested in a rapping career track by saying, "I was just thinking actually when I was applying to this Camp my main interest in music is hip hop and that if there was a hip-hop track I probably would of applied for that…I was surprised that they didn't have one since it is such a huge part of the music industry."

Many of the other campers agreed with Quattrochi, like Danny Wirick from the Vocal Performance track. “I think it would be cool. I’m not a rapper myself and I don’t listen to a lot of rap music," Wirick said. "I went to GRAMMY Camp last year and we did a rap last year. We tried to do one this year as well but none of the vocalist could rap. So we definitely have a need for it.”

Almost all the Campers here support the idea of having a rapping career track since many of the Campers perform their original raps at open mic night. Sadly it is not something planned for next year, when asked why this is, the GRAMMY Foundation's Nate Hertweck said, "We don’t offer any genre specific tracks; there are elements of hip hop in every track.”

For Campers interested in rapping and being part of GRAMMY Camp there is more than one track they can apply for that incorporates elements of rap. Those include Electronic Music Production and Audio Engineering and the GRAMMY Foundation's Joe Langford believes those tracks give kids a chance “To produce their own music and rap as well.”

Even thoug hip hop may not have it's own career track, that does not stop the campers from incorporating it into the music at GRAMMY Camp.

Written while at  GRAMMY Camp original post date July 16 2011

Lukas Frank Is A Jack Of All Trades

GRAMMY Camp®, held at the USC campus in Los Angeles, is filled with talented Campers from all over the U.S One of them is 17-year-old drummer Lukas Frank, from Santa Monica, California. At the GRAMMY Camp mini-concert held on July 10th he showed everyone how talented he was by playing in two different combos, one being a jazz piece and the other a rock piece. Each time he performed in a combo the faculty would make comments on the drumming by saying, "The drummer did a good job keeping the pace of the song where it should be and not rushing it." The following day I met up with Lukas to interview him and talk about his drumming.

ML: Hi, my name is Mia Lepp, and you are?

Lukas Frank: I’m Lucas Frank, I’m 17, and it’s my first time at GRAMMY Camp.

ML: How do you like it so far?

Lukas Frank: It's good, I like it. I like the collaboration, the different tracks, and that everyone working here is pretty much in the thick of It In their field. My favorite parts are the collaborations and that's my favorite part about music in general. I think this gives you a good sense about what the real world is like and I’m enjoying my track.

ML: How long have you been playing drums for?

Lukas Frank: Ten years, but I tell people four.

ML: Why?

Lukas Frank: Ttwo reasons: one, If you say 10 years they are expecting you to sound like 10 years and that's too much pressure on me. Then the other reason Is I don't count the years when I was like seven and taking classes, I had a good teacher and I liked It, I definitely liked It but I wasn't really studying, learning about the instrument. I really got passionate about It when I was 12 or 13.

ML: What is your favorite part about playing the drums?

Lukas Frank: Just the feeling to have like an extension of yourself, just something to hide behind.

ML: Who inspires you when you play the drums? What musicians do you look up to?

Lukas Frank: It depends, in certain situations I'll have different inspirations. If I'm playing a funky tune I'll try and sound like my favorite funk drummer. If I'm playing a jazz standard I'll think about my favorite jazz drummer or whatever. I've never had one, but if it was to be one person who constantly inspired me it would probably be like my dad, my uncle, my grandpa, or something like that.

ML: When you're playing the drums what types of style do you like to play the most?

Lukas Frank: I hop around or I have been hopping around, it used to be jazz. I used to be obsessed and that was like my only thing and then sophomore year I heard John Bonham play and I was like, "Damn, that's cool," so I got back into rock. I get conflicted because you want to be a jack of all trades but you don't want to spread yourself too thin and you want to be a specialist but you also like certain different genres. It's hard to pick and chose but I would say jazz, rock, alternative rock, indie rock, funk, just anything with good musicians who will kick my [butt] and make it fun.

ML: All right well thank you and by the way you were great yesterday.

Lukas Frank: Thank you so much. 

Written while at GRAMMY Camp original post date July 15 2011

Starting GRAMMY® Camp Off On The Right Tune

As we walked into Ground Zero for open mic night the smell of fresh brewed coffee filled the air. All our attention was automatically brought to the stage by the purple, red, and yellow spotlights. The first performance was by none other than the music gurus who are teaching the GRAMMY® Campers. They set the mood at Ground Zero, getting everyone’s head bobbing to the upbeat melody and inspiring the other Campers to sign up, because by the end of their performance the list was up to 35 people!

The night was then followed by a wide range of different performers singing their original songs, like Austin Taylor Zudeck, who surprised us all with his powerful voice and the way he conveyed the emotions of his lyrics to the audience, along with others like Sarah Lindstedt, Vikki Pritchard, Jack Rodenburg, and Elise Go. Others sung covers of already popular tunes, such as Kashish Shamsi doing "Nobody" by Alicia Keys, Danny Wirick, with "Sunday" by Maroon 5, and Brandon Martinez, who turned Justin Bieber's "Baby" into a sweet and heartfelt tune that got us singing along. Some of the performers who shocked everyone were Bria Kelly and her powerful blues song, Bj Monk with his moving piano piece, the No Name band, who had an upbeat sound with incredible bass solos, and Michael Arrom, whose instrumental piano playing was jaw dropping. There were also a lot of rappers that performed at open mic night, like Geo Quattrochi and Malik Rodgers.

Even though all of the artist were being cheered on before and after they went on, the MC, Brandon Roberson, kept the crowd pumped in between songs or when the performers were setting up by telling jokes or reminding us to tweet about GRAMMY Camp to make it the trendiest topic on Twitter. The night ended with GRAMMY Camp's own dub step performance by Brandon Holt and Tanner Grandstaff.

 Written while at GRAMMY Camp original post date July 11 2011

As we walked into Ground Zero for open mic night the smell of fresh brewed coffee filled the air. All our attention was automatically brought to the stage by the purple, red, and yellow spotlights. The first performance was by none other than the music gurus who are teaching the GRAMMY® Campers. They set the mood at Ground Zero, getting everyone’s head bobbing to the upbeat melody and inspiring the other Campers to sign up, because by the end of their performance the list was up to 35 people!

The night was then followed by a wide range of different performers singing their original songs, like Austin Taylor Zudeck, who surprised us all with his powerful voice and the way he conveyed the emotions of his lyrics to the audience, along with others like Sarah Lindstedt, Vikki Pritchard, Jack Rodenburg, and Elise Go. Others sung covers of already popular tunes, such as Kashish Shamsi doing "Nobody" by Alicia Keys, Danny Wirick, with "Sunday" by Maroon 5, and Brandon Martinez, who turned Justin Bieber's "Baby" into a sweet and heartfelt tune that got us singing along. Some of the performers who shocked everyone were Bria Kelly and her powerful blues song, Bj Monk with his moving piano piece, the No Name band, who had an upbeat sound with incredible bass solos, and Michael Arrom, whose instrumental piano playing was jaw dropping. There were also a lot of rappers that performed at open mic night, like Geo Quattrochi and Malik Rodgers.

Even though all of the artist were being cheered on before and after they went on, the MC, Brandon Roberson, kept the crowd pumped in between songs or when the performers were setting up by telling jokes or reminding us to tweet about GRAMMY Camp to make it the trendiest topic on Twitter. The night ended with GRAMMY Camp's own dub step performance by Brandon Holt and Tanner Grandstaff.