GRAMMY Camp...09!

I mentioned many, many moons ago that I would post video that I took during Grammy Camp.
Please bear in mind that I took these on my camera, which is nothing fancy. Just a nice little point and shoot digital camera.

View. Comment. Enjoy. :)



Grammy Camp Freestyle...







Videos (from left to right): 1. Lamont Dozier, Dave Koz, Ricky Mino&Ricky Minor Orchestra Perform w/campers 2. Counselor Seth Costner performing original song 3. Improv on a freight cart

Kiss the Sky: Reflections on my Left Coast Journey

"We all got dreams and we all-star reaching..." --Drake, Houstanlantavegas


Well I have officially been back on the east coast for roughly 2 weeks. I wanted to take some time to let everything sink in before I decided to reflect upon my west coast experience. So heerrreee we go ::said in Kid Cudi Superboo voice::

I spent roughly two and a half weeks in California working. Working long days. Working long days that had me getting up early ever morning. Working long days in a place I was unfamiliar with, in a state I had never been to, and in a time zone my body had never experienced.

I couldn't have been happier.

For me, being in California was like re-igniting a passion inside of me that had slowly started to fade away in the spring semester of my Freshman year at UMD (spring 2006). The last four years of college had been long, and hard, and tiring, and at times discouraging. The last four years of college left me questioning if I was even cut out to have a career in music (since I had long ago decided that I wasn't cut out to be a performer).

Grammy Camp changed that.

Maybe it's odd, but I felt inspired by everything around me while I was out in California. It could have been because I was in a new place, with new people, and nothing was familiar. I was facing new challenges from the second I stepped off the plane at LAX and was whisked away to The Recording Academy® offices in Santa Monica.

After sitting on a plane for 5 hours, I got to the office and was put to work pretty much right away. There over 90 information binders about camp to assemble. 83 for the campers, 11 for the counselors (myself included) and 15 or so that were for the camp's faculty and staff. Now this assembly was a team effort, and all 11 counselors were working together side by side and at the same time were getting to know each other. We worked until the job was finished; which meant going through countless reprints and re-assembling binders after we realized that there were pages missing. We worked through lunch; and real talk I was hungry. I hadn't eaten since I had an Auntie Anne's pretzel for breakfast on the plane at 7:30am and went straight to sleep. And even though I was hungry, that was just a minor set back.

After working in the office until dinner time, we ate at the USC cafeteria and then went back to work. This time assembling the rooms for camp. From scratch, I helped to put together 3 different computer labs: one each for Electronic Music Production, Sound Engineering, and music journalism. Now I am not a sound engineer, I'm not a producer. I took one electronic music class in college last year, and one in highschool prior to that. However, with the help of my co-counselors (many of whom were sound engineers), I was able to assist in setting up a fleet of mac computers, m-audio keyboards, and m-boxes. That was an accomplishment for me. It was also something that has sparked my desire to learn and understand how live sound works.

On the night before the campers came, and once we finally had all the rooms set up the counselors got together and had a jam session. Jam sessions...I secretly live for these.
They were my bread and butter going to an arts highschool. I used to hang out in the jazz room and listen to all the crazy talented jazz kids go. Sometimes I would beg them for a flute solo...
I tapped back into that excitement, that love, that energy while out in L.A. I even took to singing (yes, I secretly can do a little more than carry a tune). It was amazing for me to feel the rush of not only performance again, but performing things that I loved..music that I would conceptualize in my head that had been itching to flow through my fingertips into my flute, or from out my diaphragm and vibrating my vocal chords in song.

The kids inspired and challenged me too.

I never intend to be someone that a person comes to for advice, but I always offer whatever it is I have when a person asks that of me. There were a couple of times when my advice was called upon by campers, and what I found to being inspiring about this was how I was offering up advice about taking risks. In my eyes, every camper that I came across was fearless in what they were doing. Writing and performing their own music, trying a new field, deciding at a young age that they wanted to pursue a career that is anything but 'traditional.'

So many of the campers were already on the paths to pursuing their career goals, having already recorded songs, created music MySpace pages, Facebook Fanpages, and were fully aware of the various 'hot-button' topics surrounding the music/recording industry. Many times I found myself in awe of all that they could do.

However, at the end of the day they were still kids; teenagers more specifically. They still sought ways to sneak around the rules, to bend them in their favor, and were constantly asking why certain rules had to be followed and what their purpose was. For me, this was a challenge; because there were times when certain campers were down right disrespectful. Being that highschool-aged children wasn't a particular age group that I had any experience with (the oldest age group that I have volunteered or worked with were in middle school); I had to find the balance between being a friend and being a disciplinarian when the time came. However, despite those challenges it truly was wonderful to have worked with such a talented group of young people.

Setting my compass towards my career goals and passions.

One of the highlights of camp for me was having the opportunity to serve as an escort for Senior Vice President of The Grammy Foundation/Music Cares; Kristen Madsen during Press Day. I was charged with the task of taking Ms.Madsen around to the various classrooms in order to observe the camper’s preparation for the closing showcase in addition to watching a group of campers prepare for a special performance with Ricky Minor and the Ricky Minor Orchestra and Lamont Dozier. Press day was by far one of the longest, as well as busiest days at camp (the day started early and then ended rather late, as it was also field trip day). As a communication major it was exciting to experience first hand the excitement (and work) that comes along with “pitching” an event to the press. Additionally, serving as Kristen’s escort allowed me to learn more about the Grammy Foundation and Music Cares, as well as to get a different perspective on careers in the music industry.

Additionally, panels such as the "Industry Insider" panel that gave further insight into careers in the music industry opened my eyes further to the management career field. After speaking with Amy Blackman of CookmanMGMT following the panel, the wheels in my head started turning and I now am considering a career in management, in addition to my current goals to work in communications/pr.

Left Coast Journey, A dream realized.

I remember telling myself after I had sent off the application materials to be a counselor for Grammy Camp, that if I ever got this opportunity I wouldn't rule out a move. Not only would I consider relocating to do what it is I love (which is music; and more specifically the opportunity to be creative, which communications and marketing give me), I would continue to go 'full steam ahead' towards my career goals. Having since been back in Maryland after being in L.A. for 2 1/2 weeks, I feel empowered and charged with a mission: to continue my pursuit of a career in the music industry. I've also realized that to make it you really do have to be fearless. There is a lot of so-called risk involved in building a career and a life out of creative field.

So, as I wrap up this post, I want to leave you with a quote from Steve Job's Commencement speech at Stanford University (which I recommend you watch on YouTube; it is amazing):

"Find the job you love and you'll never have to work a day in your life"

Greetings From the Left Coast!

Greetings from L.A., the city of angels, and the land of constant traffic jams on the 405.
If you don't know already, I've been out in L.A. since July 8th, where I've been working as a camp counselor for Grammy Camp, which is run by the Grammy Foundation®. As the name suggests, the Grammy Foundation® is the advocacy branch of the Grammy organization that is committed to both furthering and preserving American music culture. Part of perserving the future of American music is investing in its future, which are the 83 highschool students who are participating in this week and a half experience.

So my journey to this point goes a little something like this......


I woke up on Wednesday morning at 4:45am to get ready for a 6:50 am flight to California. Direct flight, no transfers. There was one stop in Arizona (and although I only sat on the tarmat, it was burning up inside that plane...90 degrees at 9:30 am!), and then I arrived in the insanley huge LAX airport. I met up with two other counselors (both from northern Cali), and we get picked up by our boss and are immediatley wisked away to the Grammy Foundation offices in Santa Monica.

We arrive at the office and there is a performance taking place in this beautiful room that had floor to ceiling glass windows surrounding it. There's a stage and a piano (grand piano that is) in the room and the group performing has an amazing energy, and I'm kicking myself for not remembering their name right now. It was a group consisting of instrumentalist, and this older guy singing..he sang some in cajun creole, and did a stirring rendition of Sam Cooke's "A Change
Gon' Come" To be in an office that had a performance space was just more than I could ever imagine being possible. Of course it was right up my alley, just going away from my desk and enjoying a concert during my lunch is like a dream.

Having caught the tail end of the performance, we were put to work right after. Mind you, my bags are still in my bosses' jeep and I hadn't even seen my room yet, but it was ok. I love to keep busy, and the fast pace of everything was like a breath of fresh air to me. It had been a while since I had been busy like that.

In a back office, I joined a group of five or so other counselors in order to assemble schedules and welcome binders for the 80-plus campers. We're sitting on the floor, punching holes into papers and then eventually in a conference room assembling the binders assembly line style.

Some hours later (and a few printing errors and missing pages as well), we're all headed to the University of Southern California (USC). There we scramble into the dinning hall to make it there before it closes, and I'm releaved because I hadn't eaten since my flight. Not to mention on top of that I had managed to go back in time once I got here (because of the time change), so I scarfed down that food like it was the last meal of life.

By this time I was fading fast. I had just eaten, I had been traveling all day, I was thinking "ok, now we get to get settled in." It was actually time to set up the rooms instead....

The camp is being housed in a couple of different buildings associated with the Thorton School of Music. We had to set up over a dozen iMacs to create an electronic music production classroom. I'm not the most computer-savy or musical engineering-savy person though, and I didn't know a lot about the software and everything that we were installing, but I soon learned. Over half of my co's are sound engineers, and so I was constantly running behind them asking 101 questions about everything I had to do. I wanted to understand how everything works. Having a really basic knowledge of pro-tools I undersood that the room wasn't complete until we had the much needed M-audio boxes (which is used with the production program pro tools). Apparently the boxes that the campers are using are top of the line, can't remember what generation but it had the word PRO in it.

I had the most fun setting up the combo rooms because I got to learn about how a drumset actually works. What all the sounds involved were called, and what each drum and cymbal were called. One of the counselors, who is a drummer taught me a very basic pattern involving the kick (that's the thing with the pedal right? the bass drum), high hat and snare. I also learned that apparently there are different kinds of kicks and pedals for said kicks for different styles of music. To some people reading this it may seem like common sense, but I'm a woodwind player. I've spent a good portion of my life blowing a metal tube, producing music by dead men who probably would have never imagined that you could take a bunch of percussive sounds and play them all together and it sound good (and not like noise).

Well anyway, we worked well into the night...until 12am to be exact, which was 3am east coast time. So as one can imagine at this point I'm worn out and exhausted. I finally get my stuff out my bosses' car and head to Trojan Hall to get settled.

It's crazy being back in a dorm room again. It's hot as all get out at times because there isn't any air in these rooms. It's a freshman dorm, so I feel like L.A. is hazing me. Good thing tho that I'm too busy to spend an extended period of time in the rooms.

So that's my first day on the west coast in a nut shell. There are some parts that I left out, that again involve me working, and doing so a lot. And then there is also the part about USC basically being in the hood. Not that I'm scared or anything, but it's crazy how that works though.

I'll be posting again soon about the kids, and the various camp activities. If you aren't already, be sure to follow @GrammyU so that you can get my updates about the various guests that have come to camp and shared their time with the campers. So far Gavin Rossdale (formerly of Bush, and married to Gwen Stefanie) and Jason Castro (third runner up from American idol) have graced Grammy Camp with their presence.

These kids are amazing and this experience has most certainly been a blessing..but more on that in a later post...