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9-year-old Ming Cooke rocks the drums at Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls (Beth Fertig/WNYC)

NEW YORK, NY July 22, 2006 —Think “summer camp” and you’re probably picturing bright-colored scenes of kids outdoors playing softball or swimming. But this week, about 65 girls attended an indoor camp where they learned how to play drums, guitars and keyboards. The kids from the Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls are performing their original songs tonight in Manhattan. WNYC’s Beth Fertig has more.

REPORTER: For the girls at rock camp, it’s all about the music.

LUA: Hi my name’s Lua and I live in Brooklyn and the reason I came here is because I like to rock

GRACE: Grace Simon Bergere and I’m from Manhattan. The reason I wanted to come here was because I sing in the City Opera and I got tired of soft stupid stuff.

MING: My name is Ming Cooke and I play the drums and I decided to come to rock and roll camp again because last year it was one of the best weeks of my life.

REPORTER: Ming and the rest of this year’s campers are looking forward to another week of living the rock and roll dream. The kids are all dressed in black T shirts with colorful stars. They range in age from 8 to 18. Some have never touched an instrument before. Camp director Karla Schickele.

SCHICKELE: It’s incredibly fun to get together with a bunch of women and girls and make music all week.

REPORTER: Shickele is a musician who works for the city comptroller in her day job. She started the camp last year, modeling it after a camp in Portland, Oregon. Both camps are named after the blues singer Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton – who recorded “Hound Dog” before Elvis Presley. Shickele says women still don’t get enough credit or opportunities in rock.

SCHICKELE: Sometimes people say why isn’t it rock and roll camp for kids or why don’t you have rock camp for boys. I kind of feel like commercial music today is rock camp for boys every day. There are of course women musicians out there playing but really not enough.

REPORTER: The campers get a whole week to play whatever they want. In their classrooms at the Brooklyn Friends school, on Monday, the kids were divided according to instrument. It’s a diverse group – about half the girls got scholarships to defray the 500 dollar cost.

TEACHER: Five, six, seven, eight, A-major…

WALSH: I’m Kate Walsh and I’m just basically letting them experiment with the chords themselves and figure it out.

REPORTER: The teachers are all women musicians who donate their time and they encourage the girls to be creative.

KIDS: I love rock ‘n’ roll so put another dime in the jukebox baby, I love rock ‘n’ roll so put another dime in the jukebox baby…

REPORTER: Singers practiced dancing and holding microphones in this warmup session. But a few were too young to understand the song’s 20th century lyrics.

TEACHER: Jukebox not juicebox. (laughs) Some of you are saying juicebox.

REPORTER: By mid afternoon, the kids were assigned to their bands. Nine and 10 year-olds Grace Bergere and Zoe Alverio-Chaveco were banging around in a rehearsal room. They named their group the Fluffy Skulls. Grace said playing the drums is a lot cooler than singing in the children’s chorus at the City Opera.

GRACE: It’s more wild and not angel like

REPORTER: Down the hall, Ming – the nine year old drummer who went to rock camp last year – is practicing with eight year old Zoe Grace Raak, who’s never played guitar before.

TEACHER: Yep, that’s called feedback. Whoo! Yeah!!

REPORTER: Three days later the girls were writing lyrics to go with their music. Counselors helped them combine different ideas. The kids in a band called Petrified Toenails seemed to be working from the same page.

GIRLS: We’re the petrified toenails, we go different ways. We may be different but we’re still the same…

REPORTER: Ten year-old Sadie Aasletten from Houston provided the band’s inspiration.

SADIE: My step-mom she told me the story about how her grandfather had a toenail that looked like petrified wood so they would dare each other to touch it and stuff.

REPORTER: The older campers took on more serious themes. The girls in Elora questioned the world around them.

GIRL SINGING: Throw a brick at my window…

REPORTER: Most of the girls in Elora have musical experience – including singer Amandla Turner of Brooklyn. They also had a French horn player, a serious bassist and a drummer with her own band. But 16 year old Maria Santos from the Bronx had never played guitar before.

MARIA: If you love something the most then just don’t like lose the opportunity to do it. Just go for it.

REPORTER: The kids from the Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls will be playing tonight at 6 at the Society for Ethical Culture in Manhattan. Another week of band camp is scheduled in August, and there’s a Ladies Rock camp next weekend. That session is for those old enough to know the difference between a jukebox and a juicebox.

GIRLS: We love rock and roll!