Girls Blog! Chicago: 'Can't wait till tomorrow!'

A few of the campers at this week’s Girls Rock! Chicago are reporting on their experience for the Sun-Times. Here are their dispatches from the annual rock ’n’ roll camp:

Today's concert was so exciting! I felt a little nervous, but calm. Once I got on stage, I couldn't hear myself play drums as well as usual, but I'm sure the audience did!

The place was packed with bunches and bunches of people. It was nice to see my friends and family in the audience — even my music teacher that I love so much was there. The audience at the Metro loved what we did, and Sunday I'm off to the recording studio to record my first CD.

Lois is a first-year camper at Girls Rock! Chicago.

Oh my goodness, the audience was HUGE!!

It looked so crowded, but I was still confident for me and my friends. Our band, the Sweetartz, were first up on stage. As soon as I stepped on stage, I was shaking, but I knew I had to be strong for myself. I had a little trouble with my guitar strap. As one of the counselors fixed my strap, I was ready to go. When I walked towards the mike, everyone cheered for me and my band — it was amazing! I loved that feeling. I also had the center of the stage — I wanted the side, but they put me in the middle. But I was OK with it, though.

I messed up a bit, but no one seemed to have noticed, so I was really glad. When we were finished with our song, I thanked the audience. They were so great and very cheerful, too! But I was still shaking even when I got off that stage — but I totally loved that anxious felling!

Oh man, I can't wait till next year, hopefully! Tomorrow is recording, and I am so thrilled to be doing my CD again. I know this song will be much better than the last.

Also, to all the other bands, they were great and you can tell they had a lot of fun up on stage. I would like to thank the counselors, too. They helped all of us to be ready for the unexpected. Thank you everybody for all your wonderful help!!

Nicole is a second-year camper at Girls Rock! Chicago.

Yesterday I had a BLAST!! It was the last day and we had a great band practice. I really feel confident for myself and my band mates. I invited all my friends to the concert. Now I feel relieved that I have not left anybody out. I wish my grandparents who have passed away could see me now and be proud.

Lois is a first-year camper at Girls Rock! Chicago.

Today is our last day of camp, it was really a whole lot of fun, seeing everyone dancing and trying to have as much as they want. I was really happy, nervous and sad. I was happy for the concert and the recording, but I was nervous at the same time. I was also sad because Sunday is my last day seeing all of my friends and living my dream.

But now I know what I want to keep doing when I grow up and see how it goes. Camp was a lot of fun and I really hope other girls can join camp because I really want to share this wonderful experience to every girl around Chicago or maybe even somewhere else, how knows?! I can't wait till tomorrow, its going to be great!

Nicole is a second-year camper at Girls Rock! Chicago.

In our instrument lessons, we learned each other’s songs from our bands, and we helped each other out. After we had lunch, we had a band play, and they were really good. The lead singer sang all in Spanish.

Afterward we had a ’zine-making workshop. We are finishing them tomorrow.

Then we had band practice. Since our song was already done, all we had to do was practice more to get it down. We named our song “Muleta” — it's Spanish for crutch. We opened the Spanish-English dictionary and it was the first one we found, and we thought it fit with our song and it was unique.

Kayla is a third-year camper at Girls Rock! Chicago.

Girls Rock! Camp was going along great today! It was a blast, I somehow got more outgoing because of all of my friends, I made so many new friends today.

Also, the bands that came were good with their music. It was in Spanish, so I kind of new what they were saying, but it was hard to tell because of the feedback. But they were really good; also the music was different, but that was the awesome part.

We finished our song. Now all we have to do is put Dana's part in and we are done. I am nervous about the fact that on Saturday's concert we are going to perform on stage first! So hopefully we'll be fine.

Well, camp today was amazing. I really wish that more girls could come to camp. It would be wonderful to see everyone getting the chance to fulfill their dreams, and to be noticeable while they are doing it.

Tomorrow is going to be the 2nd-best day ever, because it's the last day(I'm kind of sad about that part) and everyone is going to be really crazy, and we'll have the time of our lives! Can't wait till tomorrow and Saturday!!!

Nicole is a second-year camper at Girls Rock! Chicago.

The third day of camp was a lot of fun. In the instrument lessons we worked on scales, and soloing with the basses.

Then, after lunch, we listened to one of the counselor's bands play. They also played a song my band and I made the first year of camp, in 2006 — it was a very pleasant surprise.

After that, we had a DJ workshop. Three DJs and a hip-hop dancer came and talked about being a DJ, then we had a little dance party.

Then we had band practice. My band and I have got our song really down, we still need to put more practice in, but for the most part it’s really good. We added harmony to the vocals, and worked on the violin solo again. After a great practice we ended camp with another band playing for us.

Kayla is a third-year camper at Girls Rock! Chicago.

Oh my goodness, camp was so much better than last time. We did so many activities today!

But my favorite part about camp is when all the girls started to dance together in a circle and someone would have to go get in the middle of all of us. It was really entertaining to see all of my friends having so much fun with me dancing with them. I wasn't shy at all because my friend Claudia agreed to dance with me so I wouldn't be alone. So as soon as four girls began to dance everyone just jumped in, it really was a lot of fun!!

Band practice was going along well, but now all I have to do is memorize the long, long lyrics to my part of the song, so wish me luck! The counselors were very confident for me, so I would sing louder and it really helped, so thanks to Ali and Ellen, for being there for our band, Sweetartz! Can't wait till tomorrow!!!

Nicole is a second-year camper at Girls Rock! Chicago.

My name is Lois, and I'm 8 years old. This is my first time doing Girls Rock! Chicago. I've never played an instrument before.

Today I had lots of fun learning about the drums. I found out who was in my band and they are a lot of fun to be around. My band name is BLACK SUNRISE. I think its a cool name because we all thought of it together.

P.S. I have a SWEET pair ofdrums!

Lois is a first-year camper at Girls Rock! Chicago.

I came late to camp today, but I still got in 30 minutes of guitar lessons. Afterward, we headed to the cafeteria for lunch, leading into the auditorium. We got to hear Annie Rossi play the viola — but in more of a rock and roll style. It was very interesting to see a classical instrument being played so different, and unique.

Then we had a T-shirt designing workshop. My band made a fire alarm design because our band is called In Case of Emergency.

Next was band practice. With a solid start after yesterday, it was easy to finish the song. After about an hour, we had all the lyrics and the melody to our song. We also had an awesome electric violin solo added at the end. Now that we have everything down, the only thing left to do now is to perfect it.

Kayla is a third-year camper at Girls Rock! Chicago.

My second day at camp was much better then the first day, only because we are almost done with our song! It was frustrating at first, but we figured out how to work it out together as a band.

In the morning, I got together with my friends, then we went to practice. It was fun. After practice we got some lunch, it was very yummy! After lunch we did an activity — a design for out T-shirts! Ours looked great, and so did all the other bands' designs.

When we were done with our design we finally had band practice!!! It was so much fun, but we still need to finish our song so we can be prepared and try not to be so frustrated. We are looking forward to tomorrow, and for sure it will be more fun.

Nicole is a second-year camper at Girls Rock! Chicago.

Well, first in camp I met one of my old friends, Dana. She's a good friend. I also met some new girls, I was shy at first but I wanted to make new friends. Everyone was so nice and very kind to me! I made a lot of new friends to hang around with.

We all went down to the stage and the counselors gave rules what to do and what not to do. They were all so nice to me.

While the girls from camp were listening to the counselors we all had to listen to three of the counselors perform and we had to write down notes on the songs we liked.

They were GREAT! After their performance we picked people to be in our bands, when we were done picking our band members we were each called out to practice with a different group of girls. I didn't know what was going on really, but then I got the hang of it when I asked questions. Practice was fun, I learned a lot of new chords and licks for the guitar.

After practice, it was time for our lunch break. While I was eating, my group of friends were just chatting on what kind of music we listen to and what genres of music we liked.

When lunch was over we had band practice!! Yea, it was so fun! We were trying to think of a new kind of way to put rock and soft together. I found a way, but now all we need are the lyrics and that's what we're going to work on tomorrow, but the whole point was for us to agree on what we all liked as in one person, so far so good!

Then when we were done practicing we had a little snack, and while we were snacking we were thinking on our band name. But we couldn't find the right name, of course. I didn't say anything because I was too shy, but my band counselor, Ellen, got me to write down the suggestions that I had on a piece of paper. But I was kind of mad at myself because I noticed that I'm still shy, so hopefully the concert will break my shell again. As I was saying, I didn't have good ones — but it gave everyone good ideas.

Then, finally when it was time to leave, I figured out our name: Sweetarts.

Everyone loved it, so we all agreed our band name will be Sweetarts.

I was proud of myself that I shared my thoughts with my friends. I cant wait for tomorrow!

Nicole is a second-year camper at Girls Rock! Chicago.

The first day of camp was a lot of fun. We had a workshop in the morning listening to all the different types of music that was popular over the year.

Afterward, we had our instrument lessons. My instructor taught us about the different techniques we could use while playing the guitar.

After that we had lunch, then a songwriting class. Our writing instructor really tried to enforce that we could write a song about anything and how important it was to express ourselves. My band and I tried to come up with lyrics, but we were having difficulties on picking a topic to write about.

Next up was the best part, band practice! My band and I started by just playing around with different things until we finally had a basic melody to work with. From then on, we added things and changed them around, until we settled with what we wanted. We havenʼt finished our song completely, but we got a great start. The first day of camp was great, and I canʼt wait to go back tomorrow.

Kayla is a third-year camper at Girls Rock! Chicago.