Grrl Fair is just around the corner!

Spring and Summer are my favorite times of the year!!

 One of the reasons for that is because people seem to come out of their houses and come to cool events. When I was in high school the go to event was Warped Tour, now that I can't stand to be within a mile of a Warped Tour I am so glad that Grrl Fair exists to fill that festival void in my life.

Grrl Fair is an awesome organization that seeks to promote women in the arts in Southern California, and more specifically Orange County.

A typical Grrl Fair hosts artwork from girls/women, local female vendors, workshops and more!

Some things to look forward to at this year's Grrl Fair are:

2PM: Really Really Free Market!
Bring stuff you don't want anymore and barter with other people. You can't get anymore DIY and progressive than that :)

2PM: Record Swap Meet with Mass Media Records

2PM: Cleansing Drum Circle with Aly Miguel

All day: Workshops in the "Workshop Village" including speakers, feminist clubs from various colleges, and much more.

Bands!

Some bands I am excited to see at Grrl Fair this year are:

The Death Valley Girls a garage-y Cramps-y feeling band from LA.

!Las Feas a surf punk band from the Coachella Valley

Tigersnap an electro-punk-hiphop act from LA

May 11th Y'all, did I mention that there are going to be food trucks???

Ladies Rock Camp coming to Orange County May 18th and 19th!

As a lot of you know, I volunteer at the Rock n Roll Camp for Girls programs in Portland, Los Angeles, and now in Orange County.
Lots of women get excited when they hear about the girls program (learn an instrument, form a band, write a song and play a show!) and say that they want to do it too, so many of the girls rock camps have formed ladies rock camps as a way to provide this program for the 18+ crowd as well as raise funds for the summer camp program.

                                    Check out this video to seek what it's like to be at rock camp!

In OC the Ladies Rock Camp program will be May 18th and 19th in Downtown Santa Ana at El Centro Cultural. It's $50-$100 sliding scale and worth every penny!

To sign up follow this link to the application:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1XIb86aVDL1QFYpt5e3m6f9BjyEc1LBLiqCy6nMhoe-w/edit

Gearing up for jazz band!

Hey everybody!
Sorry I haven't been posting lately, I have been really busy working on so many different things.
Rock n Roll Camp for Girls OC is finally off the ground with a fiscal sponsor, and school is back in session.

I joined the Jazz Band at Santa Ana College and have been practicing my butt off reading charts and getting comfortable playing jazz and latin jazz.

We are doing one of my favorite swing songs, Sing Sing Sing! It's a really cool swing song that Gene Krupa played on back in the day.

The cool tom part can be played with a second line pattern. Try it!

RRL RRL RL

Swing it when you play

Play 2 and 4 on the hihat

The kick pattern should be an ostinato-ish

Check out this video that is a quick tutorial on Second Line jazz drumming:

Try it at home or with your band!

Help Tom Tom Magazine win a Scion grant!

Hi friends!

Sorry I haven't posted lately!

The beginning of the semester is always a crazy time.

I received many great questions for the Q and A's portion, those answers will began being answered next week.

In the mean time, check out this video made by Mindy Abovitz, the editor of Tom Tom Magazine about a Scion grand they just applied for.

If you can comment or like the video, it will help them get further to winning.

Lets help out this amazing resource for women all over the world.

Viola Smith video released today!

Hi everybody!

Between NAMM show and the start of the semester I have really had a crazy week!

The exciting news this week is that Tom Tom Magazine has released the interview with drumming legend Viola Smith that I worked on over the winter.

Check it out, it came out better than I expected!!!

Thanks to my good friends Rhianne, Maria, Annie and Melissa for helping with this awesome story as well as the awesome Professor Julie Davis for helping me get everything together and interview ready. And of course Mindy from Tom Tom for putting it out!!

If you have any questions about anything in the video feel free to send me an email.

Girls Rock Orange County!

As many of you know, I am involved with the organization of setting up a Rock n Roll Camp for Girls right here in Orange County California.

We are happy to announce that the Rock n Roll Camp for Girls in OC will be holding it's first summer camp program this summer!

It will be held July 15th through the 19th at Shoreline church and school in Fountain Valley, CA

Tuition, scholarship info and more to come soon on the official website. Check it out!

http://girlsrockoc.org/

https://www.facebook.com/rocknrollcampforgirlsoc

http://girlsrockcampalliance.wordpress.com/

We will also be holding an adult version of this program for women ages 18+ in May.

Ska! Ska! Ska!

Thankfully the sun has finally come back to Orange County!!!

My favorite good weather music to listen to is Ska. I actually played drums in a Ska band for a long time. It was so fun backing up horns and a keyboard.

They were pretty heavy for a ska band, but I had a lot of fun playing in that band. After leaving the band I got more into learning the actual way to play traditional ska. 

Gil Sharone released "Wicked Beats" a dvd that is part history and part instruction. It's the best ska/reggae instruction I have ever seen and the only thing like it on the market. 

In this video he teaches the proper way to play a basic Ska beat. It seems a lot more complicated than it really is, give it a try!