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Music moves area youth in many ways
By Christina Weaver
Special to the Coastal Point
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Coastal Point • Christina Weaver
Sam Ojalvo, left, and Cameron Roe try out the guitars they like.
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By coincidence, when television’s Dr. Phil wanted to devote his Christmas 2003 show to the advantages of kids learning to play the guitar, 11-year old Kiki Freebery of Wilmington, was pestering her mother, Jodi, to switch from piano to guitar. Invited to be on the show and impressed with Dr. Phil’s evidence that learning the guitar both increases kid’s grades and enhances socialization skills, Mrs. Freebery allowed Kiki to accept the guitar that Dr Phil gave her (and indeed all members of the Show’s audience). When they got home, Freebery arranged lessons for her daughter and registered her in Mr. Hetfield’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Summer Camp in Rehoboth Beach.
Dr. Phil, whose own son started to play the guitar at age 11, kept in touch with the Freebery family and invited them back in July for a follow-up show. Part of the program included footage of her time at the camp to which she has returned for a second time this summer. Indeed this year, she has brought some friends with her.
Mr. Hetfield is Walt Hetfield, a professional musician who is the music teacher at Rehoboth Elementary and whose band is called Lisa Scott and the Melting Pot. For the past five years, Hetfield has conducted a two-and-a-half week summer camp for 24 aspiring Rock ‘n’ Roll musicians, aging this year from 9 to 16. He describes himself as, “the kind of music teacher that wants to involve as many kids in music as possible, not just the elite few with special talent.”
Two attendees are Sam Ojalvo, from Bethany Beach, and Cameron Roe, from Ocean View. This is Ojalvo’s second year.
“It is a lot of fun, “ he explained. “I get to meet new people and I like the experience of playing music with other kids.” Roe, who just finished Selbyville Middle School and will be attending Indian River High School in the fall, found out about the camp through his mother, who is a teacher in the district.
“I’m learning lots of new stuff,” said Roe, as he looked in awe at the rows of shiny new guitars hanging seductively at the B& B Music and Sound store in Rehoboth, where the went campers on a field trip.
Hetfield’s idea for a Rock ‘n’ Roll camp has been copied around the country, but he said, “Ours is different. We don’t use a celebrity name to attract kids or try to force five to six kids into small bands that compete with each other. As a working musician, I focus on reality — not the fantasy kids associate with being in a band.”
He added, “My assistants, Colleen Clark and Amanda Novacin, were former students who now study music in college. They relate well to the kids and help provide the music experience that really motivates them.”
The experience includes making a live tape of their music in a recording studio and culminates in an open to the public performance at the Ruster Rudder in Dewey Beach.
His concept works. Over 50 percent of the camp participants are “repeat offenders,” as Hetfield calls them. And two of this year’s campers are kids he taught in elementary school, who then moved away, and as high school guitar players read about the camp on the net.
“And, by the way,” Freebery said proudly, “Kiki’s GPA went from a 2.8 to a 3.5!”
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