Camp participants are feeling the music

ALBANY — A five-day camp is opening up the world of music and beyond to a group of children as part of the Albany Boys & Girls Clubs’ summer camp program.

A group of about 40 kids ages 6 to 14 taking part in the Otis Music Camp on Tuesday went over Monday’s instruction about various types of musical instruments: electric and acoustic guitars, brass and woodwind, and various types of percussion instruments.

After that it was time for dancing on the gym floor at the Boys & Girl’s Club at Thornton Park on the second day of a program named for the late Georgia musician Otis Redding.

“These kids are excited,” said Maximo Oliveira, a dancer and choreographer who is an instructor with the camp, which wrapped up a two-week session Friday in Macon. “They’re jumping out of their seats. They’re repeating information we gave them yesterday.”

Oliveira said the life and legacy of Otis Redding, perhaps best known for the hit song “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay,” will be incorporated into the teaching.

“We definitely want to open their minds to who Otis Redding is, how he was an amazing songwriter,” Oliveira said. “A lot of people don’t know he wrote ‘Respect’ for Aretha Franklin.”

That will open the conversation up to the other careers in music and the arts that don’t involve being the star on stage but working behind the scenes, such as writing songs and producing music.

Meanwhile, exposure to arts programs has a positive effect on the lives of children, Oliveira said of the music program in its third year in Albany but the first year here under the Redding name.

“The kids that find themselves through the arts, they keep themselves out of trouble because they don’t have time for that,” he said.

Involvement in music also teaches discipline and perseverance and that, “You don’t just do a thing one time and you’re good at it,” Oliveira said. “The Otis Camp is giving them the tools and knowledge to create songs (and) to raise their knowledge about different art forms.

“It’s really just to open their eyes and minds to experience and to be comfortable in that and to pursue these different outlets.”