Arkansas 4-H members polish vocal, instrumental skills at inaugural Performing Arts Camp

LITTLE ROCK — Some belted Broadway show tunes, others sang pop songs and one strummed the guitar, but all participants at the inaugural Arkansas 4-H Performing Arts Camp improved their skills and made new musical friends.
The new program, held at the C.A. Vines Arkansas 4-H Center in Little Rock from July 13-15, welcomed nine 4-H members from ages 12-18 to practice their vocal and instrumental skills. On the last day of camp, participants from six Arkansas counties performed their songs in a showcase for parents and camp counselors.
Lane Fritch, extension 4-H programs technician for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture and coordinator of the camp, said she designed the program to give participants a chance to practice their performances and receive one-on-one help from coaches.
“My goal is to help them with their solo performances, because there aren’t a lot of opportunities for kids to have private lessons,” Fritch said. “When they’re in choir, there’s not always time to meet one-on-one. We’ve been working with the kids individually, but they’ve also been working in groups. We’ve even got a little band forming between a couple of them.”
Fritch and her sister Faith, who volunteered as a coach for the camp, are both Arkansas 4-H alumni who focused on performing arts as their 4-H projects and earned top marks at State O-Rama, the organization’s annual four-day competition event.
Lane Fritch said she and her sister wanted to share their skills with current 4-H members who plan to compete in the same subject at upcoming district and state-level contests.
“My favorite thing about this is that it’s going to be able to help them at District and State O-Rama, because that program is really, really big,” Fritch said. “At this camp, there’s such a variety of genres and techniques and skills. We’ve got country singers; we’ve got kids that are doing pop and kids that are doing Broadway musicals.
“The stuff that we’re teaching them this week, most of them haven’t even heard of before,” Fritch said. “I’ve asked them every time, ‘Have you done this exercise before?’ and they’ve said no. Faith and I grew up taking private lessons, and that was a blessing. That’s why I think this is such a great camp, because they’re finally getting to have that focused experience with one of us.”
New friends, new techniques
Bethany Moix, 14, is a member of Pulaski County 4-H. Over the three-day camp, Moix worked with her sister Hannah on a duet performance of “A Million Dreams” from the musical “The Greatest Showman.”
“We’ve learned warm-ups, and we’ve been learning the chords and how to match our voices with them,” Moix said. “We chose a song to perform, and they worked on that with us and explained to us the different note height levels. If you couldn’t reach certain notes, you could change the notes to make them sound better with the song or your voice.”
For Moix, the best part of performing is “singing the notes and hearing it come out of my mouth.”
“It sounds beautiful — most of the time,” she said. “Especially when you can hear what you’ve messed up on, and then you turn it into something better, you can hear the difference, and it’s amazing.”

Kruz Ho, 15, is a member of Garland County 4-H. He spent the camp working on his guitar skills with Corbin Huffstutter, extension 4-H program technician for the Division of Agriculture, who volunteered as a coach for the camp.
Ho said he has been playing the guitar since he was five years old, and that he enjoys making music as an act of worship in his faith.
“My favorite part of this has been meeting new friends and like-minded musical individuals,” Ho said.
Ho said he gained new insight into the importance of stage presence, and that in the future, he might like to release a single or an album.
“It really doesn’t matter too much how big the audience is, whether it’s two people or 50 people,” Ho said. “You’ve just got to do it and try not to get nervous. Eye contact is important, too.”
Teaching confidence
Allison Crane, Garland County extension family and consumer sciences agent, has almost 30 years of experience directing children’s choirs. She volunteered as a coach for the camp and said she saw significant progress among participants during the program.
“It’s a small group, so there’s not a lot of pressure and the kids have gotten to know each other,” Crane said. “The difference in even how they were singing the silly songs at the beginning when they all joined together, and how they were singing last night after having all day to bond and have fun together, it’s totally different. Their comfort level and willingness to just put themselves out there has really grown.”
Crane said vocal performance participants received instruction on specific techniques, including ways of holding their mouths to produce “quality vocal sound,” as well as how to project their voices without straining them.
In addition to these skills, Crane said performance helps youth gain confidence, which translates to all elements of their lives.
“Everybody knows that public speaking is typically people’s No. 1 fear,” Crane said. “Well, performing gives one that public speaking opportunity, but in a kind of controlled way. You are getting up in front of people and telling them something.
“By performing, you gain that little edge of confidence that so many people lack,” she said. “Music creates an emotion, and these kids have a gift and a talent. They’re using it and trying to develop it.”