If you happened by Pasadena's Washington Park on any Tuesday from July 13th through August 3rd, you might have heard the sounds of drums and an electric or bass guitar amid the sounds of children playing and giggling. Those sounds were courtesy of Pasadena's top contemporary music school the LA Music Academy and scores of children participating in an outreach music enrichment program with the Park and the City of Pasadena. Antonio Sorcini, the Park Services Specialist in the Human Services and Recreation Department Neighborhoods Division, has been running the free six week summer camp for children of low income families for the past eight years. Designed as a means to focus the energies and attention of the children and help steer the park away from its reputation as a "dangerous" place for kids to a more family friendly location, Sorcini organized and oversaw the daily activities, which on any given week could include an "art center" hosted by the Army Center for the Arts to an agriculture and natural science program introduced by the American Living History organization to an introduction to books via the Academy of Library Services. For the first time in four years, Sorcini was thrilled to add the LA Music Academy to that lineup, bringing the music — quite literally — to the park and the kids. "It gives the kids exposure to music in a different way than in a classroom," Sorcini says. "They actually get to play with an instrument and with professional musicians and students of the school. It also gives the kids a chance to have a musical experience that hopefully will carry on from here." One of those pros was Shapes of Sound leader and LA Music Academy alumnus Lorenzo Grassi, who on July 20th introduced child after child to his electric guitar. Among the thoughtful words of advice Grassi could be overheard telling the children (including a little girl smaller than the guitar she was trying to play) were things like "all of the instruments have a soul, and you need to treat them with respect."

Among the other volunteers from the school were percussion students Ryan Mullin and Masato Yamada, Bjorn Fleuren, a bass graduate, and drum graduates Paul Van de Riet and Hisayuki "Q" Kato. Commenting on what the volunteers from the LA Music Academy were hoping to achieve with the kids, Grassi explained, "We're trying to give the kids an overview of what it's like to play an instrument and trying to give them an idea of what music is about and the heritage of music and what the origins are of what we play — For example, how much of African-American music blends the components of African and European music and the importance of that and how it started — down to Herbie Hancock and Miles Davis and Charlie Christian. You name them. All of that just to create an awareness of what the origins are and what their resources are to share in that experience, that heritage, that legacy. That's the intellectual side. Then, there's the practical side which is learning rhythm and playing together — but very simply." As he kept a watchful eye over the girl who was gamely losing her wrestling match with his guitar, Grassi added, "You have to start them off young because the younger they are, the more receptive they are."

The drums and percussion instruments were naturally the biggest draws for the kids, including Ebony Vaughn, 13, and her friend Kayla Walk, 10. For Vaughn, a clarinet player in school, the program gave her a chance to sample a brand new instrument. While she seemed more than happy to return to the clarinet afterwards, Walk was more of a convert saying, "It's fun to find a beat and keep your rhythm to it." Vaughn's mother Tabitha, while pretty sure she didn't have a budding Sheila E. on her hands, enjoyed her daughter's turn at the drum set nonetheless. "It's a good thing. It keeps them out of trouble. It's really good for them." And while the point of the program wasn't necessarily to find new talent on the streets of Pasadena, Mullin saw some potential among the kids he worked with. "I know drummers that have been playing five or six years that can't do some of the things that a couple of these kids picked up naturally. I had four or five girls that were really enjoying it and getting into a groove with it. They were picking up on it real quick," he explained. "That's rewarding. If they're having fun, then I'm having fun." And judging from the sounds of the laughter and music coming out of Washington Park, they weren't the only ones.