Newsongs School of Music's Weblog

Recitals!

newsongsschoolofmusic — Fri, 28 May 2010 20:12:43 +0000

Our summer recitals are already upon us! We will be holding student performances on Saturday, June 5th and Sunday, June 6th at 2 pm and 4 pm. Please contact your student’s teacher if you have not already recieved an invitation with your student’s recital time and information on it. Performances are semi-formal, intented to last approximately one hour, and light refreshments will be served afterwards (potluck refreshments are welcome but not expected). We are extremely proud of our students and their accomplishments and look forward to working with them throughout the summer.
If you will be taking extended vacation time over the summer please let us know ahead of time so we can plan accordingly with you. We also have some special summer programs for you or friends and family.
remember, not classes for Monday, March 31st for Memorial Day.

Western Festival 2010

newsongsschoolofmusic — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 23:01:17 +0000

Dear Parents
The Western Festival Parade is coming soon and we are very excited to showcase our students. Here are some things you can know and ways you can help.

1) If your student is not performing during the parade, we encourage you to walk in the parade with us! Students can be proud of their musical achievements! ALL students in parade (including performers) need a parent or responsible adult with them. Please make sure we have your student’s name and parent signature on our permission form for the parade officials.

Parade participants should plan on wear “Western” themed clothing. Parent volunteers will also help us pass out school information, etc to people watching the parade.

2) We need a full-sized truck to pull the trailer, a driver for the truck, and a “fancy” car or convertible for Broadway Bear and the Piano Princess (costumed characters) to ride in and wave, and a driver for the car. Please let us know ASAP if you can provide and/or drive either vehicle.

3) We will be decorating the float on Friday, April 30th (morning and afternoon, depending on what you are available for). Musical Theater students will also be rehearsing on April 30th from 4:30 to 6 pm. Band studnets will be rehearsing starting at 6 pm. Please sign up to help us by emailing michael@newsongsSOM.com and you will recieve more detailed information as we know who we have available.

4) We are waiting for our exact parade location still, but participants should plan on carpooling or parking near Waterman and Elk Grove Blvd. We will need volunteers to park their cars at Elk Grove High School (end of the parade route), that can bring people back to their vehicles. You may also carpool from the NewSongs parking lot and return their after the parade.
(Next week I will send a list of signed-up participants with email contact information and you can coordinate carpooling yourself. If you can “shuttle” people after the parade please contact we this week so I can include that information in the email.)

5) We also will need help undecorating and returning the trailer Saturday afternoon. We will do this at NewSongs, starting at approximately 2 pm to allow time for lunch, etc.

6) If you can help us keep our costs down with access to a portable sound system or generator, we would also appreciate the help.

Thanks!!
Mr Michael and NewSongs staff

Important March Dates

newsongsschoolofmusic — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 22:31:54 +0000

Saturday, March 13th 2 pm Voice Students Supplemental Group Class
Saturday, March 20th 1-2:30 pm PIANO Supplemental Group Class (open to all private lesson students, no charge, but please register)
Saturday, March 20th 3-4:00 pm LITTLE MOZARTS Supplemental Group Class (open to all students and parents together, no charge, but please register)
Week of March 22-26th Day of the Week Concerts Daily 7-8 pm: All students invited to perform
Saturday, March 27th 2 pm Beethoven concert
Monday, March 30th 4:30 pm LITTLE MOZARTS Supplemental Group Class (open to all students and parents together, no charge, but please register)
Monday, March 30th-OPEN for regular lessons
Tuesday-Saturday March 31-April 2 NO regular lessons
Tuesday, March 31st 3:30-4:45 and 5:15-6:30 PIANO Supplemental Group Class (open to ALL piano students, no charge, but please register)
Tuesday March 31st Guitar Supplemental Group Classes, TBD

2010 Western Festival

newsongsschoolofmusic — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 19:15:42 +0000

March 10, 2010
Hello Everyone!
Every first weekend of May is the Elk Grove Western Festival and Parade. It’s a citywide celebration of its “western” roots that we, at Newsongs School of Music, contribute each year by marching in the Saturday morning parade. It’s a time where we show off what we all love about our school: OUR STUDENTS!
This year, you have the special opportunity to showcase your child’s musical talent by playing live music on our Newsongs float! That’s right, we’ll be building a moving “stage” from which chosen students and teachers will perform side-by-side and show this city what we do best: PLAY MUSIC!
The date for this year’s parade is May 1st. (There will be not lessons on that date) And the parade will be marching that morning. Rain or shine.
That leaves us approximately 8 weeks to organize our performance and build our float.
It would be extremely helpful if you or anyone you know who is interested to help volunteer for this event and possibly donate decorations for our float.
We are looking for:
Ranch-type items:
-Rusted buckets, pots and pans. Shovels, pikes, wagon spokes etc..
Patriotic banners:
-red/white/blue ribbons and/or banners
Volunteers:
-To help assemble the float, organize/supervise children during the parade, march etc.
-Rides/transportation (in the am and pm) for teachers and children from studio to parade route
Power:
-a small power generator to power the sound system
-a small 8 channel powered mixer
-microphones, cables, power cables, extension cords and more!!

Please sign up via email to Lisa, our new office manager, at lisa@elkgrovemusiclessons.com to march in the parade or to help with our float. Mr. Sam (sam@elkgrovemusiclesson.com) will be coordinating our musical performers and Ms. Cealey will oversee our musical theater students, who will also perform. Please contact them about participating in one of these areas.
Soon we will be having rehearsals for our performance, and we would like to also invite anyone who is interested in volunteering to our first “practice day” on Saturday, April 24th. Even if you or your child are not performing in this parade, please consider how you can contribute and help support our children as they give their best before the City of Elk Grove!
Many Thanks,
NewSongs School of Music staff and teachers

Welcome to the 2010 Winter MUSIC Olympics

newsongsschoolofmusic — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 03:25:12 +0000

We are encouraging our students to practice and train to perform their musical best just as Olympic athletes prepare for their performance. However, we will not be challenging students in competition against one another, but against themselves to reach benchmark goals.
To reach a “gold medal” students are required to earn 45 stars or points over a 5 week period. We will be calculating star points at each weekly lesson. Some ways to earn star points are:
1 point for attending weekly lessons
3 points for meeting weekly practice goal
1 point for memorizing a scale
2 point for memorizing a song
1 point for memorizing a chord chart
2 points for attending a NEW group session (info to come)
1 point for passing a teacher’s sight-reading quiz
and more!
Teachers will also have individual star points to give for unique achievements or special challenges they set for individual students. At the end of our Olympics we will be having a Gold Medal party week with special treats and prizes for all participants. Other levels of participation include:
Silver Medal (35 points)
Bronze medal (20 points)
Honorable Mention (10 or more points)
Please encourage your students to participate—Olympics begin January 25th and end on February 27th.

Sincerely, Mr. Michael and the NewSongs teachers

Additional performance opportunity

newsongsschoolofmusic — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 03:06:12 +0000

Performance Opportunity

I am very excited to share that we have been asked to have some of our students perform on the children’s stage at the Elk Grove Dickens Fair on Saturday November 28th. We found out with somewhat short notice so we are now working to gather groups of performers. We will be booking students to play between 12:30 and 2 pm and playing Christmas songs. Our cast of “Peter Pan” will also be performing musical selections. If you are interested in performing and available at that time, please contact me directly at michael@newsongSOM.com so I can put together our performance schedule. We will still be having all of our students perform at our recitals on December 12^th; or we have scheduled an additional recital with Mr Sam on December 19^th at 2 pm. This is a “bonus” performance opportunity and we do not expect all students to perform, it is voluntary. I hope to hear from you soon!

Sincerely, Mr. Michael

Performance opportunity

newsongsschoolofmusic — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 18:03:31 +0000

I just received a request from Fairy Tale Town for intermediate level students to come and play at an event they have this weekend. “I am looking for any students who would be willing to volunteer their time to come out to the park and play the piano at the event. I will give these students one ticket to the event for them and one ticket for a guest, if the students are under the age of 18 that guest must be an adult. The event is Friday, Saturday & Sunday, October 23-25, from 5PM-9PM. Ideally I would like the sets to last about 20 minutes or so, and would like to have students sign up for the entire 4 hours (5PM-9PM they would be free to take breaks and stop as needed). However if they cannot stay that long or cannot arrive that early I am flexible. We have three pianos and I would need at least three players each night.” The theme is Beatles so we could assist you in getting appropriate music to play if you want to perform at this event. Please let me know ASAP if you are interested so I can get back to the event coordinator.

Also remember next week is “Wear Your Costume to Lessons” week, so we hope to see some wonderful costumes as well!

Mr Michael

NewSongs School of Music

Welcome to Quarter 4 with NewSongs

newsongsschoolofmusic — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 22:17:10 +0000

September 28, 2009

Dear Musical Families,

Welcome to our final quarter of 2009! We are so excited to have you on the journey of musical growth with us. October is National Arts and Humanities month and there is no better way to honor the month than by being a music maker! There are lots of new things going on this quarter I wanted you to be aware of so please take the time to review the following information.

First, we have enclosed portfolios for students taking private lessons. These are intended to help you track your student’s progress with them. Please take time to look at it with them and celebrate all that they have learned, because we definitely want to encourage and motivate students by taking notice of their accomplishments. Complete a goal sheet with them for the upcoming quarter and return the portfolio and goal sheet at their next lesson (we need it to continue to track their progress).

Starting Monday, September 28^th we have 12 classes remaining until our Christmas break (we close December 20^th). We will be closed Thursday and Friday, November 26-27^th for Thanksgiving. Lessons will be rescheduled to Saturday, Nov 21^st or another convenient time. The week of October 26-31^st is “Costume Week” at NewSongs and we encourage students to wear their costumes to their lesson (secret: if you have a special costume planned, let your teacher know and we may be able to help you learn a coordinating musical “theme song” or other piece if appropriate). Our holiday recitals will be on Saturday, December 12^th at various times.

We also are very proud of our new musical theater department that we have opened this fall. If you have not already, please note that in addition to our ongoing Broadway Chorus and Storytellers Drama classes, we are auditioning for “Hairspray” and “Peter Pan” mini-shows on Saturday, October 3^rd and Monday, October 12^th. I encourage you and your family or friends to audition; it will be a lot of fun. And join us for the showcase performance in the evening on Saturday, November 21^st. We will be having auditions in January for roles in our “Dr. Suess Extravaganza” as well.

While we are still finalizing details, we are in the process of adding to our facility the next door space at 9611 (our original home with the Elk Grove Performing Arts Co.). We are sharing this space with Heritage Peak Charter School, which will be holding morning classes from 8 am to 2 pm. However, it will facilitate our larger classes and give us a more readily available performance space and room for family events.

Finally, we are revising our billing this quarter so if you are able to set up automatic payments with us with either a credit or checking account we would greatly appreciate your help. Remember to utilize our online appointment link when cancelling or rescheduling classes and let us know any glitches you may encounter so we may help you.

A very special thank you, your family has helped us grow and promote music and the arts in our community and your involvement has made all the difference!

NewSongs School of Music 916-714-4544 music@newsongsSOM.com www.newsongsSOM.com

Something I found interesting…

newsongsschoolofmusic — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 19:27:44 +0000

For Comcast cable customers, I watched a documentary this week (in the wee hours of the morning with my son) that may be of interest to our students. It was a film on the process of making a Steinway piano, which takes a year from start to finish. We have often opened up our pianos here in class to help students better understand the mechanics of how the piano sounds are produces, and this shows the intricacy in great detail. If you want to check it out, find the history and nature menu on On Demand (something like that, I may not have that name exactly right), find PBS KIVE and the documentary will be listed. It may end soon, I do not know how long it will remain in their options, but I wanted to pass along the insight.

Speaking of learning resources, we love all of the learning and creative tools we use with students here. I would love to have more opportunity to use computer based notation software, listening assignments, etc with more computers available, but we are not able to invest in that at this point (as we are striving to keep tuition as low as possible). Most programs we use are not all that current, so “obsolete” computers may be perfectly acceptable for our student’s use. If you or someone you know is upgrading and would like to donate a computer, we would gladly put it to use for our students here. Thanks for your consideration. I look forward to seeing you soon

Mr. Michael

Back to School for Music

newsongsschoolofmusic — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 21:42:33 +0000

We have officially begun our “Back to School” week of parent open-house meetings and transitioning into fall. We have several exciting new programs you will be recieving information about shortly. In the meantime, I wanted to remind you to please attend one of our back to school evening events between 7 and 8:30 pm (Aug 10 to the 14th).

Also, thank you for your patience with emails from our new appointment system. You will be recieving more info about it at back to school, and we now have a link on our website (www.newsongsSOM.coM) under “Students” for you to view, cancel, and reschedule appointments yourself at your convenience. We are still working out the final bugs, but we look forward to showing you this cool new tool. See you soon!