, , Should I sign my child up for the Kids and Teens Winter Recital?

kids and teens winter recital

Should I sign my child up for the Kids and Teens Winter Recital?

The answer isn’t always yes. While we would love to have ALL of our students perform at our recital, this isn’t feasible or realistic. For one, we have limited space and time available. However, the main requirement to perform in a recital is talking to your teacher. Ultimately, they will let you know if they think your child is ready to perform. Below are the criteria our teachers use to determine if you are ready.

If students don’t meet the criteria, we still encourage everyone to attend! Our Winter Kids and Teens Recital is the biggest performance of the year for us, and it is great to see all of your faces in the audience. Hopefully, your child will leave feeling inspired and participate the next time around!

Recital Criteria

Talk to your child’s teacher
This is the first step! Start a conversation with your child’s teacher if they haven’t already mentioned the recital to you. Teacher contact info is available in the student portal if you are unable to have a face-to-face conversation.

Experience
How long has your child been playing music or taking lessons? If it’s less than a few months, they probably aren’t ready to perform.

Steady Beat
Can your child play the song without speeding up or slowing down drastically? We’d rather hear a recognizable ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb’ than have them struggle through the first measure of Chopin’s Etude Opus 10 No. 4 . No song is too “easy” for a recital.

Good Tone
Good tone can be subjective, but are they able to stay on pitch and play the correct notes consistently? Try to pick a piece that your child is confident in, not one that they picked the week before the recital or one that they can only play accurately on a ‘good day.’

Creativity
We give extra points for creativity. Extra imaginary bonus points, that is, because being creative is its own reward. Ever heard a reggae version of ‘Jingle Bells’ or a punk version of a Taylor Swift song? The best part about being enrolled in private lessons is that you can work with your teacher to come up with your very own unique arrangement! If possible, try to stray away from the stock tunes in your lesson books and seek out fun, new material. We love hearing what you come up with.

Sign up in the Student Portal
If you’ve made it this far, go sign up for the recital in the Student Portal on 11/1. A $10 charge will be added to your December invoice to guarantee your spot, performers will not be charged at the door. Guests can buy tickets in advance or at the door.  We’ll see you at City Winery!

Extra tips…

This is not a competition
I repeat… this is not a competition. Everyone is in a different place on their musical journey.

Schedule an extra lesson!
Chances are you have some makeup credits available at this point in the year. Feel free to use those to schedule an extra lesson in the student portal leading up to the recital to help with jitters. If you don’t have makeup credits, contact the front desk and add an a la carte lesson.

Play with your teacher!
Unless your child is feeling super duper confident, it is probably best to have a teacher accompany your child on stage. Even if your teacher can’t make the recital, we have plenty of teachers who are up to the challenge. They are all very talented professional musicians.

Have some ‘Dress Rehearsals’
Our teacher Mr. Chris is famous for having his students perform in front of an audience of puppets. Although they aren’t animated, having an imaginary audience will help simulate the recital experience. Even better, perform for your neighbors, siblings, grandparents, and pets!

Have fun
Dress up, skip onto the stage, and take an extravagant bow; this is your time to shine!

, , , Winter Recital Signup

KIDS WINTER RECITAL

We are excited to hear all of our students perform at our Kids Winter Recital on 12/2!

Registration opens on 11/1 so now is a good time to talk to your teachers and settle on a piece to play. Can’t wait to hear what everyone comes up with ❄️

Tickets are available on City Winery’s website. Individual performers do not need to buy tickets from City Winery’s website, a $10 charge will be added to your account when you register in the Student Portal to confirm your spot.

Winter Recital

Announcing our newest group starting in mid-August, R&B Ensemble. This group is open to adults only, and all of our guitar spots are already full. We are now enrolling keys, bass, drums, and vocals. Tuition is $32.50 per rehearsal and the group is led by Sean McMorris. Contact the front desk today if you are interested in joining!

, , Teen Bands at Morningside Farmers Market

The Teen Bands have been invited back to perform Morningside Farmers Market on Saturday, April 29th at 10:00 am! Come by to support local music and local vendors!

, , , Adults Winter Recital 1/24 8PM

 

The Adults Winter Recital is around the corner! The show will be at 8:00 pm on 1/24 at Eddie’s Attic.

If you are interested in performing, you can register via the student portal. Both performers and attendees are required to purchase tickets either at the door or online.

Looking forward to seeing you there!

, , , 2022 Fall Student Showcase

The Fall Student Showcase was fantastic, and the weather was perfect! We had 48 performers and our Teen Bands back at Waller’s Coffee again last Saturday, and we’re super proud of everyone’s hard work.

Thanks to the students, parents, teachers, and Waller’s! We’ll see everyone next at the Winter Recital in December. Check out a few highlights below.

We are very excited for the Kirkwood Wine Stroll this Friday! We have two Guitar Shed ensembles performing – The Bobcats and Cosmik Debris.

Check out the Wine Stroll website for more info and we hope to see you there!

The Fall Student Showcase is next month! This showcase will be held again at Waller’s Coffee Shop in Decatur and will feature many of our talented students and bands.

To register for the showcase, please talk with your teacher and then sign-up through the student portal. Please contact the front desk if you have any questions!

Camp Woodshed is shaping up to be an awesome couple of weeks! We have only one remaining spot open for bass guitar in Week 2. If you may be interested, please contact the front desk.

Week 1 – 7/11-7/15  (ages 8-12)
Week 2 – 7/18-7/22 (ages 12-16)

Throughout the week, our talented faculty will host mid-day 30-minute workshops. These workshops include topics such as recording and production, songwriting, extended piano techniques, and instrument show-and-tell. The kids are in for a fun learning experience!

We’ll see you there!

Thanks to everyone who came out to ShedFest! ShedFest was held at a great new Atlanta music venue, The Garden Club at Wild Heaven West End, with music inside The Garden Club and the artist market outside in the Wild Heaven lawn area. The music lineup featured four great local bands: Voodoo Visionary, Casual Cadenza, Rujen, and The Norm. There was a little something for everybody with genres spanning from indie to rock to hip-hop to funk!

We look forward to the continual growth of this event for years to come! We raised $1000 for Lanta Gras this year, and we will continue our efforts through ShedFest to provide access to instruments and music lessons for kids in our community. You can donate to Lanta Gras year-round in support of this great initiative!