The NewSongs Guitar Blog

Looking for…

Olivia — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 10:47:20 +0000

To help us ready some of the class space in our expanded facility next door I need help looking for a few things items. I am trying to keep a low budget and save the school (and our students) money.

We need folding tables and chairs than can come out for performance, student use, etc and then put away. Any donations or leads to where I could obtain up to 50 chairs (and about 6 tables) very inexpensively would be very helpful. We also could use a few extra white boards if we can find them free or cheap. We still can also take computer donations of obsolete machines if you have one you don’t know what to do with anymore. The software we need is also old and runs fine on older machines.

Thank you for your consideration in helping us! I am convinced that the families that learn here are the best and I am so grateful for all the ways you participate with us. Mr Michael NewSongs School of Music

Welcome to quarter 4

Olivia — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 23:49:02 +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

Back to School for Music

Olivia — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 21:44:40 +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). We will be focusing on guitarists on Wednesday (Aug 12) and Friday (Aug 14).

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!

Summer Break and Back to School

Olivia — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 16:55:38 +0000

Dear Students and Parents: July 13, 2009

As a reminder, the school will be closed all next week from July 19th to July 26th. Regular classes will resume on July 27th. This holiday is part of our planned 12 class quarter and does not require a makeup lesson. Please let us know if you have any questions!

IMPORTANT NOTE: Mr Sam will be out on Saturday, August 1st, so his guitar students WILL have class on July 25th and NOT on Aug 1st, unlike the rest of the students

We are excited to hold a week long back to school night for all of our students. This is an opportunity for parents to come meet the teachers, see what we have been working on and ask any questions. We have many new programs recently added that we would love to share with you! We will also be reviewing our new online scheduling tool, to help make scheduling and make-ups easier and more efficient.

Back to school dates and times:

Monday, August 10th 7:00-8:30pm Piano students (including Little Mozarts)

Tuesday, August 11th 7:00-8:30pm Guitar students

Wednesday, August 12th 7:00pm Violin and Voice students

Thursday, August 13th 7:00-8:30pm Piano students (including Little Mozarts)

Friday, August 14th 7:00-8:30pm Guitar students

Thank you so much! We appreciate your business and look forward to continue serving your families!

Newsongs School of Music Staff

Recital Photos from June 27th and 28th

Olivia — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 02:35:40 +0000

The photos from the June 27 & 28 recitals are up! Click here to view them.

Welcome to Quarter 3!

Olivia — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 20:13:38 +0000

A huge congratulations to all of our recital performers this weekend. Each and every student had something very special to perform and we as teachers were SO proud! Thanks to all you family and friends who braved the heat to come out and support the performers. I also want to thank everyone who filled out surveys for us–your valuable feedback is helping us plan new ways to improve our programs.

Today we start our third calendar quarter, which means we have finished 24 weeks of lessons and have 24 weeks to go in 2009! My how time flies. We look forward to starting lots of fun new projects this week. We are OPEN all week. We will be CLOSED for one week of summer break the week of JULY 19th to the 26th and there will be no classes that week.

I have had a number of questions about summer vacations and breaks so I hope to clarify if you were wondering. If you take a month of more off from lessons we do not keep you our schedule but of course do save your registration information. When you are ready to being classes again you just need to contact us and we will let you know what times are currently open if our schedule. You may be subject to another registration fee in some cases as an incoming student. However, we really look forward to having you back–while available times may change we are constantly growing and adding times to accept students. If you will gone for less that 4 weeks and want to keep your scheduled lesson time, we can make arrangements with you before your time off to credit paid but unused lessons from the month to the next month and prorate future payments for any classes we are not able to make up for you, so please keep that option in mind as well.

Again we are so proud of our students, thankful for all the supportive families, and excited about the upcoming quarter of learning!

Parents, please stop in this week

Olivia — Sun, 24 May 2009 17:11:02 +0000

First of all, we are open during the Memorial Day holiday so we will be in on Monday–if you are not able to come be sure to give us advance notice so we can schedule you at another time this week.

We have been working on improving the atmosphere and functionality of our space, so please check out what we have added/moved/ etc around the school. And while you are at it, please stop by the front desk–we have updated our policies and need EVERYONE to sign an updated form for us and check to make sure we have the most up to date contact info. We are also creating our recital schedules for the weekend of Sat June 27 and Sun June 28, so please let us know your schedule conflicts or preferences so we can be sure to put you in a good time slot.

We, as always, have lots going on–but it is our sincere desire to serve you and your family better and better (and I hope we are succeeding). We look forward to seeing you this week and we keep you up to date! Thank you for your partnership– Mr Michael and the NewSongs staff

Western Festival Parade

Olivia — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 17:42:09 +0000

We have had a last-minute opportunity to join the Western Festival and the the Western Festival Parade! We are very excited because we are about to launch a month-long effort to raise community awareness of how local students are getting involved in music and the arts–and this is one more way we get to bring music to everyone’s attention.

Here is how you can help us: to show how our local students are already involved in music, we would like students to march with us in the parade. If you are interested, we will get you complete details. The parade is this Saturday, May 2nd and the meeting time is 9AM. Students will be walking the parade route, and must have an adult with them. If you want to join us, let your teacher know or send us back and email at music@newsongssom.com or call us (916-714-4544) and let us know so we can get you more details. And look for our booth with family music activities as well this weekend as you celebrate the EG Western Festival!

We are open this week!

Olivia — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 21:27:03 +0000

Because of a variety of school schedules we work with, we are open this week while many people are on “Spring Break”. Please plan to attend class if you can, and if you cannot let us know in advance so we can try to reschedule with you if possible. We are open 13 weeks this quarter (May 30 through June 27), but you may have a cancelled class (either you cancel or your teacher has a cancelled day) during this quarter that is not made up–it is our “extra week”. Happy Easter and we look forward to seeing you!

Vote for your favorite music school!

Olivia — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 19:37:09 +0000

Put NewSongs on the “A” list if you love your experience here. Visit http://kcra.cityvoter.com/contests/2009-kcra-3-a-list-contest/4367/arts-and-entertainment/music-instruction and vote for us as your favorite local music school. We appreciate your partnership. And Good News! Our students have practiced over 15,000 minutes towards their 40,000 minute goal, and we are only a week and a half into our practice drive. Go students!