Lanta Gras Parade – January 29th

The 7th annual Lanta Gras parade is next Saturday, January 29th in Kirkwood! The parade begins at Bessie Branham Park at 1:00 and rolls through the neighborhood, eventually ending up in downtown Kirkwood where the Lanta Gras festival takes place. Fitting the Mardi Gras theme, local restaurants feature New Orleans-inspired menu items and there will be plenty of beads thrown from the parade floats.

We have partnered with Lanta Gras for several years to provide music scholarships to kids in the Kirkwood community. Our annual fundraiser event, ShedFest, aims to raise money for the Lanta Gras Music Program while bringing visibility and awareness to the organization.

The Lanta Gras Parade is a FREE event and is always a blast, so come out next Saturday for some fun floats, tasty bites, and live music! Wear your green, yellow, and purple and get in the Mardi Gras mood!

Current Covid-19 Protocol Update

Greetings Guitar Shedders,

As you are surely aware, we are in the middle of a significant surge in Covid cases and we wanted to give you an update on our current protocol.

We will remain open in person until further notice and will continue to check temperatures, enforce mask-wearing, and sanitize as often as possible. These practices have served us very well in preventing transmission since we re-opened in May of 2021.

Remember that you always have the option to switch lessons to virtual at any time. If you feel any discomfort about the idea of coming in for lessons, don’t hesitate to let us know and we’ll be happy to switch to virtual.

Regarding positive Covid cases among our staff – we are following the current CDC guidelines for quarantine/isolation. Feel free to read more about their recommendations here: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/your-health/quarantine-isolation.html

We hope that everyone is staying safe and looking after your physical and mental health. Fortunately, the Omicron variant has shown to be milder than past variants and the rate of hospitalizations and deaths remains very low, even as cases reach all-time highs.

Thank you for your patience and continued support while navigating this situation.

Let us know if you have any questions or concerns.

Keep Shedding!
Guitar Shed

We’re Back!

The Shed is back open after a nice holiday break! We look forward to having you all back for another great year of music, learning, and community. We have some exciting things on the horizon:

January 9th – Adults Recital @ Waller’s Coffee Shop – 7:00pm

January 22nd – Drum Recital @ Big House Guitars – 1:00pm

January 29th – Lanta Gras Parade around Kirkwood – 1:00-5:00pm

We’ll see you there!

Cello Lessons Are Back!

We are back to offering cello lessons at Guitar Shed!

Mason Johnston (they/them) is a composer, songwriter, producer, singer, and multi-instrumentalist based in Atlanta, GA. Classically trained in cello since the age of 4, they were a member of the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra in the 2015 season. Since then, Mason has performed in several genre-eclectic ensembles, ranging from the Atlanta-based experimental indie rock trio Big Motion to the Mandé West African Ensemble at New England Conservatory, led by Balla Kouyaté.

Mason is teaching on Sundays and has plenty of spots available. Reach out to the front desk if you’re interested in cello lessons or if you have any questions. You can start as early as next week!

Blues Ensemble Starting January 16th, 2022!

If you are a blues lover, we have some exciting news for you! Guitar Shed will be starting a Blues Ensemble in January, which will be led by Sean McMorris. Members will learn about popular blues styles, iconic tunes, improvisation, and how to play in a group setting. The ensemble will be for adults and will be open to singers, guitarists, bassists, drummers, and keyboardists.

The ensemble will meet on Sundays from 6:30-7:30 starting on January 16th and the cost of participating will be $30 per rehearsal.

Reach out to the front desk for more information if you’re interested!

New Cheshire Bridge Location Now Open

Last week marked the grand opening of our new location! Guitar Shed is now offering lessons out of Big House Guitars on Cheshire Bridge Road. We have two new teachers shown below, Ben Williams(left) and Cody McAlister(right), who will be teaching guitar, bass, and ukulele lessons in the new spot. Contact the front desk for more information about lessons at Cheshire Bridge.

If you haven’t yet been to Big House Guitars, it is a wonderful new store that features some incredible custom guitars, collector’s items, and all kinds of instruments, amps, and effects pedals. If you’re ever in that area, be sure to check them out!

1st Ever Drum Recital

We’re looking forward to our first ever drum recital on 1/22 at 1:00pm! To better accommodate our students, we have moved the location from Guitar Shed in Kirkwood to our new Cheshire Bridge location instead.

Our new space is located inside Big House Guitars at 2323 Cheshire Bridge Rd. It has a stage and ample space for everyone to spread out.

The recital is for drummers of all ages and registration is now open! You can register by logging into our student portal and clicking on the Drum Recital event on 1/22. Please talk to your teacher to see if this will be a good performance opportunity!

Winter Recital Information

Our winter recitals are coming up and we want to send out some preliminary information. See below for info on both the Kids & Teens Recital and the Adults Recital.

Registration will be open through the Student Portal on November 19th at 9:00am. Please discuss participating in the recital with your teacher before registering. Attempting to perform before one is ready can be detrimental and create anxiety or resistance toward future performances.


KIDS AND TEENS RECITAL – December 18, 2021 at City WineryDoors at 11:00am – Show at 12:00pm

-Open to Kids and Teens
-Teen Bands will perform first
-Limited to 60 performers (band members do not need to sign up unless you are playing an individual song)

Admission is $10 in advance and at the door for ALL performers and guests. This policy helps with the production of our recitals. Admission covers the costs to pay for the venue, market the event, design and print posters, hire photographers, print our photo albums, and most importantly pay our awesome teachers.

Due to the policy of the venue, all attendees must show either proof of vaccination or a negative PCR test from within 72 hours of entry.

 


ADULTS RECITAL – January 9, 2022 at Waller’s Coffee ShopDoors at 6:00pm – Show at 7:00pm

-Open to all adults and adult bands
-Acoustic, Rock, and Americana Ensemble
Ensembles will perform first
-Limited to 30 performers (band members do not need to sign up unless you are playing an individual song)

Admission is $5 in advance and at the door for ALL performers and guests. This policy helps with the production of our recitals. Admission covers the costs to pay for the venue, market the event, design and print posters, hire photographers, print our photo albums, and most importantly pay our awesome teachers.


Our Fall Showcase this past weekend was great and we look forward to some more performances in a few weeks!

Don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions. Keep Shedding!

 

Fall Showcase This Saturday!

Our last in-person showcase was almost two years ago. To say we’re excited about the Fall Student Showcase this Saturday would be an understatement! We can’t wait to see our students (hopefully in some epic costumes) perform for their family, friends, and peers this Saturday.

The event will take place at Waller’s Coffee Shop in Decatur and begins at 2:00pm. We have a full showcase with 50 scheduled performers – if your child is performing, you should have received an email yesterday with an approximate time range for their performance. The program will begin with our Teen Bands, and then will go mostly by age, save for a few exceptions of performers who need to leave early or arrive late.

Our admin team has a fun costume theme planned and we can’t wait to see some spooky, silly, awesome costumes this weekend!

Desmond’s New Album, “Shadowdancer”, Now Available!

Our very own Desmond Myers just dropped an album! “Shadowdancer” is now live on all major streaming platforms. Give it a spin today! You can purchase the album on iTunes and Amazon Music. Desmond will be touring in France at the end month to support his release.

Here’s a snippet from a recent write-up in Wonderland Magazine about Desmond’s new album:

“Gently ushering us into his evocative world with emotional-driven productions and heart-warming melodies, the artist soothingly croons over-simplistic beats. Touching on everything from temptation to self-discovery, the artist takes us on a compelling journey for this debut project, putting his raw and honest story on full display. From the mellow and soul-stirring “Playing with Fire” to the synth-tinged “Feels Like I’m Running”, Myers puts his creativity at the forefront of the project and presents an album that pays homage to his own self-acceptance.”