Our Fall Student Showcase is coming up! Registration opens on October 4th and the showcase will take place on October 30th at Waller’s Coffee Shop in Decatur. This event is for kids and teens and capacity will be limited, so registration will be first-come first-served.

If you haven’t already, now is a great time to start planning your showcase piece! Talk with your teacher about choosing a song and, if they say that you’re ready to perform, developing a plan to prepare for your performance. Our showcases are a great opportunity for a laid back performance in a casual setting and, since this one is so close to Halloween, we encourage our performers to dress up in their costumes!

Keep an eye out for registration instructions next week and sign your child up to perform!

We hope you are all settling into your fall schedules and having a good start to the school year! As we monitor the developing COVID-19 situation, we want to lay out a clear protocol for how we will be handling exposure going forward. The health and safety of our students and teachers is our main priority, so we will be adhering to the following guidelines, which have been pulled directly from the CDC website: 

Persons with COVID-19 who have symptoms and were directed to care for themselves at home may discontinue isolation under the following conditions:

-At least 10 days* have passed since symptom onset

-At least 24 hours have passed since resolution of fever without the use of fever-reducing medications and

-Other symptoms have improved.

*In some cases of severe illness, the virus can last up to 20 days. Persons who have severe illness related to COVID-19 or who are severely immunocompromised should pursue guidance from a medical professional before ending isolation.

Persons infected with SARS-CoV-2 who never develop COVID-19 symptoms may discontinue isolation and other precautions 10 days after the date of their first positive RT-PCR test for SARS-CoV-2 RNA.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/disposition-in-home-patients.html 

Persons who have had close contact with someone who has COVID-19 should pursue testing and start quarantining right away. Exceptions include:

-Someone who has been fully vaccinated and shows no symptoms of COVID-19 does not need to quarantine, but should be tested 3-5 days following a known exposure to someone with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 and wear a mask in public indoor settings for 14 days or until they receive a negative test result

-Someone who has recovered from COVID-19 within the last 3 months and remains without COVID-19 symptoms.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/schools-childcare/contact-tracing.html

If there is an exposure at Guitar Shed, we will notify the teacher’s whole studio and you always have the option to go virtual. When lessons are switched to virtual due to COVID-19, we will offer the option to opt-out until the teacher or student can return to in-person lessons.

If the student is quarantined and has to switch to virtual, the typical lesson policy will be followed and we will offer make-up credits to those who opt-out of virtual lessons.

If the teacher is quarantined and has to switch to virtual, we will offer monetary credit to those who opt-out of virtual lessons.

We are observing a strict mask policy in Guitar Shed which, if followed by everyone correctly, should prevent the vast majority of potential spread. 

We have engaged in talks with epidemiologists who work at the CDC who echo these sentiments and we will continue to observe guidance provided by the CDC and follow the situation to the best of our ability.

We had our Virtual Summer Recital last Sunday and, as usual, our students showed out! It’s always such a treat to see a student’s progress and to learn a little bit more about them with each performance from year to year. We enjoyed a night of stellar playing, beautiful singing, great video editing, stuffed animal audiences, duets, ensembles, and a whole lot of talent and hard work. Keep an eye on our social media pages for the Tuesday Student Spotlight where you can catch some of these virtual performances each week.

We are now looking forward to our Fall Student Showcase and Winter Recitals and after a year-plus of virtual events, we can’t wait to enjoy our students’ performances IN PERSON! We will make announcements regarding dates, venues, and registration for these events in the coming weeks.

Enjoy this fantastic performance of Bill Evans’s “Waltz For Debby” by one of our long-time students, Jack Whitman.

It’s time to start talking to your teacher about the recital, choosing pieces, planning videos, and getting creative! The Virtual Summer Recital will be broadcasted on our Guitar Shed Facebook page and our YouTube channel on Sunday, June 27th at 6:00pm. Video submissions are due Friday, June 18th.

To submit a video:

-Record a video (2 minute maximum) and upload it to YouTube.
-Be sure to check the “No, it’s not for kids” box. Otherwise we won’t be able to access it!
-Email the YouTube link to [email protected] and include the student’s name, title of the song, and composer/artist.

If you are taking lessons in person you can even arrange to record a video during your lesson time here at Guitar Shed and have your teacher accompany you!

Go all out! Dress up, create a nice setting, get creative with your introduction, and have fun with your video. We can’t wait to see what you come up with.