20 March 2020

Post date: Mar 20, 2020 9:45:51 PM

Please note—this letter is a combination of the letter sent via email on Monday, March 16 and today’s most current information. If you have already emailed to me your most recent contact information—thank you!—the newest information that was not in the March 16 letter is at the end of this letter.

March 20, 2020

Dear Beginning Band Students and Families,

As we adjust to our new circumstances, I wanted to let you know that I am currently looking in to the many instrumental music options online for us to use while Freshwater School is closed. The silver lining in this whole thing for us as musicians is the gift of time--isolating ourselves in a room and playing our instruments lots is WHAT WE DO to grow as artists and as members of our musical communities, and this period could provide ample opportunities to do just that! So I want to start by encouraging all of you to take advantage of this time to play your instruments daily or several times a day, giving yourself a goal for what you would like to accomplish in each session. I know from experience that you will find that the more that you play your instrument, the more fun it becomes, especially as you watch your skills and your endurance grow and your tone become ever more beautiful. You will also find it a great way to pass the time and focus your mind on something meaningful. The biggest challenge will be to simply remind yourself of that and find ways to structure your time and to motivate yourself to train on your instrument.

To start with, I want to remind all of you of the resources that you have on our website to play along with recordings of every song in your Sound Innovations book, and to encourage you to work towards earning new ribbons. You will be given opportunities to earn these ribbons online in the coming weeks—stay tuned.

I also want to remind you of all of the self-tutorials that are available online for you to learn songs that you are interested in learning. Simply type: "Self-tutorial to learn [name of song] on [name of instrument]" and you'll be amazed by all of the resources that are out there. I will work to gather resources that are most reliable in this arena, so that our musicians don't go down rabbit holes of tutorials that are not the best use of their time. That said, there is a lot of good stuff out there!

Lastly, and most importantly, I request that all of you send the following information to me at rgluck@freshwatersd.org as soon as possible. In the subject heading, please write the name of your student and "contact info."

1) Most reliable parent(s) contact information that you would like me to use during these next few weeks, including first and last name of parent and both current email and cell phone number.

2) If applicable, most reliable student cell phone number and/or email so that I can connect with students directly.

Updated information about the Instrumental Music website:

A reminder that you can access our website via the Freshwater School website. Follow the chain of these links on the School website: Programs; Music Programs; Freshwater Instrumental Music. You should now have arrived at the home page of the Freshwater Instrumental Music website. We have removed password protection, but if you require a password for any reason it is FWMUSIC.

I will be updating the Freshwater Instrumental Music website with resources, tools, videos and recordings in the coming weeks and will let you know when new material has been posted via Remind or email. Currently, please go to the Resources link for a recording of the Beach Boys’ Surfin USA. It is not in the same key as our band arrangement so you can’t play along with it, but listening to it will help you to learn your part! More resources are coming.

More soon--now musicians, go open that case and play!

Musically yours,

Ronite Gluck

Instrumental Music Specialist