What a last couple of weeks it’s been. I hope you and your loved ones are all healthy and safe. I wanted to write up a quick update about our music school, upcoming event schedules, and how things have been going overall during this unprecedented time.

Online Lessons
Over the past week, we’ve converted the majority of our in-person lessons to online-lessons, using familiar apps like FaceTime, WhatsApp, and Skype. Teachers have been able to see all of their students with minimal to no disruptions to their progress. Now in week 2 of our online lessons, the feedback we’ve been getting is great! Its giving parents some time to take a breather (whoo) and helping students continue to learn music. Being stuck at home all day doesn’t have to be about mindless TV and video games. Allow us to cultivate those creative spirits and use this time to nurture that creativity into beautiful music.

Event Cancellations
So far we have cancelled our Drums 101 Workshop, Voice Over Master Class, Avalon Spring Performance, and an Open Mic. In addition, ABRSM Practical Exams (and soon Theory exams) are cancelled. These were all events that were scheduled between now and May. Rest assured, as soon as things settle down, all of these events will be back on.

The Near Future
The experts are saying that we could be looking at a few months of social distancing and shelter-ins. With that in mind, we do not plan on continually cancelling events and disrupting our students’ musical education. We are lucky to be living in a time where we have technology at our fingertips enabling us to be right there with each other in a matter of seconds.

NFSM Music Assessments (originally scheduled for April 25/26)
We are currently working on converting our next big event (NFSM Music Assessments) into an online only event. Although we’ve conducted assessments last year with our few existing online lesson students, doing so for the entire student body will require some logistical maneuvering. We are looking at things like increasing the scheduling to be over the course of a week, instead of all in one weekend, so as to give students and parents more flexibility when choosing their appointment time. We want to make it easy for you so we are also looking at having cross compatible platforms just like our online-lessons, so that you can use FaceTime, Skype, or WhatsApp to do this event. Another idea that is being passed around is an online video submission for the pieces so that you get to do it on your own time and send it to us for judges critique and feedback. We’ll have a big update coming soon about what to expect.

Music Competitions
In the spirit of fostering creativity, we are working on a music competition exclusive for our students. We are still in the early stages of planning but hope to unveil this within a few weeks. The basics are, students will submit an ORIGINAL piece via video submission for a chance to win cash prizes. There will be separate divisions for instrument groups and ages.

Live Master Classes and Workshops
We are also working on having our master classes and workshops in a live and interactive video format. We may be doing this with something as easy and accessible as Facebook Live.

There are exciting things to come at North Fulton School of Music and I am happy that we get to share these wonderful events and programs to our student family. We don’t take this global crisis lightly but we also want to remind you about the beauty in music and life. Although we may need to physically distance from one another, we can still continue to be a strong, caring, and supportive community.

-Sadi Rahman
Owner/Director, North Fulton School of Music