October 11, 2025: Saturday Remix
Teachers and Staff: Happy Saturday!
Upcoming Recitals - Providing Repertoire & More
Please provide recital repertoire information to the Office or to me for upcoming recitals. Keep an eye out for the student listings that are sent to parents. These will help you see when your students are performing.
You can send the recital repertoire that you are helping your students prepare even if you are uncertain whether they are actually performing at a recital. We encourage you to help students prepare for recital performances even if they are not actually going to perform. This is still a useful and effective teaching strategy.
A few guidelines about recitals & repertoire:
Please provide well-written names of songs & pieces, along with composers' names if appropriate, and film or musical titles if they are from works such as these. Good Examples: Go Tell Aunt Rhody; Hot Cross Buns & Twinkle Twinkle Little Star; Arabesque No. 1 (Debussy); Let It Go (from Frozen) Not-So-Good Examples: rhody; hcb & twinkle; arabesque; theme song from frozen (Help out the person preparing the program.)
Encourage students to play from memory. It is not mandatory, but very useful and rewarding, short term and long term. Strive toward memory!
If they use music, try to make the music they bring onstage presentable and attractive, to the extent possible. Black binders containing only the music they will play are often best.
Students generally can perform as much repertoire as they wish. Some students have performed a dozen or more little pieces or 10+ minutes of music at one recital. One piece is great, too! But multiple selections offer many advantages and opportunities. (Some students perform on more than one instrument.)
Encourage students to perform the same music at several recitals. Some people have ill-advised notions that a recital piece should be played only once, or that recital music should always be new to the student. Our studio philosophy encourages students to develop a repertoire of music that can be played many times for many audiences over a long period of time. Remind students that this is what the pros do!
Our recitals are music-making events and not high-stakes, succeed or fail, stressful & anxiety-laden, judgmental activities. Students can play partial, incomplete, or simplified renditions of their music. For example, a student might play only the right hand of a piano piece, or only the first section of a movement, or the little ones might have their teacher go up with them (optional).
We love it when teachers come to our recitals! Please note that at this time we do not pay teachers to attend; please see your recital participation as getting to enjoy a music concert and support your students. There is no expectation that teachers will come to recitals, so don’t feel pressured in any way to attend.
If we have any teachers who would like to emcee recitals, that is something I am interested in beginning 2026. This will be a paid position, and will require participation in all quarterly studio recitals. Please let me know if you have interest in this opportunity.
Remember to Give Tote Bag to New Students at First Lesson
Whenever you start a new student, always remember to give them their Tote Bag at their first lesson. The tote bag will be hanging on the teacher hook in the lesson room (or on the grand piano if you're in 108 Studio).
Always go through the contents of the tote bag with your student, and make it fun! Have students write their names in all their lesson books and materials. Instruct students to bring their tote bags and contents to all their lessons.
And remember, even adult students enjoy getting their goodies!
Q: Where is the recital calendar?
A: The recital calendar can be found in several places, including on flyers around the studio, on bulletin boards, in newsletters, and online here.
The calendar also shows studio off-days, off-weeks, and other events. For example, our next studio off-period is from October 28 - November 2, 2025.
Historically we have created the studio calendar 1-2 years in advance. Some time in 2026, we are going to create the calendars for 5 years in advance! We’ll keep you posted.
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Thank you, everyone, for all that you do!
Have a magical Saturday, a musical weekend, and a safe and healthy coming week.
Thank you,
Dennis Frayne
"Dr. Dennis"
Laguna Niguel School of Music
Dennis Frayne Music Studios
30110 Crown Valley Pkwy, Suites 105/107/108
Laguna Niguel, CA 92677
(949) 844-9051 (office cell)
(949) 468-8040 (personal cell)
www.lagunaniguelschoolofmusic.com
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