Why Group Classes?
Music is a social activity. It’s fun to play by yourself, but the real magic happens when you are in connection with others. That being said, it can be tricky and students often put off joining a group out of fear that they are ‘not good enough’, or because they often ‘get lost’.
It can be disorienting/distracting to have other instruments playing with you, or worse- the same instrument playing a different part, but it is important for students to learn to places themselves in the context of the musical whole.
Accountability and support are also key to learning to play music, and sometimes a teacher and maybe a family member or two is not enough (or even if it is, more better!).
Lastly, group lessons are more economical! These are currently $120 for six sessions.
What is Group Class?
At our group classes at Blackbird, students play for an hour and half, and each session is 6 weeks. At the end of 6 weeks the group will have about 8 songs that are ready to perform or record, if they choose to.
It’s kind of like a jam, and kind of like a middle-school orchestra. The jam part is where each person gets to choose what they play (with some limits) and the orchestra part is where we provide the music and direction.
At Blackbird’s, our group class is multi-instrument (strings and keys only, though) and all ages. Sound like chaos? Sometimes it is a little chaotic at first, but well worth it because this format teaches both the skill of being a self-directed learning, and flexible thinking.
How does it work?
The music is arranged in 5 parts (although we do not typically use all of them): Four are melody or harmony parts in a range of difficulty levels and the fifth is the chords or rhythm instruments. If the melody feels like the right challenge level for students, that is what they typically play but generally students start with the easier harmonies and work up through the more difficult harmonies until they arrive at the melody. More advanced students are encouraged to create harmonies or rhythm parts based on the chords, or to try playing up the neck.
Because each group is different, we do need students to be signed up at least two weeks in advance so we can make sure we have music that will work well for that group. For example, if we were to end up with 4 guitars we may need to re-work some things in guitar tablature.
Registration
Step 1: Go to www.blackbirdsmusicstore.com Then click ‘Lessons’, then ‘New Student Sign-up’ and fill out the form.
Step 2: Look for an email from us inviting you to the Student Portal and follow the link.
Step 3: From the student portal calendar, click on the class you want to sign up for and click ‘Register’
Step 4: Keep an eye out for your invoice which will appear in your email box within a week
Call us if you have any questions with this process and we can help you!
Upcoming Sessions
Winter ’24/’25
Saturdays 3:00-4:30 pm Nov. 9th thru Dec. 14th (We may do a make-up class if too many students are traveling for Thanksgiving
Mondays 6:00-7:30pm Dec. 16th thru Jan 20th
Thursdays 6:00-7:30pm Jan. 30th thru Mar. 6th