StringsAttached

Please plan to join us for the 2012 Spring Recital to be held at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church on Friday, April 20th at 7PM. Students from our Ferguson and South St. Louis locations will give solo and ensemble performances, including Guitarkestra’s “work-in-progress” of blues and jazz songs.  Suggested donation is $5 for the show and please bring your favorite dessert to share at our infamous dessert reception.  Music kinda plays second fiddle with most of our students this night, they generally just show up to get at all the cookies available.  CD copies of our student recordings, ETERNAL SONGS will be on sale.

Strings Attached got some notice in a recent St. Louis Magazine article entitled,  “St. Louis Music: Essential Recordings“

We like that!  Our recording is still on sale at the St. Louis Curio Shoppe.  Don’t forget it’s “essential!”  (That means you can’t be without it….)

We’ll also be interviewed and get some airtime for our music on KDHX radio – so stayed tuned for it!  Airtime on Monday, April 16th at 955P. Listen to the podcast here!

And there’s still a few days left to cast your vote for The Guitarkestra Railroad Jamboree Tour at Good Magazine’s “Make Music” challenge.  Please help us out with this one – it’s a great national grant opportunity for us.  The idea ranked very strong at the opening (at #23) but slipped due to lack of votes. We would surely be in the top ten for this with more ground support!

We can’t make it happen without your enthusiasm and help.  Share the voting with friends, family and co-workers.  Facebook, Twitter and social media it around.  Thanks!!

Also on the horizon, we’ll be setting up shop with lessons in the Tower Grove area of St. Louis this summer at St. Johns Epsicopal church in Tower Grove.

If you have friends in the area, please let them know about Strings Attached project.  We’ll be there from May through August offering classes.

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Starting  March 15th you can click on the GOOD magazine logo above and vote for Strings Attached project to receive a grant from GOOD that will sponsor

“The Guitarkestra Railroad Jamboree Tour”

Please visit the site and watch a short presentation video about the project’s purpose.  And please, come March 15th, support Strings Attached and VOTE!  Please show your enthusiasm by letting  your friends and family know as well and ask them to participate.

Thanks from Strings  Attached project!

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Welcome to 2012 with Strings Attached project – we’re back to work with new projects, music and activity planning for the year.

Thanks to The Film Music Foundation, students at Strings Attached will be scoring music to the silent film, Steamboat Bill, Jr. as a summer project.

This workshop exercise will help students learn to improvise and sharpen their skills at playing music with emotion as they augment film action with music.
While beginning students are learning traditional folk music tunes recorded on our student CD, “Eternal Songs,” our 2nd and 3rd year students in “Guitarkestra” are moving into a new phase of blues and jazz songs. We’re learning to play, “Summertime” (George and Ira Gershwin) “Heliotrope Bouquet” (Scott Joplin and Louis Chauvin)

Scott Joplin

“Baby Please Don’t Go” (Big Joe Williams) “Frankie and Johnny”

Big Joe Willams

and “St. Louis Cyclone Blues” (Lonnie Johnson)

Lonnie Johnson

Also on the learn list are “Meet Me in St. Louis,” “Everyday I Have the Blues,” “House of the Rising Sun” and jazz songs from a Mel Bay book. We’re sorry to hear that the original home of the Mel Bay Music Store in Kirkwood, where Mel Bay began his publishing business, is threatened with
demolition to make room for more parking for cars! Perhaps if more people appreciated St. Louis music history, this site and others with historical significance would be respected.
Many of these songs have connections with St. Louis music artists. We’d like to thank one of our new advisory board members, author/artist Kevin Belford, who wrote the book, “Devil at the Confluence” for the research contributions we’re using for our current curriculum.
We’ll be using some of this material for upcoming spring performances, recitals, “The Strings Attached Road Tour,” and hopefully our next recording sessions later this year.
We’re back to work! – and please remember, we can always use more help from you….yes, you…to make it possible. Please consider donating some of your time to Strings Attached project!

Thanks!

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We’re having a great holiday season with newly-announced support from our friends at The D Addario Music Foundation and The Film Music Foundation
Support from these organizations will help make special programming, classes, recordings and community performances available during 2012. Thanks from the Strings Attached project to both for helping to make our work with youth possible!

Film Music Foundation

The Strings Attached project’s 2011 summer recording session was also the subject of a recent St. Louis Beacon news article by Terry Perkins. “Strings Attached Links Kids, Music and Heritage” Thanks to Terry Perkins and The Beacon editors for running this. The article has stirred a lot of interest and help from the community since appearing!

Thanks to everyone for your support and help during 2011 that made the project a success. May you and yours have a happy and prosperous 2012!!

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St. Louis Curio Shoppe - photo by Ben Evans, StL Energized

For those of you in or going to South St. Louis, you can also stop in the St.Louis Curio Shoppe, located at 2301 Cherokee Street, St.Louis, MO 63118 tel:314-771-6353
and pick up a copy of “Eternal Songs.” The St. Louis Curio Shoppe specializes in products MADE IN St. LOUIS, by St. Louis artists, crafts people and musicians. Shop local and support independent this holiday season.
St. Louis Curio Shoppe is open Tuesday through Sunday from 12 noon to 5PM.