The Flourishing Muse Fall Soiree will be held at 3:30 pm, Sunday 4
December at Croasdaile Auditorium. The Auditorium is in the
Croasdaile Village retirement community. (go to
http://www.croasdailevillage.com/cvhowtofindus.html for directions and
when you arrive, come to the main entrance). The program will last
approximately an hour. Please invite all your family and friends to
come and support us and enjoy the items!

All Flourishing Muse students are encouraged to come and play in this
supportive environment. Sharing your music and your talents with your
families and friends and community is really special! No-one is going
to be critical – we all just want to make music together! This is the
first soiree where my Chapel Hill guitar students will participate and
welcome to you all!

Guitar and ukelele students will be playing in groups and although
each player will know their part, I would like to have a short practice together at 4 pm on the
Saturday before the soiree (12/3). The practice will last about three
quarters of an hour, no longer.

On the day of the concert I need all guitar and ukelele players to
make sure their instruments are in tune, and then I would like guitar
and ukelele players to come early so I can do final tuning checks.
Piano players can come a little early to briefly try the piano for its
action – they have a very nice grand piano in the auditorium.

I call my twice yearly event a soiree because it is in the later
afternoon, but mostly to name the event as a relaxed get together
rather than a recital or concert. Most of the younger beginners will
play first and then the older students and more experienced ones will
play and finally the adults and advanced players. I am currently
working on the program and will send it out at the end of November.
Most students have their soiree items on their weekly practice sheet
by now, and if not, they will be there in the next lesson.

Learning a musical instrument is a long term endeavor accompanied by
much delayed gratification. Progress is usually incremental by small
degrees depending on practice frequency and duration. Only by playing
at the twice yearly soirees do you, the student, along with family and
friends, really see what progress you have made. I get very excited at
my soirees because then I can also see how students have progressed –
in the weekly lessons it is often hard to get a sense of that.

Practice well in November!