Let’s Rock the Confine – again!

We miss you!  And once again we send our hopes that you’re healthy and safe during this new period of confinement. We’re obviously extremely disappointed that this latest lockdown will force us to suspend our in-person bands and lessons. But, although the last lockdown was no fun, it turned out to be a period of unprecedented creativity and learning for most of us at Rock U, as you can see in the video above.  We’ve been here before.  We know what to do.  We got this.  And we can do it even better this time.  (You can use the confinement to check out all 53 videos and listen to all 18 audio tracks our students created during the spring lockdown!)

Youth and teen bands

Once again, we’ll be bringing Rock U. to you online until we can reopen our studio.  As we learned in the spring, we can still make music, learn, and have fun during this time.  Starting tomorrow, we will be resuming weekly band session for ALL of our youth and teen bands on Zoom (available for free download at https://zoom.us/).

Our main goal for the month of November will be to continue learning and preparing the songs the bands have chosen for the Fall Concert.  Clearly we’ll be waiting to hear how the situation develops and we’ll be hoping for a timely end to the confinement period.  Obviously it’s too soon to know if our concert will take place as scheduled on 13 December, but if it doesn’t, we’ll provide another way for the bands to perform their sets, as we did in the spring.  If the concert can’t take place, we’ll add an extra week to the Fall Session by continuing practices until 19 December, in order to give the bands more opportunities to create their performances.

Adult bands

We expect more variation in online participation among our adult bands, and fortunately we have more flexibility in scheduling.  As a result, rather than necessarily continuing with weekly online meetings for every band, we’ll make up the missed November sessions by adding the weeks of 14-18 December and 8-12 February to the first semester, scheduling other additional sessions after deconfinement, and modifying the dates of concerts for the rest of the year if necessary to add enough time to catch up.  However, if some bands have the motivation and available instruments at home to continue with their practices online, that’s great!  Please talk to your individual instructor to discuss how your band will proceed.  In any case, we’ll provide other ways to stay engaged, learn, and socialize during the month of November, including our weekly online Adult Band open mic sessions, trivia and listening quizzes, contests, and online content.

Andy Guthrie: 06 37 06 20 85 andyguthriemusic@yahoo.com
Leander Lyons: 06 73 54 25 78 leandelan@gmail.com
Jason Waters: 07 67 78 88 16 music.jasonwaters@gmail.com

Here’s what we said back in March when the first lockdown arrived: “We know this isn’t how any of us expected to be spending our time this month.  The irony of this situation is that togetherness and music are two things that could be really helpful to most of us during this period of isolation and uncertainty, and they’re two things we can’t have, at least not the way we’re used to.  Rock U. is built on the joy of sharing music together in the same physical space and in front of an audience, and that’s been taken away from all of us temporarily.  But we’re going to find ways to keep your musical journey moving forward, one little step at a time.”  You know what to do!