Niagara Elementary Instrumental Music Program

Registration just opened for the 2026-27 school year. Please visit neimusic.com for links to sign up.

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With DSBN closing schools today all after-school ensembles are canceled. If you are traveling today please drive carefully!

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Siting tornado watch, the City of Thorold has already canceled their Market, this evening. Quoting liability issues, they will not allow the Thorold Reed Band to play. My apologies to all players and audience members. Our hands are tied, like never before...

Thanks to all who came out to support the Thorold Reed Band, tonight. I thought the band played really well! Here's our opening march, for the season...

TRB and The Liberty Bell The Thorold Reed Band's opening march, from our first concert of the summer season, at the Battle of Beaverdams Park, in Thorold. What a perfect night for an...

It's that time of year...our Thorold Reed Band will begin a 10 week concert series (9 in the park) this coming Wednesday, June 12th! We'll have a lot of great new surprises for our audiences. Come and join us, and find out! Week one will include everything from Enya to The Police and from Sousa to Quincy Jones, Michael Jackson to Rocky Horror, Peer Gynt to Tijuana Brass...and OMG...OMD!!! (that's Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark and mostly for those about my age...lol)

2020/21 is going to be a year like no other for our program! Here's a picture from our first virtual lesson of the year with 3rd year flute player Elizabeth! We are so excited to work with all of our students and are looking forward to a rewarding year.

I hope everyone has had a good summer during these strange times. We have found out for sure, this last week, that the music program won't be in the schools at least to start the year.
So...
WE ARE PROVIDING WEEKLY VIRTUAL MUSIC LESSONS ON ZOOM UNTIL WE CAN RESUME OUR REGULAR LESSONS IN SCHOOLS. THE ZOOM LESSONS WILL ALTERNATE WEEKLY BETWEEN A 20 MINUTE 1-ON-1 PRIVATE LESSON AND A 50 MINUTE SMALL GROUP LESSON WITH 3-5 STUDENTS. THESE GROUP LESSONS WILL CONSIST OF STUDENTS WHO PLAY LIKE INSTRUMENTS, OR STUDENTS WHO ATTEND THE SAME SCHOOL, ETC.
I am hoping we will be able to resume our normal lessons starting in January but if not I believe this is a good alternative as there will be some group work and also they will get some private instruction as well which will be very beneficial.

The NEIM staff is committed to bringing your child instrumental music lessons throughout the 2020/2021 school year! We will be watching new protocols put in place with regard to COVID-19 set out by provincial and federal health guidelines as well as directives from the DSBN and school administration and we will adjust accordingly throughout the year to provide the best instrumental music education possible.

We plan on providing weekly on-line music lessons until we can resume our regular lessons in schools. These lessons will usually be private one-on-one lessons using the most convenient virtual platform for both students and teachers. Once a month instead of the private lessons we are planning to provide interactive zoom group meetings. These group meetings sometimes will be for groups of like instruments or groups from the same school etc.

Workshops:
Obviously we don't know when this unprecedented time will end but we are hopeful for these new dates! We are planning on running our workshops the week of Aug 31st.
Monday Aug 31st: Experienced Band
Tuesday September 1st: Beginner Strings
Wednesday September 2nd: Beginner Band
Thursday September 3rd: Experienced Full Orchestra
I hope everyone is safe and healthy!
Craig

Some tips for your home practice routine:
1. Create atmosphere: Get the right set-up for you. Whether you prefer to concentrate in a quiet practice room or somewhere with more stimulation, try to be consistent with your choice. Also if possible sit or stand where you can see your music directly in front of you (with a music stand or just propped up)
2. Warm up: Always start with playing scales or an easy piece. Warm up playing slow long notes and concentrate on making a nice sound on each note and playing in tune.
3. Have a goal: Just playing through the songs you can already play from start to end isn't good practising. Set a goal to learn a hard passage, or to add dynamics or articulation. Set small, focused objectives then you'll feel a great sense of accomplishment as you improve each objective.
4. Identify and overcome the problems: Don't just play a piece or passage over and over again. Identify where you are stumbling then work on that small area. When you have overcome the problem don't go straight back to the beginning of the piece to play through,practise working in and out of the section from a few measures before until a few after to ensure continuity.
5. Record yourself: By recording your practice sessions you can listen back and perhaps spot some things you might want to work on. Also all of us teachers would love to hear you play. WE all love teaching music and miss our students during this time. So please send your teachers videos of you playing.
Thanks and most importantly enjoy playing!
Craig

After school bands and orchestras continue even during an Ontario teacher strike!
We look forward to continuing making music with NEIM students!