Shaye's Violin, Viola, and Cello Lessons

10/30/2025

New Email sent out regarding our December Recital:

Dear Students and Parents!

You may have noticed a theme this week and some last week! We are officially choosing our recital pieces! I am flabbergasted that it is already time to be picking out our songs. Time has just flown by hasn’t it?

With that underway, we need to go over info for the recital. Many of you will already know this information but it’s good to go over it anyways!

As always, the recital is not mandatory, but is highly encouraged! Performing in front of others can be somewhat scary, but it is a good chance to show others what we’ve been working on and improving. It’s a chance for us to encourage each other and lift each other up. It is fun to see all the improvement that has happened over the months.

For those that are new to the recital world, we will work on proper recital etiquete like bowing after finishing your piece and proper posture to ease the show jitters that come with performing a song in front of other people. Exciting stuff! We will probably do that the first week of December leading up to the recital that Friday.

To continue the topic of recital etiquette, it is usually customary to perform with nice clothes. But I do want to stress that it is optional! However, it does impress the audience! Wearing nicer-than-your-average clothes has been proven to boost confidence! But I want everyone to be comfortable in their own skin at the same time. If nice clothes is going to bother you and that’s all you’re going to focus on is how itchy your fancy shirt is, then don’t wear that. Or if you don’t have anything fancy, please don’t feel the need to go buy something! But if you want to don your most sparkly Christmas dress, please do so! I love all the Christmas attire for this season! Many of you know that usually for the December Recital, I wear a funny or cute Christmas sweater. Maybe if my students can convince me, I’ll go out and buy one of those ugly Christmas sweaters you always see at Walmart😂

The recital is Friday December 5th at 6pm. It’s hard to determine how long it will go as it all depends on how many students will be performing and how long their songs are. On average, the recitals last an hour to an hour and a half. It will be held at the Latter Day Saint (LDS) church building off of Nelson Rd. As to the information for the recital, we start promptly at 6pm. So parents and family please arrive before then and be seated and ready to go. For students, please do not come ANY later than 5:30. Ideally I’d like students earlier than that. Usually I had to be to concerts and recitals an hour early to warm up when I was growing up. So please if you can be there at 5, do so. Otherwise, no later than 5:30. We need to do last minute tunings and I’d like everyone to be warming up and practicing their pieces in a room. I will plan on being there around 4 to 4:30 to set up. So hey, if you’re feeling like you really want to practice for a few hours in a room with no distractions, come and grab a room in the building and have some time to yourself. I’ll never require anyone to help set-up or take-down, but I’m always willing to accept help! So there’s that too if you want to come early 😂

Going along with coming early, it is always good to show up early in case any instrument mishaps happen. Without fail, the week of the recital and even the day of the recital, instruments will go haywire. It’s like they know a recital is coming up and they like to act up. I’ve had broken strings and broken bows on the day of the recital. It happens. But coming early will help me in case your instrument likes to make a scene that day! Then I have some time to get your instrument fixed up before the recital. I’ll have back-up strings ready to go as a last minute resort, but if you can, invest in some strings to keep in your case!

There is no specific order that I go in each time, in fact each recital is different and I’ll change it up this recital too. I will attach the schedule when I have it finalized and know who will or won’t be performing as well as the order in which songs will be performed so parents have an idea of when their student will be performing. I will get that to you as soon as possible.

The address dor the building is 1849 Nelson Rd NE, Moses Lake, WA 98837. The recital will take place in the gym at the center of the church building. There are two entrances to the building, one on the west side and one on the east. We will be parked on the east side and have that door unlocked as that is where the kitchen is. Im going to keep the west door locked so we don’t have to clean as much in the building that evening after the recital (yes I usually have to vacuum the floors to make sure the meeting house is as clean as I found it).

The ‘munch and mingle’ will immediately follow the recital. Please bring a small treat or food to share. Nothing too much. Small finger foods. We aren’t eating dinner, only providing snacks as we talk to each other and congratulate one another on a job well done. So please come previously fed and not hungry. Provide enough for your party so we have enough food. If you know you’ll be bringing lots of extended family and friends, bring enough food so everyone gets something. I provide all utensils, plates and napkins so you don’t have to worry about those. There is a kitchen in the building that I have reserved so if you bring something that needs to be refrigerated while we have the recital, you may put it in the fridge. The kitchen is just to the east of the gym, right by it. If your food needs to be kept cool, we will put them in the fridge located in the kitchen before the recital. If not, the food will be placed on the tables that will be set up in the back of the room, ready to go for the end of the recital.

Well! That is a lot of information! I hope I answered all questions, but please reach out if there is anything more you come up with!

Sincerely,
Shaye Zohner

07/21/2025

Students! I recieved an email from Fiddlershop that they have a back-to-school sale on their strings! Might be time to stock up on some nice strings for the year!

We're here to help! There isn't a question too big or too small. Give us a call, email, or chat with a Fiddlershop Family member.

01/02/2025

New email out! Please check it out!

11/28/2024

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Watch out for an email tomorrow regarding all information for the recital next week! Eat tons of turkey today and I’ll see you all next week!

10/03/2024

Hey all 👋 I’ve got exciting news to share! Not applicable to lessons, but exciting nonetheless! Figured you’d love to hear about it’

I’m happy to announce that my new album “A Look Into my Soul” will officially be released on my birthday, October 13th. I got an email yesterday that my album has been finalized for digital distribution and is about to be delivered to all digital platforms (such as iTunes/Apple Music, Spotify, pandora, etc.) Then it will be available for purchase on the 13th. Thank you all for helping me get to this point. Thanks for those that listened to my music, gave me pointers on how to make it better, and for those that helped me name my songs. Thanks for all the love and encouragement you’ve had for my music over the years. I couldn’t have made this possible without you. I want to give a special thanks to my teachers growing up that encouraged me to continue to grow my music to my teachers now at Berklee that continue to push me to my limits. Most of these songs on my album wouldn’t be possible without those limits being pushed. I also want to give a special thanks to my parents for getting me in piano and violin lessons when I was young. It got me to where I am today. And lastly I want to thank my husband for letting me stay up way too late whenever I’ve been working on a song and for letting me zone out for hours on end while I’ve got a tune I need to work at on the piano. It’s been a dream of mine to release an album and I hope this is the first of many.

P.S. IF YOU ARE AN ENYA FAN, YOU’LL LOVE THIS ALBUM

Here’s a little sneak peek of what’s to come! This is one of my songs on the album titled “Petrichor”

Listen to Petrichor by Shaye Zohner on

08/26/2024

Hey students and parents! If you have not seen my email I sent out a week ago here it is!

Hello all!

For those that are new, welcome! And those that are returning after the summer, welcome back!

I hope everyone is ready to jump right into lessons and get going! We have lots to do and lots to accomplish. It’s been a crazy summer, so I am glad to return to a nice schedule. As always I will be teaching Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I texted everyone to make sure that scheduling is set for September. Please let me know if any other changes need to be made before next month. I do have some spots open here and there on all days so I have some wiggle room to make edits if we need to. I even made some more edits today, so i will send the latest schedule that I have to make sure again that we are all set. Also if you know of anyone that would like lessons, let them know I still have some spots available.

For those of you who remember this last semester and for those new here, I dropped the ball on getting our recital taken care of early on and therefore many could not make the recital, as a result. I will not make the same mistake again! I will make sure to get the building reserved early on and be actively planning it out BY OCTOBER. Looking at the schedule so far, I’d like December 7th. It is the first Saturday in December. I don’t know how we will do songs this December. Some may remember that last December I tried to get the group to do a combined Christmas piece. And that didn’t go over well either because I am not a good orchestra conductor and it was everyone's first time playing with others. And that can be scary, especially for young kids. Now, it was fun in that it’s Christmas and we all just enjoyed oursleves and we went with the flow. I understand that I planned everything last minute with that combined piece so I will make sure that if it is decided amongst the students that we would like to do a group Christmas piece, I will choose the song by october and I will see if we can do some combined practices a few times before the recital. That is only if the students and parents want to put that much effort into a combined piece. Playing together is tons of fun, but it can be challenging and I don’t want any student to feel overwhelmed with a recital song as well as preparing a combined piece. But if everyone would like to do it, I will make the according plans for it! And I will begin searching for a good song now! there is very little opportunity for students to get the chance to play in an orchestra setting as Moses Lake does not have orchestra in schools nor do we have a community orchestra for students to join. So it really would be great to do a combined piece, but like we learned last year, its going to take some work to get it together! Anyways, keep that in the back of your minds as we go forward this semester. But still plan on a recital as well as a munch and mingle Christmas party afterward to celebrate the season and get to know each other!

For those that are coming back after the summer, make sure your instruments are lesson-ready! If they have not been touched since last semester, take a look at them and make sure strings are not broken or shredded, the bows are in working condition, and that they play well. We don’t want to open your case to find that you’ve got some broken strings. In fact, if it’s been a while since you’ve replaced strings and they look like they might need replacing before september, please let me know. We will get some new strings ordered and put on! If there are things that need ordering before September please do that now. Some things that come to mind that might need to be ordered are: cello rock stop, metronome and tuners, bow buddies, back up strings to keep on hand, books (if you need the next Suzuki book or any other book we have discussed before), bows (or rehairing old ones), rosin, shoulder rest for violas and violins and perhaps new bridges if your bridge is beginning to look like it needs replacing (the strings are digging into the bridge too much).

Anyways, I think that is all I needed to address so far! I’ll let you know if anything else comes to mind.
Thanks for everything! I am excited for next month!

Shaye Zohner

07/21/2024

Hey everyone!

I am beginning to finalize my fall schedule for music lessons. I teach violin, viola and cello. I’ve been teaching here in Moses Lake for 2 years. And I’ve previously taught in college and in high school.

I’d like to get my schedule figured out by beginning to mid August and we will begin the first week of September.

Violin- beginner, intermediate, advanced
Viola- beginner, intermediate
Cello- beginner, intermediate

I teach Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings after school, but if I get a full schedule on those three days I will open up Monday as well.

Please reach out for more information!

Also a friend recently discussed with me about potentially getting a beginner to music program up and running. I begin lessons at 6 years old but if there is the need in the area, I am willing to do a music theory intro to musics class. It would basically go over what is beat, what is rhythm, what are note values and how do we count them. That way they are more prepared for learning an instrument once they turn 6. Would this be something that the community would be interested in? Let me know and if it is, I’ll definitely do some studying and prepping to come out with that type of class second semester in January.

Thanks!

04/07/2024

Just sent an email regarding our May recital! Please look at it and respond as soon as possible! See you next week and enjoy the rest of your spring break!

04/07/2024

Any students up to sharing their talents and solos we’ve been working on?

03/14/2024

Anyone want a free violin???? You can get a free Kennedy Violin simply by practicing!

BIG NEWS EVERYONE!!! is giving away 100 Kennedy violins over at Tonic!! 😱

Do yourself a favor and go download Tonic app and start practicing!! To learn more about the challenge visit the links in our biography. Happy Practicing!

02/27/2024

Parents and students, an email has been sent out in regard to lessons! Please be on the lookout for it!