We hope that you are all remaining safe and well.
Today should have marked the beginning of Coda’s Summer Term. However, the UK lockdown has now been extended for a further three weeks, so we will continue to find other ways to keep you engaged and entertained while the doors to the music centre remain closed.
Just a reminder that Coda will not be providing a formal online teaching service during lockdown, so any invoices you received relating to Coda’s services from April onwards have been cancelled and new invoices will be issued when we reopen. For those of you that have already pre-paid for the Summer term, a credit will remain on your account.
For lots of links to free resources in the coming weeks, make sure you follow our Facebook page here facebook.com/CodaMusicTrust/ and check our website www.coda.org.uk for updates.
THANK YOU
We have received both some very generous donations and touching comments via our Just Giving page over the last couple of weeks. We truly appreciate the positive messages – they remind us how vital it is that Coda survives so that we can all continue to make music together once this is all over.
Here are a just a few of the lovely comments:
“Thank you Coda. You are special. I love making music with everyone – tutors and choir & band members. It lifts me. During this “lockdown” I hope and pray that you can survive. See you soon I hope.” Deborah
“Coda is a major part of my life. Music, friends and fun.” Diane
“Coda has given me and countless others magic moments through music and friendship” Anonymous
“In support of the great work you do with your fantastic and talented people. Best wishes and see you again when this situation is over!” Julian & Trisha
“Thank you Coda, Let’s keep the Music going for all.” Anonymous
EXAM SUCCESS
Wendy Pigott was one of our first students to participate in Coda’s Beginners Piano Course.
From complete Beginner, she then advanced to the Improvers course and is subsequently our first student from these courses to progress to taking her Grade One Piano exam.
Prior to lockdown, Wendy received her results and gained a fantastic 92% (Distinction) and the accolade of our first Beginners Course exam success.
Well done, Wendy!
CODA FACEBOOK LIVE EVENTS
Thank you to Guy and everybody who joined us for our Live Stream with Guy Gardner on Friday, raising a further £65 for Coda. We have now raised over £600 from our Live Stream events – thanks to your generosity!
If you missed Guy’s fantastic gig, you can still see him – playing some of his own music as well as some jazz standards – on this link click here
This week, our Facebook Live gig will be James Lerouge (some of you may know him better as James Arthur!).
This will be a rare chance to see a unique pianist/composer live from the same piano he’s played since he was 5 years old!
This performance will comprise of piano improvisations all composed by James himself. There will be no score, not a single sheet of manuscript, just improvised flourishes at the piano covering various styles from jazz to film noir, classical, impressionism and some interpretations based on existing songs.
You will experience a piano exploration into melancholic, elegant, flowing piano melodies that will simply enliven your senses conveying many emotions for the listener.
Musical misdirection’s, gentle use of dissonance and an abundance of decorative piano techniques, a truly unique piano show.
Please join us online to enjoy James’ gig on Friday 24th April at 7pm on facebook.com/CodaMusicTrust/ and support us through the ‘donate’ button on our Facebook Live stream.
Coming up in future weeks, Stuart Jebbitt will be treating us to a ‘Gramophone Hour’ on 1st May and we plan to have another Music Quiz on 8th May.
HEALTH & HAPPINESS CHOIR RESOURCES
Kim has very kindly provided lyrics and backing tracks for the songs that are being covered by the Health & Happiness Choir. These can now be accessed via the Coda website for any members of the choir (or anyone else!) to practice at home.
For a link to the Health & Happiness Choir Resources click here
SELF-ISOLATION PLAY-ALONGS WITH STU
Stuart has also been filming self-Isolation play-alongs for Guitar and Ukulele. We shared weeks 1 to 3 last week, so here’s a link to week 4 ‘in the jungle’ :
Episode Four Bare Necessities click here
FAMILY MUSIC-MAKING
Fantastic friend of Coda, Lorna Rees, and her wonderful, musical family have formed a LockDown Band.
In Lorna’s words:
“We’re a family of four and we live in a suburban street in Christchurch, Dorset, in a smallish three bed semi with a ramshackle number of sheds, and a house FULL of instruments.
The kids are frankly far better musicians than us, but we thought we’d amuse ourselves during the corona virus pandemic (stay inside, save lives).
We are decidedly wonky as bands go, so, um, please, be kind in your thoughts and comments.”
Well, we think they are utterly BRILLIANT!
For a link to all 14 of their tracks so far click here
We’ve heard a rumour that there may be more Coda students out there with musical siblings and parents who might be working on some family musical arrangements.
We would absolutely LOVE to hear them, so if you have any content that you might like to share with the Coda community, please email marina.tucker@coda.org.uk with links.
HOW TO SUPPORT CODA MUSIC TRUST
Every penny you are able to contribute will help us through this time of crisis.
You can always donate online via our Just Giving page here
Join us online for our Facebook Live events and support us through the ‘donate’ button on our Facebook Live streams.
Support Coda through Amazon Smile – it won’t cost you a penny!
AmazonSmile is a website operated by Amazon with the same products, prices and shopping features as Amazon.co.uk The difference is that when you shop on AmazonSmile, Amazon will donate 0.5% of the net purchase price from your eligible AmazonSmile purchases. Millions of products on AmazonSmile are eligible for donations to charities by Amazon. For more information, visit https://smile.amazon.co.uk/about.
Have a great week, stay safe and we’ll be back next week with more news, play-alongs and events for you to enjoy!
