SMG :: New term now open for booking

Scots Music Group Newsletter :: August 2018

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2018-19 Classes now open for booking!

Welcome to the Scots Music Group programme for 2018-19 which is now open for booking online at www.scotsmusic.org/classes

This year we have 30 daytime and evening classes in a variety of instruments and venues from September 2018 to June 2019. Last year we had over 1,100 enrolments across the three terms, from our community of over 400 members who taking part in classes, sessions, ceilidhs and everything in between in support of SMG and traditional music tuition in Edinburgh.

We have a number of new classes again this year and several new tutors. Read more about these further down the newsletter. Term dates for the year, Early Bird closing deadlines and dates for your diary are all the foot of this email.

Please see our How to Book reminder below for a refresher on enrolling through our website, and don't forget to buy a membership first before enrolling in classes, if you wish to take advantage of member discounted prices.

In the meantime have a splendid August and we look forward to seeing you in September!

HOW TO BOOK - a reminder

Membership: to take advantage of our discounted member prices, buy a membership before enrolling. This is a separate transaction. Fees will then default to the membership rate when you subsequently enrol.
Enrolment is open now for all 2018/19 classes.
Early Bird Discount is now running for all three terms.
Multiple enrolments: you can enrol in more than one class at a time - just click on 'Add another booking' when you see the link.
Enrolling for more than one person (e.g. couples) with the same email address is not possible in the new booking system, as we need individual names on class registers. Please contact us if this causes issues for you.
Change of email address: change your contact details in the Your Profile section of the booking system. Please don't signUP twice! Remember to click on the update susbscription preferences link at the bottom of this newsletter too so that you don't miss out on our newsletters throughout the year. It will not update automatically if you only change it in the booking system.
PayPal: We have been made aware that after a certain number of uses of the PayPal 'guest' checkout by people who do not have a PayPal account, you may be asked to sign up for one, if using the same email and card details repeatedly. This is not specific to our website, but any sites that also use this feature. We use PayPal as it gives charities like us a substantial reduction on transaction fees, saving us a great deal of money over the year. If you'd prefer to pay another way, see our How to Pay page: scotsmusic.org/how-to-pay/

NEW LEVELS & CLASSES

In response to demand, we are increasing the levels for whistle and ukulele this year, with Whistle 1 to 3 and Ukulele 1 and 2 as taught classes.

New tutors for 2018-19

We're delighted to welcome new tutors Gillian Chalmers (Whistle 1), Jack Weir (Guitar 2), Frank McLaughlin (Guitar 4) and Mairi Campbell (Fiddle 7)

Becky Leach (Fiddle 2) and Sally Simpson (Fiddle 4) return to our fiddle roster after a break. We also welcome back Sam Gillespie (Whistle 2) who is continuing with us after starting a whistle class in April.

Thanks to tutors Ollie Rigg (whistle), Dan Abrahams (guitar) and of course Mark Neal and Eilidh Steel who are all moving on this year.

Class Fees remain the same

We are pleased to confirm that class fees are held at last year's rates and SMG Membership fees (£20/£15) remain at 2015/16 levels.

SANGSTREAM MEMBER?
If you're planning to sign up to a class using your Sangstream affiliate membership, please contact the SMG office before enrolling. Sangstream memberships are processed en bloc in the autumn, so we will need to activate your membership on the system beforehand. Thanks.

Student Survey

Thanks to all who completed the student survey at the end of last term. We had over 200 responses which will greatly inform our development in the years ahead. We're working through responses at the moment and hope to reflect some of the feedback in our programming over the coming year. Congratulations to Jenni Brodie who won the ceilidh tickets!

CEILIDH CALEERIE - THANK YOU!

Thanks to Ceilidh Caleerie for playing at our last ceilidh in June. They were excellent! The band has also very generously donated £1,000 from their community fundraising activities to SMG general funds, for which we are very grateful!

Term Dates for the
2018/19 Programme

Term 1 (12 weeks)
Classes start: 11th, 12th, 13th Sept
Mid-term: 16th, 17th, 18th, October
Classes end: 4th, 5th, 6th December

Term 2 (10 weeks)
Classes resume: 8th, 9th, 10th Jan
Mid-term: 12th, 13th, 14th February
Classes end: 19th, 20th, 21st March

Term 3 (8 weeks)
Classes resume: 23rd, 24th, 25th April
Classes end: 11th, 12th, 13th June

Enrolment Dates

Early Bird (saving £15 a term) runs until:
Tuesday 21st August 2018 for Term 1
Tuesday 11th December for Term 2
Tuesday 26th March 2019 for Term 3

End of term Stramash usually held in the last week of Term 1 on a normal class night.

Student Concert
Fri 22nd March 2019 - Augustine United Church, George IV Bridge

Questions about SMG?
How to pay? Term Dates? Venue information? Refunds?
It's all here in our information pages on the SMG website: https://www.scotsmusic.org/info/

If there's anything missing that you'd like information on, let us know;
we update these pages frequently throughout the year.

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