Here is a list of our winners:

Class 401– Telstar
•    Edynn Murphy         90%
•    Josh Crysler            87%

Class 405- Kokomo
•    Nathan Hoang            92%
•    Dexter Sonier            88%
•    Noah Wright            88%
•    Maeghan Bunting        86%

Class 411- Pretty Woman
•    Jessica Campbell        90%

Class 417- Layla (duet)
•    Jessica Campbell        90%
•    Jessica Zugic            90%
•    Cameron Stewart        90%
•    Maxwell Stewart        90%

Class 407- Sunshine on Your Shoulder
•    Evan Dim            88%
•    Lindsay Fulcher        85%

Class 408- Guitar Boogie
•    Natasha Kowalenko        85%

Class 730- Stand by Me (duet)
•    Lucas Wainwright        85%
•    Noah Wainwright        85%

Class 414A- I Love Rock&Roll
•    Sarah Marshall        84%

Class 406- Free Bird
•    Evan Dim            90%
•    Dexter Sonier            90%
•    Nicholas Grude        88%
•    Trent Gilmour            88%
•    Jake Stevenson        80%

Class 412- Summer of ‘69
•    Alex Bragg            84%

Class 409B- Malaguena
•    Jared Gilmour            87%
•    Lauren Lidstone        86%

Class 745- Bands
•    The Golden Hammers    94%

Class 803- Bands- Taylor Swift
•    Lucas Venneri
•    Evan Dim
•    Dexter Sonier
•    Cailen Rotz
•    Edynn Murphy
•    Josh Crysler
•    Basil Sonier
All Participants in 803 received 90%

Class 414B- I Love Rock&Roll
•    Jessica Campbell        87%

Class 410- I Shot the Sheriff
•    Emma Crawley        86%

Class 835- Bands- My Generation
•    Laura Lidstone
•    Olivia Dim
•    Graham Crawley
•    Matthew Bradley
•    Joey Bourassa
•    Mike Rogers
•    Jessie Gold
This band received 87%

Class 491-Bands- Day Tripper
•    Katie Green
•    Jared Gilmour
•    Lucas Venneri
•    Trent Gilmour
•    Gabriel Baloga
•    Noah Wright
•    Emma Stevenson
•    Jake Stevenson
This band received a mark of 91%

Class 492-Bands- Flight of Icarus
•    Alex Macpherson
•    Cameron Ethier
•    Jessica Campbell
•    Mike Merny
•    Mike Deschamps
•    Natasha Kowalenko
•    Jordan Phelan (instructor)
This band received a mark of 92%

Congratulations to all of our participants in the Kiwanis festival; well done!  A big thank-you to our judge, Guy Cayen who is an accomplished musician and school teacher.

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If you or your favorite music student are busy preparing for RCM Examinations, a recital, or concert, this will help.

The Royal Conservatory of Music Accompaniment CD’s let you play along with other musicians just like you will in a live concert.  The RCM cd’s include; piano accompaniment for violin, piano recordings, or piano accompaniment for vocals.

We’ve just received some of the best selling Royal Conservatory cd’s just in time for your rehearsal.

Give us a call to reserve yours today.

To Register: send a note to anne@RysonsMusic.com or give me a call at 905-682-6832. - Anne.

Once agian this year we are pleased to offer music lessons for the following musical instruments; Piano, violin, voice, flute, saxophone, trumpet, trombone, french horn, tuba, drums, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, classical guitar, and bass guitar.   All of our lessons contain music theory, history, harmony, and counterpoint.  And of  course we are rapidly becoming known as the Home of FiddleFest and Fiddle Lessons, and groups.

Our brass and woodwinds students will have the opportunity to take the Royal Conservatory Exams, and on the fun side, they’ll be able to participate in our many band groups playing for local Festivals and Concerts.

Last year our music teachers and students set many new standards and records of accomplishment.

We’re very proud of; Brian Heximer (grade 8 tuba). Brian has been accepted at Western University this fall; Ferhus Grundy received grade 6 trombone; Tyler Versluis received grade 9 oboe; Brianna Wing received grade 9 oboe and is working on grade 10; Susan Wassill was the Kiwanis Festival winner in flute; Spencer D’Amore won in trumpet; and many more students have accomplished their credits for high school and university in brass and woodwinds.

We believe that students who invest hard work and real dedication to their music lessons, deserve to have a little fun as well.

A couple of years ago we began to form student bands. This gives the student first hand experience in playing with other musicians, and in public

Of course our most famous student band in the last couple of years has been the Golden Hammers.

This year the Hammers have performed at several different functions, and their popularity continues to grow.  Some of their performances included;  Friendship Festival Ft. Erie, Canal Days, Pt. Colborne, GM Car Show, Knights of Columbus Centennial, and several school fun fairs.  The Golden Hammers were also nominated for the Niagara Music Awards, and won the Downtown Association “In The Soil”.
They will be performing once again at the Grape and Wine Festival at Montebello Park, and for the Pied Piper Parade on  September 19th.  They’ll also be at the Community Living Center in Queenston Heights on Sept. 12th.

We also have a new group called the Rockin’ Daisies.  This is an “All Girls” rock group with members ranging from ages 12 to 15. These gals have a lot of attitude and have already caught the attention of the local community at Canal Days, and the GM Car Show.

The Rockin’ Daisies will  be playing at Climate, at Montebello Park for Grape and Wine Festival Sept. 19th., and for Community Living in Queenston Heights on Sept. 12.

Both the Golden Hammers, and the Rockin’ Daisies are under the musical direction of Dave Tufford and myself. They are available to perform at public functions. Just give me a call at Ryson’s or send me an email to anne@rysonsmusic.com.

Our Rock Bands under the direction of;  Dave Tufford, Torry Doyle, Jordan Phelan, Tim Popek, and myself performed extremely well in the Kiwanis Music Festival.
We received a lot of compliments from the adjudicators and parents of the students.

• The Senior Band played ThunderStruck by ACDC for a score of 96
• Intermediate Band played Back in the  USSR for a 95
• The Junior Band scored a 93 for their performance of Every Breath you take. All guitar solos were outstanding.

Our vocal students were not to be outdone by their instrumental counterparts.  Last year’s Junior Idol winner, Natalie Vurro successfully defended her title as the Junior Idol for 2009.  You may know Natalie as the very talented female singer who appears with the Hammers. Also Kayla McGowan won the Mini Idol in vocals. Both of these young ladies are under the direction of our vocal teacher Lauren Gasbarini.

Several of our voice students completed and passed their Royal Conservatory Exams; Samantha Allison, Abby Cryer, Natasha  Kowalenko, Karen Hart, and many more.

Piano Achievements; Sarah Vanderzalm just completed her grade 9 and Tyler Versluis passed his grade 8 piano in addition to grade 9 oboe  as mentioned above. Then there was Kristopher Grude ,Lindsay and many more who reached their goals and working towards their  credits for university.

Our Violin Lessons are excellent. Private lessons at Royal Conservatory Standards and Suzuki studies as well. Larissa Milar  is working on grade 8 violin, as well as Allison Scholten and Ben Abrahams and many more serious violin students.  Trisha  Gorman who has turned into a fine player, overcame some techique problems and has worked very hard this year.  Trisha deserves a  big bouquet and a great round of applause for her accomplishment.

As you can see, Ryson’s Studio is our Musical Family. We work very hard to achieve our musical goals and credits, but we also  have a lot of fun which we believe is the reason our students accomplish so much.

No boredom here. Our students enjoy the  opportunities to play in public for the community which in turn supports them.

If you’d like to become a member of our family, simply send me a note to anne@rysonsmusic.com, or give me a phone call at 905-682-6832.  We’re open Monday to Friday, 9:00am to 9:00pm, and on Saturday 9:00am to 5:00pm.

• Learn to chord along to all-time favorite uke songs such as “Amazing Grace”, “Will the Circle be Unbroken”, “Hey Jude”, “Danny Boy”, “Rivers of Babylon” and many more.

• New instruments with cases supplied for class.

• Day classes from 10:00-4:00.

• Cost for the day is $50 and the ukulele is yours to keep!

Come and have fun with the ultimate summer instrument you can bring camping, to the beach or to the cottage. Get a jump-start on the elementary school ukulele classes too.

This is an inexpensive way to get your feet wet in musical education and to open doors to the enjoyment of music in the future at Ryson’s Studios.

To register give me a call  at Rysons 905-682-6832 or e-mail at anne@rysonsmusic.com.

Anne.

Brian Roman, a Toronto Vocalist, is trying to help out a little boy, Justin Grant, who’s going through a very bad time.

Justin has cancer, and if that wasn’t bad enough, his father died just months ago.

Brian Roman heard about Justin and decided to do a benefit concert to raise funds for him and his mom.  It looks like the concert will be a sell-out and they could raise as much as $100,000.00.

What a wonderful story to share with our music students.  Sure, it’s great that the’re learning to play an instrument for their own enjoyment, or perhaps, they have higher goals. But imagine what our music students can accomplish when they understand how they can actually help people who really need it through their musical talents.

I’ve never met Brian, but he’s obviously a guy with a huge heart.
I hope you’ll join me in applauding his effort to help Justin and if you’re so inclined, you might want to contribute to the Justin Grant benefit. Here’s the story; Justin Needs Our Help.

The Brian Roman Story is a must-read for every music student. You can read it here; Brian Roman.

Brian, if you ever read this I want you to know that you are a credit to the music industry, and I sincerely hope that young musicians everywhere will pay attention not only to your incredible personal story, but to the selfless manner in which you share your talent to benefit those in time of need.

Anne
P.S. I hope everyone who reads this will pass it on to others. You can help Justin by simply letting others know about this story.

As luck would have it, Murray, from our web design company, (yes that’s a plug), happened to be in the studio today taping some video for our website when Dexter came in for his lesson.  I was showing Dexter all of the wonderful comments that he received from his video.

Well, here’s Dexter’s response…

Hey Dexter, it’s us who are thanking you.  It’s moments like this that remind us at Ryson’s what music lessons are all about.  Study, yes.  Practice, yes.  FUN, YES…YES…YES.

Please feel welcome to keep the comments coming in.  And if you really want to share Dexter with the world, be sure to click on one of the social bookmarking icons below this post.

Anne.

Well that didn’t stop Dexter.  He wrote his project on guitars and then proceeded to tell us about it at the store.  We just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to video the session.  This may be hard to believe but he really did write all of this himself!  By the way, the Beaver Creek Guitar people were so impressed that they told us they’re going to put Dexter on their website.  We’ll let you know when that happens.

In the meantime…..Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeer’s Dexter!
Remember while you’re watching this…
He’s 8 years old!

“All music lessons should be FUN!“

will be held on December 21st at the Silver Spire Church, formerly St.Paul United Church.

We hope you’ll join us as musicians of all ages showcase their talents through the seaonal sounds of Christmas Music.

Santa Claus himself is expected to arrive for the young ones around 12:30pm, and the Christmas Show will begin at 1:00pm.

This year our Christmas Concert will feature Christmas Carol Choirs, our own Christmas Band, The Golden Hammers with Natalie Vurro and Nikki Kent, and lots more soloists and instrumentalists.

Tickets are $10.00 per family and are available at Ryson’s Studio during the week. There will also be tickets at the door the day of the performance.

All proceeds go to “Out of the Cold”, a charity for the needy.

To get into the Christmas Season, the Downtown St.Catharines Association has provided Rysons’ with a supply of their Christmas pewter ornaments.  These will be available at the Silver Spire as well on the day of the Christmas Concert.

For Christmas Carols, traditional Christmas music, and Cool Santa, come and be part of our 71st annual Christmas Concert. Meet and greet our professional music teachers and inquire about our music lessons. Who knows, you too could be performing at next year’s Christmas Concert.

• Toronto November 16
• Pen Centre St. Catharines November 2
• Niagara Falls November, 29
• St. Catharines, Nov. 30
• Grimsby December 6 starting at 5.30
• Niagara On The Lake, December 13

• Thorold December13 at 5.30

And don’t forget the Golden Hammers.  This time the boys will be performing in the food court at the Pen Centre in St.Catharines.  The date is December 5th  at 7.00 P.M.

Santa Claus, Saint Nicholas, Father Christmas, Pere Noel and Kris Kringle are a few of the names given over the years to this jolly man.  The popular image of Santa Claus was created by German -American cartoonist Thomas Nast (l840-1902) who drew a new image annually.  By l880, Santa evolved into the form we now recognize.

Christmas sheet music and music books have arrived at Ryson’s Music Studio.  We now have a great selection of  Christmas music; some of which include Cds.
Many of our music students are now playing and singing Christmas songs for their music lessons.

Our Christmas concert will be Dec. 21, 2008 at Silver Spire with all proceeds going to the “Out of the Cold” fundraising.  Tickets are $l0.00 per family.  Come one, Come all!  Join our CHRISTMAS Festivities and meet Santa.  Take pictures of your children with Santa in a beautiful yuletide setting.

Please remember Santa’s favourite cookies are frosted sugar cookies with a drink of milk or egg nog.  Don’t forget carrots for the reindeer and please leave a note.  Sometimes, if Santa’s not busy, he will write back.
Christmas movies will also be shown and advertised as well.
Our movies include A Christmas Carol, The Nut Cracker, Polar Express, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, White Christmas, Frosty The Snowman, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and many more!

For those little drummer boys, we have a craft for you!  Here are instructions on how to make a drum:

Here’s what you’ll need:

• an empty oatmeal box with a cover
• yarn
• pen
• two pencils
• 2 spools
• construction paper
• crayons

Before you start, to make your musical drum, you can decorate oatmeal box  with construction paper, crayons to make a colourful effect.

Place the cover on the box, and use a pen to make a hole in the center of the cover and the center of the  bottom.  Through these holes pull the yarn long enough to hang around the child’s neck and down to the waist.  For the drum sticks, place the spools at the end of the pencil and secure with glue if necessary.  Drum away!!  If you want cymbals, two matching pot covers, yarn and ribbon.  Tie the ribbon or yarn around the handles of the pot covers.  Strike together to play.

Happy Holidays, and have a Musical Christmas.  Remember our concert for “Out of the Cold” December 21, 2008 at 1pm, at the Silver Spire and visit Santa.

The Beatles were formed officially in 1960 in Liverpool England.  At first they were called Quarrymen, then John Lennon was inspired by Buddy Holly whose very popular band was called the Crickets.  From this he came up with Silver Beetles and then the ‘beet’ became The Beatles.  Popularity of the Beatles is still very prominent today amongst music students and musicians alike.

The Beatles made their first appearance in America on Feb. 9, 1964 on the Ed Sullivan Show.  The show was viewed by 74 million people and caused quite a stir.  Music stores couldn’t keep musical instruments on the shelf in the sixties; order waiting lists would be about six months for guitars or ‘Beatle’ basses.  Movies that the Beatles made were A Hard Day’s Night, Help, Yellow Submarine, and Let it Be.
Can’t Buy Me Love was the fourth United Kingdom single record in 1964.  This song was unusual for The Beatles and musicians for it was based on twelve-bar blues, begins with the chorus  and features only one singer (Paul).  On the ‘B’ side of the record was You Can’t Do That.  This song was written in Paris on a Grand Piano.  Can’t Buy Me Love reached number one ratings in both the U.K. and the U.S. The Beatles held all top 5 slots on the billboard chart which had never been done before.
1) Can’t Buy Me love
2) Twist and Shout
3) She Loves You
4) I Want To Hold Your Hand
5) Please Please Me.

Can’t Buy Me Love was featured in the movie A Hard Days Night.  Musicians credited with the Beatles were John Lennon [acoustic rhythm guitar] [Paul McCartney Double tracked vocal and bass, [George Harrison-electric rhythm guitar] and  Ringo Starr the drummer.
To many young music students over the years and even to-day the Beatles music is still very popular to play. There are even tribute bands that spend a lot of time and money to dress and play like the Beatles.  The Beatles broke up as a group Dec. 31 1979, but continued to perform  solo and to set their own records of success.

Here’s a video featuring a young group called the Golden Hammers whose members have been taking music lessons at Rysons Music.
They have been playing for one year and were formed as a group in May of this year for the Kiwanis Music Festival.
The members of the Niagara group who range in age from eight to ten years old are;
Evan Dim: Lead guitar and vocals
Dexter Sonier: Rhythm guitar and vocals
Lucas Venneri: Drums
Tyson Spiering: Guitar
Trent Gilmour: Rhythm guitar
Jared Gilmour: Bass
Natalie Vurro: Lead Singer

The Beatles increased the sale of musical instruments and amplifiers, here in Niagara, and around the world during their reign, and helped thousands of young people gain an interest in taking music lessons.
Their impact on the music industry can still be felt.

I’m thankful that the Beatles were around during my lifetime and enjoy watching our music students as they keep “Beatlemania” alive.