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Here we will look at planning a concert in two sizes Of hired venue, both of which require the same amount of planning. I advise that you start planning about 6 months in advance,
The first and most important thing to do is to find a venue with a good piano if required. Your local sunday school or school may have a room you may hire but do check that they will allow you to charge addmission,some dont allow it.
If you wanted a larger room your local town hall should be able to help. Music Corner hire the largest in our local town hall twice a year. The room holds approx three hundred people and has a very good but under -played, grand piano.
By holding our own concerts on a monday night we can hire the room for £65.00, much cheaper than at the weekend.
Once you've found your room, tried the instrument and booked the hall you need to start thinking about a programme and concert plan.
You will already have an idea of the style of event in your mind. If you're still unsure though here are a few ideas.
An Afternoon of promise.
A concert designed for youngsters on the award system.
Awards can include assessment group promotion rosettes and certificates, most promising beginner cup or trophy, classic in style certificates .
Pupils can play pre-planned pieces out of their tutor books and a carefully woven inspirational story can be wound around the music.
Its a Family Affair
A concert designed for familey involvement. Any pupils playing should perform a duet with a familey member perhaps a familey member can play the recorder,guitar,flute,clarinet etc... from school days or if no one plays an instrement a tambourine,triangle,or simuilar may be used.
Ideas for awards include; musical medals or music award certificate presented to the family.
An Evening of Friendship.
A concert full of duets,trois and ensembles. Awards that can be presented include music award,musical excellence certificates,medals,duet or trio rosettes duet or trio cups.
These are few suggestions the list is endless.
Once you have decided on what style of concert you are going to have it is a good to determine the ticket price.
The cost of the room plus the cost of the tickets plus cost of posters and the cost of certificates and medals over the amount of the number of tickets you expect to sell, will give you a guide to your ticket price.
The room we hire costs £65.00
Four posters cost £3.80
300 tickets cost £39.00 Every pupil usually has 2 certificates and ¼ may earn a medal. So this is approximately £90.00.
The total of the top figure is £65.00 + £3.80 + £39.00 + £90.00= £197.80 we'll call it £200.00.
I'd expect to sell 250 tickets £200.00 divided by 250 gives a ticket price of 80p each if you will be allowing free admission for under 10's you will need to put up the price for adults.
Once you have your ticket price date and venue order your concert posters and concert tickets from music corner and place them in strategic places for all your parents and pupils to see.
Now there is a question of music, standards and who is going to play. At Music Corner we have one concert a year where every one plays then a number of smaller programs are planned throughout the year. Everyone plays in at least two concerts per year.
In our large concerts we have a policy that allows beginners to play one piece max. 6 line, grade 1 - 3 players can play a maximum of one movement or three pages, Grade 4 -6 players must play two pieces of 2 to 3 pages and grade 7 and above may play up to one piece of more than 3 pages, one piece of 2 to 3 pages and one short but sweet piece, all this depends on the time available, this keeps an interest in the style of music being played and keeps the little ones wanting to progress so that they can play more pieces.
All pieces should aim to be ready 2 or 3 weeks before the concert date. This will give you time to have a dress rehearsal before the big day.
If your room isn't big enough at home old peoples homes or residential homes can sometimes help with the loan of the room. A donation bucket can be placed at the exit for parents to make a donation to the room also the residents can enjoy listening to the children play.
Remember to order your concert program's 4 weeks before the concert, to give us or anybody else time to produce them for you. Program's can either be included in the ticket price, one per family or sold by a cute and persuasive pupil at the door for 99p. They are a souvenir that parents and pupils enjoy collecting.
At the concert one of your older pupils could organize a raffle to help cover the cost of any awards given out. 1 or 2 young pupils can be asked to sell strips of raffle tickets for 50p as people sit down. Raffle prizes can include just about anything but a musical theme is recommended. In the past one of the mums made us a knitted carol singing clown to be included in one of our christmas raffles.
A few mums could also be asked to run a small stall selling bags of sweets and drinks etc to make a small profit.
Once the price of the cups and things is covered you could use any spare money to invest in a selection of percussion instruments to help teach your pupils rhythm techniques, at individual lessons or in workshops.
A question I'm always asked is how do you seat people at your concerts?
Over the years we've found that seating people at tables and chairs cabaret style is much friendly than rows of chairs in a concert seating plan.
In a small venue this also gives you the opportunity of serving a hot-pot supper with the ticket price. If you hire caterers this can be less trouble than it sounds. The caterers can also supply the drinks etc... Between October and February it can make the event that little extra special on cold nights.
In larger venues they may have in house caterers which will make it even easier but can be more expensive. They also have the benefit, usually of having a house bar.
A word of warning only have the bar open before the concert at the end of the concert and at intervals otherwise some dads might spend more of their time at the bar than at the concert!
At the concert consider presenting your awards in stages. At our large concerts we present items in stages for example under 13's over 13's. And "available to all" awards with an interval in the award ceremony this enables any one with little children to go home if needs be.
The annual cups we present keep the cost down each year and in time they become a great record of achievement. Annual awards must be returned a month before the next concert. We give them a rosette as well so they have something special to keep when they hand back the cup or scroll.
A word of caution regarding rewards.
Never reward a pupil who does not deserve it! We with hold annual awards if the standard is not high enough.
Rewards are visual colorful and effective. Select the right ones for your teaching practice and display them in your room for the most impact.
Placed strategically they could be the key to motivation for your pupils. It is important to explain briefly how to obtain the trophy, cup etc... and to ensure that each pupil knows that it is within their reach. Sometimes a small notice next to the award can help. Some of our pupils thought we as teachers had won them!
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