Spring 2000 February 28 - May 28, 2000

New Invoice Format!

You're holding it in your other hand! After several years and several expensive but discouraging attempts to revamp our billing using various computer programs, we have finally come up with what we believe will be a good layout. One that will be flexible enough to cover the many billing situations possible, and one that will give you all the information you've been asking for.

The new format lets you know at a glance when our Quarters start and finish (that information is also in our newsletter banner). It tells you which instructors are billing you, and how many lessons are planned for each quarter, for each student.

Credits such as Bonus Lessons, overpayments, scholarships and credit for unused lessons from the previous quarter are neatly categorized. The format also spells out the total amount due for each quarter and at the same time gives you the breakdown for monthly payments if you'd like to use that option.

Those of you who pay monthly, or have just signed up, have helped us give the system a "test run" for the past two months, and we hope we've been able to get the bugs out.

What do you think of it? Tell us! We'd like to hear from you by phone or email... or just include a note with your return invoice stub.

• Is there anything in the format which you think might be confusing?
• Would you like to see more or less detail?
• Do you have a suggestion to make it more readable?

Always striving to be up-to-date, Music Arts offers electronic billing. If you system allows you to receive email attachments, we'll send you both your bill and the newsletter in either Word or Wordperfect. Let us know!

The Brass Are at It Again!

Horn instructor Marcay Dickens says her student Katie Dungan has won a chair in the All-East Blue Band!

And Warren Clark reports that a large number of his trumpet students have earned chairs in the East Tennessee Junior Band Clinic for students in grades 7 through 9. Making the Gold BAnd were: John Kelly, Rachel Womack, and James Hayden. The Bronze Band winners were Sarah Grady, Philip Irminger and Eric Baldwin.

Special congratulations to Eric, one of only six 7th graders to make it; and especially to Rachel Womack, who had the hightest sight-reading score out of the 108 trumpets that auditioned!

Composition Contest Winners!

Three young musicians have shown outstanding abilities to compose music. Seven non-involved Music Arts faculty members judged, by fairly close margins: Jessie Pounds, first prize; Anna Walker, second prize; and Tarik Umar, third prize.

Jessie composed a lovely off-beat piece called "Cello's Laugh." Instructor Nancy England feels that this is something that cellos (and cellists) do best!

Anna, who studies piano, charmed the judges with what one judge described as having the flavor of the Moonlight Sonata. Tarik, a piano student of Rudolph Nemeth, wrote a neat little jazzy piece. Tarik took honors in the contest last year, too. We're looking for more from these three students - and others - next year!

An Age-Old Question: "How Much Daily Practice is Necessary?"
by Shannon Hamblen