Hi Music Maker families, State and county business restrictions were announced again yesterday (July 13). While “music instruction” never gets conclusively classified, my wife and I are trying to take a conservative interpretation and as a “non-essential indoor office” I feel that we are expected to close in-person lessons at this time. We will offer ALL lessons the remainder of the week on Zoom. If you are pressed for time, feel free to make sure you have Zoom login info still handy from your teacher (if you are new to us, contact us for it and we can even set up a “practice” call), or you may still be using remote learning and you are good to go. You can stop reading here if you want, but I am going to go on a little about my current thoughts for our school and our musical families adapting for the next few weeks (timeframes are not set in CA). I am very GRATEFUL we are able to adapt and offer our services online. Since March, we have kept our entire team employed, with the exception of one teacher that chose to take some time off. That is only possible because of your commitment to stick with us and your willingness to communicate with us about what you need and help us improve,
I’m also SAD, we were just getting our sense of “normal” and “routine,” and I am really looking forward to “coming back”...Again (sigh). However, making the safest and most careful choices for all our students and our staff is a priority right now. I worry about our students and the challenges they are facing with the next school year coming up. I believe that music is, in a sense, an “essential” activity that allows our students to be creative, deal with complex emotions, and connect with others by expressing themselves even if they can’t be “together.” I am working on a variety of “distance learning” style options to offer elementary schools in our area as we can because I WANT as many kids as possible to be making music during this time. That being said, here are some tentative “add ons” I am working on
A limited amount of outdoor one on one lessons (likely in the morning to avoid the heat, under some pop up tents in the back parking lot….working on the logistics Continuing to use student Musico.io accounts and other technology elements to give students lots of content to practice and enjoy.
Monthly performance live streamed (similar to our big concert in May, but live instead of pre-recorded)
Possible neighborhood outdoor performances (like a “porch” or “driveway” mini concert with a socially distanced audience)....again, pending safety and logistics
Dreaming what else we can provide. Your feedback is essential. Do you want more games via Zoom?
So here we are...all lessons on Zoom this week. It’s not too late to join the theory club and get a worksheet packet to start working on at home (just email your teacher or direct to me that you want to join). Please give us your feedback on added features we can offer you to help you students keep making music and watch for announcements as we continue to respond to state and county announcements. MANY thanks to you--
Mr. Michael and the whole NewSongs team |