I interviewed a group of IHS students across different grade levels and en sembles to gain some insight into their experience this year with music instruc tion, both virtual and in-person.
Louisa Miller-Out ‘22: What are some things you have been doing in band/orchestra that you wouldn’t do in a normal school year? Are there positive aspects to this?
Kaia Moore ‘22: This year in band, we’ve been using a digital audio work space called Soundtrap where you record your instrument and you can add effects to it. That’s been a positive experience, I think, because I’ve never worked with something like that before, so it’s bringing me into new areas of music.
Daniel Zawel ‘22: With these digital audio workstations, having access to ones like Soundtrap or GarageBand makes it easy to make recordings with just your self. So you can do everything on your own time and you don’t need to tell others what to play—you can just do whatever you want, and I’ve had a lot of fun with that.
Elliott Salpekar ‘23: I was able to reconnect with a teacher from across the country that I was with before I moved up here, and virtual lessons have been pretty effective so far.
Luke Newton ‘22: Being virtual this year has really opened me up to personal performance. In the past, when we were playing pieces, I could sort of rely on the ensemble to support me if I make any mistakes, but when I’m recording some thing in a closed room and it’s just me with a reference track, if I make a mis take I’m going to hear it and it feels like a much bigger deal than if I had made it with 60 other people around me. So you really start focusing on individual perfor mance and technique and getting your music down to a T.
DZ: I agree.
LMO: What does your teacher do to make virtual instruction more engaging?
KM: Mrs. Zawel does a really great job with breaking up class into different parts so we don’t get fatigued. We’ll start off with a warm-up, but then we’ll go watch a video or listen to a piece of music and then we’ll try and play it, and then we might go back to listening to a recording. So it’s really interesting because she mix es it up and not every class is the same.
Kieran Lucio-Belbase ‘22: Five min ute breaks.
KLB: (Mr. Fleischman) is a good teacher that teaches us things well.
Adam Saar ‘22: (Mr. Fleischman) uses different tools like Padlet and stuff like that to do check-ins and other little activi ties, usually at the beginning of class.
LMO: Has the pandemic impacted the quality of your practice habits/playing? And if so, how?
Anonymous: I’d say I practice roughly one tenth of what I used to, and that’s a very generous estimate, because I think it’s difficult to stay motivated when you don’t play the pieces you’re working on with other people.
KM: In general, the pandemic, especially when it started last year in March, has given me a lot of opportunity to exper iment more with my music and spend more time on it, even if I do not always take advantage of that time.
Anonymous: I don’t practice.
LMO: Is it more nerve-racking to play on camera remotely than it would be to play in person?
Jerry Qian ‘21: I personally don’t turn my camera on when I’m remote.
DZ: At the peak, around 70 percent of band people had their cameras on. It was like a Renaissance. But now…(trails off sadly). The band director (Mrs. Zawel) works very hard and seeing more of her students’ faces makes it a little easier for her.
Anonymous: Sometimes, I do not play the orchestra music when I am at home. This better be anonymous.
LMO: What do you miss the most about pre-COVID band/orchestra class?
KLB: Having a significant number of people in class.
AS: Being immersed in a big ensemble.
KM: One thing that is severely diminished during these times is that when you don’t have the entire ensemble there playing, it sounds very different and it’s hard to learn other people’s parts and learn to play as an ensemble more. So I imagine it’s probably really difficult for freshmen and people who are newer to playing in larger ensembles to learn others’ parts and feel like they’re part of a band.
LMO: What three words best describe your experience in band/orchestra this year?
KLB: No.
KLB: Can I do four words?
KLB: Sometimes kinda okay.
JQ: Given circumstances, good.
Anonymous: I didn’t practice.
KM: Diminished, but productive. The band kids: Shoutout to Mrs. Zawel!