Nearly a year has passed since April 17 when shepherdexpress.com posted an article that began: With Gov. Tony Evers’ announcement that Wisconsin’s “Safer at Home” order will be extended until May 26, we are still making lemonade from lemons. While we cannot venture out to see live performances, musicians are streaming concerts from home and uploading videos to keep music fans entertained.
A handful of local music teachers and engineers took the time to talk about how they are dealing with these strange times in this article.
Today, 10 months later, we check in with those folks to see how they have adapted. We asked about their initial reaction to the lockdown and how they were eventually able to adapt—what lessons they learned in the process. They also spoke about human interaction in the year everything changed.
Their optimism has been tempered by many factors: polarizing politics; mishandling of the pandemic and struggles with knowing people didn’t take precautions seriously and the financial challenge when a client base drops off.
Yet there is good news. Vaccines are part of life and in March, Discovery World, the Harley-Davidson Museum, the Milwaukee Art Museum, and the Milwaukee Public Museum will reopen.
Please feel free to chime in with your comments how you have fared in any artistic endeavors during the pandemic.
Julie Brandenburg
Musicians must be quick witted and improvise when the sheet music blows off the music stand. So, I have been tweaking my methods and expectations all along as people’s needs have changed over the course of this year. Some students have adapted to doing the lessons much the same way we did in person, but by using a camera. I have been mindful of those students for whom this approach was becoming stressful and found ways to customize our experience. For example, some of my adult students realized the scenario of practicing an instrument in a household where everyone is home all the time isn’t practical.
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So, we changed the focus to explore other avenues of music: songwriting, music theory and technology, as these pursuits can be done with headphones. I have opened up my calendar to be more flexible in order to work around schedules that include homeschooling and Zoom meetings.
With some children I realized I needed to switch to different kinds of songs or lesson books. When needed, I sent their parents more visual aids to use in the lessons. I tried to keep the main focus on having fun in the lessons and made sure we all knew it was ok to let progress move along at a more relaxed pace. As the year has gone on the technology has become more unreliable so I have kept tweaking and upgrading cameras, internet and apps.
Finally, I realized I had to relax my own expectations of being a perfectly costumed and tightly produced rock star/standup comic in every lesson. I have learned to accept there will be bad hair days, days when I forget to turn off the phone ringer, days when the cats whine outside the door because they think it is dinner time.
I am lucky I work with families who are as patient with me as I am with them and we all try to do our best each lesson, whatever that means for that day. Sometimes we even have a few laughs about the absurdity of it all. Having good people around is always the most important part of life and has sustained me throughout this year!
Peter Roller
Back in March I was awkwardly setting up and trying out my first guitar and Dobro lessons on Zoom or Skype. I recently remarked to the student who “held my hand” during those lessons that doing Zoom seems routine now, except for one word I had never known before: latency!
It is the small time-lag that happens with musical communication on programs like Zoom. It interferes with matters of timing shared between teacher and student. I recently found I was trying to help this student count to three before hitting an accent. My audible counting with the student, like in past lessons, never lined up with her musical timing due to latency.
Similarly, I can’t accompany students to help them stay on-time in playing pieces because my parts are late to their beat. I tried to set up the program JamKazaam that’s supposed to be able to solve latency, however it’s much more tricky to set up than the common communication apps.
I hope to keep doing the best job I can in Zoom lessons, but I can’t imagine ever being able to enjoyably rehearse with fellow musicians until we can be safely distanced in a room!
John Sieger
I had to cancel the second Sieger on Songs Live event at The Jazz Gallery with Greg Koch the day of. He’d been traveling and was worried he might have been exposed. That marked the official start of quarantine for me. The next weekend I was scheduled to go to Nashville to co-write. That got scratched along with a bunch of summer gigs. A lot of musicians were hit pretty hard.
Porch concerts. They were as much fun in their own way as clubs or festivals. And Patreon, (patreon.com/johnsieger) where people can subscribe to the fictitious John Sieger Benevolent Society and receive a song to download every Monday. It keeps me busy recording every week and writing a little blurb to post along with the song. It’s really a great thing that helps me and other artists who are trying to keep it together.
I was pleasantly surprised by lessons and clinics via Zoom. It’s far from ideal—acoustic guitars sound like they’re going through Joe Walsh’s pedal board, even if you tinker with the settings. And it takes quite a bit more preparation, getting songs together early and sending out ahead of time. But I consider my students friends, so hanging out and talking with them fills part of that gaping social void.
Playing an electric set by myself at Linneman’s was an eye-opener. I’d been looking for a way to make solo performance feel more natural and I think this is probably it. It feels a nice hybrid of rock and roll and folk, and that particular crack feels pretty comfortable to a life-long band guy who plays the singer/songwriter occasionally. (Sieger will be doing it again Friday, March 5)
I was pleasantly surprised when two women from our Zoom singalong, The OK Chorale, asked for a song clinic. They had never written songs before, but they took right to it. Anna Raff and Stephanie Schneider (who zoomed from the Netherlands!) now have a Soundcloud page The Bonnet Workshop. Check it out.
Jeff Stehr
Image via YouTube
Once I realized that Tritonics (Stehr’s Jamaica-centric rock-steady band) gigs were going away, but did not yet realize for how long, I was heartbroken that our drummer Dave Bolyard, who was battling pancreatic cancer that had been diagnosed back in November of 2018, might not be able to keep playing shows. To me, that was worrying since he was deriving so much of his life energy from playing live shows.
Separate from that, as a music teacher, I was mostly worried about how I could continue doing music lessons if close, person-to-person contact was suddenly declared a high-risk activity. I had used Facetime for lessons in a pinch before but started asking my other music teacher friends about Zoom.
As it turns out, I adapted just fine. About 20% of my students take a hiatus when learning turns virtual. But for most parents of my piano and guitar students, my ability and willingness to do virtual lessons was a huge plus, as many of them were struggling to manage working from home while simultaneously figuring out how to supervise their kids' virtual learning. Suddenly lessons were a welcome respite from the relentless and ever-changing pace of institutional education via Wi-Fi and an iPad.
I initially failed to realize how complex and time consuming the simple task of updating a student’s assignment notebook would become once virtual learning took over. What used to take ten minutes of time during an in-person lesson suddenly took 30 minutes of follow up work per student.
Lessons I have learned? That it is much harder to stay organized as a virtual teacher than it is as an in-person instructor. I also learned that a 20% drop in lesson revenue is easily made up for when you no longer play gigs in bars or go out to concerts, movies, or dinner.
Music lessons that were previously invisible to my family swiftly became a loud, recurring, intrusive nuisance to their routines as well as a relentless competitor for the limited family bandwidth necessary for hastily implemented online learning courses of a public school system.
Eric Ambel
My initial reaction to the lockdown was a lot of wonder. Wondering how this would play out. Followed by a lot of serious worry living in NYC and having friends I knew get sick from the virus and die from the virus.
As a producer and a guitarist, I was very happy that I had invested in refurbishing and upgrading my home recording studio in December 2019.
Initially I thought the lockdown would bring creativity, which it did, but there was a lot of serious dread in what was happening. First with the virus and then with civil rights. I tried streaming some performances, but I didn’t connect with the process. As a record maker and a performer, I felt the streaming thing was flawed—deeply flawed for me. I couldn’t get things to sound as good as I wanted, and I also didn’t feel like the visuals were as good as I wanted them to be, so I abandoned it and continued to work with artists on their recordings. Contributing performances, remote producing and remote mixing.
I’ve been a go to guy for artists who wanted their records to have a live feel, so it was odd to be thrust back into a sort of “70’s world” of overdubs. I re-built my rolodex—quickly getting in touch with players I knew who were good musicians, but also had the ability to record themselves. Basically, assembling a cache of virtual session players.
I also did quite a bit of coaching for people who were starting out recording at home too. I found that the order that the players made their contributions was maybe the most important as far as getting an overdubbed track to have the right feel.
There was some software that we had experimented with at the studio called Audiomovers that lets people listen to your sessions in real time and high resolution. This became a real game changer for collaboration. Especially for mixing. I’m sure I’ll continue to use it.
I’ve also really enjoyed cooking during the pandemic. I don’t think I’ve ever used my oven so much.
It’s really been quite the year. It’s really been something to watch my community here in Brooklyn pull together over the virus. It’s also been super distressing to watch people in my hometown and up at “the lake” (Lake Geneva, WI) argue about “masks & freedom”.
Things started with the 7 p.m. cheers for healthcare and essential workers then morphed into helicopters overhead for weeks during the BLM protests then into a long crawl.
Finally getting back to work at the studio again (with restrictions like masks, distancing and less people) was a real relief. It’s really been a time where people really showed you what they cared about, both good and bad. I’m lucky to know a lot of people who have shown their goodness during these difficult times.
Zach Fell
Photo via Zach Fell
Zach Fell is the Band Director at Union Grove High School. He also gives private music lessons, is a WAMI award winner and host at Wisconsin Music Podcast.
While not part of the April article, Fell’s insights proved valuable in that he’s experienced the pandemic from multiple perspectives.
Can you give me a thumbnail description of how things have been for you since the pandemic hit as far as your regular teaching job goes?
Well, when mid-March of 2020 arrived the administration and the school board decided to go fully virtual that ended up continuing through the rest of that school year. I taught band using the music program SmartMusic and had the students practice music that I assigned through that program which they could record their assignment (all students have a school issued Chromebook) and I could listen back and assess. I also did one on one lessons with them. The other class I taught was beginning guitar. With all classes, I was on a Zoom meeting with them and taught them over video.
The problems with video meetings, as we all know, is the lag, audio quality, and not being able to interact in real time to make the learning experience the best it can.
When we came back in the Fall of 2020, the school went to a 50/50 split. This is where half the student population was here every other day and then the other half was here the opposite days. The school upgraded the ventilation system throughout and made the facilities touchless.
In my classroom, I have six-foot vinyl barriers separating the students six feet apart so that they can still play their instruments in class. We did concerts in our large gym, as neither the classroom nor the performance center was not big enough to keep the students socially distanced when we have all the students together. We did a six-hour rehearsal and the concert on a Sunday for all concerts.
On March 2, the school board decided on a 5-0 vote to have all students return before vaccinations are administered.
Can you talk about the long-term effect you think this will have on individuals and the community in different ways?
Schmitt Music (in Racine) will close their doors on March 31, 2021. Steve Schone and his wife have owned the store for the last 33 years and with the pandemic and wanting to retire, Steve sought to see if anyone was interested in keeping the business going.
Unfortunately, he didn’t receive any acceptable offers. Schmitt Music has been a staple of the community and a godsend for many musicians in the Southeastern part of the state; he even has professional musicians around the country sending him their instruments.
They have been providing lessons, music literature, advice, and instrument sales and repairs for over three decades and this is going to be a major blow to the Racine school district and citizens in the coming years.
What was your game plan last March when we knew so little about the pandemic?
My wife is a RN and I followed her advice on mask wearing, social distancing, and staying safe. We actually just flew back from Seattle in mid-February of 2020 right before the pandemic news started. I feel fortunate that that trip didn’t affect our health. We haven’t gone to eat in any restaurants or really anywhere since mid-March, except for visiting my parents, who live up north where they are isolated from everything.
How were you able to adapt? What things did you end up changing from the way you initially thought would work?
For home: Already being a homebody type of person, the only things we changed are not going to live events or restaurants. We still walk our dogs around the neighborhood and go to the store for necessities while wearing masks.
For work: I wear a mask and goggles and keep my distance from the students as much as possible. I don’t interact with the majority of my co-workers. I keep my hands washed and sanitize the areas in my classroom and office.
What are some of the lessons you have learned in nearly a year of reinventing the way you do things?
Masks work. I haven’t had a cold in over a year now, and I usually have a few common colds by now. I am more aware of my surroundings and make it a priority to keep my hands washed more frequently and sanitize more items I come in contact with.
Technology can help with a lot of things we do, but it still doesn’t replace real life connections. In teaching, it felt like starting from the beginning and trying to figure out the best way to educate students. I use more listening examples when we rehearse and more time for smaller group practice.
Any specific examples of interactions that played out in memorable ways?
Rehearsal with barriers in the band room. Not teaching privately, except for online, which is very difficult due to the audio quality not there for instruments. Especially when we are working on tone production, technique, and articulation methods. Screen freezing stops the continuity of the lesson which is frustrating for both sides of the connection.
Playing concerts in a gym with the students spread out at least six feet apart with vinyl barriers will be a lasting impression.
