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It’s become a common sight and sound on social media in recent weeks — musicians coming together online to create a socially distanced orchestra performing a virtual concert.
Achieving such perfect harmony isn’t as simple as it appears, though, because slight lag times cause musicians to hear notes a second or two after they’re played. For young school musicians, the timing is difficult enough to achieve even in the same room.
“The latency delay (the amount of time for online data to travel between senders and receivers) makes it almost impossible,” Antioch Middle School teacher Courtney Trantham said of performing together from virtual distances. “Those (concert videos) are done with editing and special equipment. They make it look easy and cool, but a lot of work goes into putting it together.”
For Trantham and many other music teachers, who had just days to prepare for the switch to online school forced by stay-home orders amid the coronavirus pandemic, the learning curve has been steep.
“We just had online learning thrust on us,” said Ken Bergmann, a teacher at Orchard Park School in Oakley. “Everybody has had to suddenly learn a new technology and try to figure out what platforms will be most effective for their teaching.”
Bergmann also is the Antioch Unified School District’s music coordinator, so when schools closed he got to try out various music platforms to see what worked best.
“Social media was really helpful — all the musicians talk to each other — everyone is discussing what’s best,” he said.
Classes such as band and orchestra usually require students to play in unison, taking cues from other musicians and a director. So transitioning to online learning was a challenge for teachers and students, Bergmann said.
“It’s like you have been teaching in English all your life and now you can only teach in Cantonese and not only is it a different language but it isn’t based on anything in your culture,” he said.
Teachers have met the challenge by video conferencing through Zoom, setting up Google Classrooms through SmartMusic and Essential Elements Interactive music learning software and using the apps SoundTrap and Acapella, among others.
Trantham posts her assignments along with home-based music recordings on her classroom website. Students use SmartMusic, with which they can choose an instrument and part and then listen, play along and receive instant evaluation while also recording music for their teacher to hear later.
“Some kids are really enjoying it, especially the kids who are looking for more challenging music,” she said of the program, which is being offered for free through June 30. “They can go explore in the program and find a solo they can work on themselves.”
Trantham said she’s always wanted to use more technology in her classroom.
“So now I have the perfect excuse to do it,” she said. “Now that we have been forced to learn it, they will be more comfortable when we go back.”
The program gets a thumbs-up from seventh-grader Fifita Frewe, an Antioch Middle School clarinetist who now practices at home in her bedroom every day.
“It’s actually really nice because it feels like there is a teacher there teaching the notes — you practice the song, go at whatever speed you want when you get the notes and rhyme, and it (SmartMusic) will tell you how much you learned and how much you processed.”
Trantham and others also hold daily online office hours so students can ask questions and get help tuning instruments.
“Sometimes kids pop in and say ‘hi’ to each other,” she said. “I think the kids miss their friends and their teachers.”
Bergmann uses SmartMusic for his 220 students too, offering direct feedback to their songs stored in the program each time a student records. But because many of his students don’t have their instruments at home, he’s added SoundTrap so they can learn how to create music.
“This gives them a chance to be creative without being limited by the (playing) ability on their instrument. … The overall goal of our teaching — we’re trying to take a compassionate and supportive role for these kids,” Bergmann said. “I want my students to know that I miss them, I care about them and I want them to find some joy through music.”
In Pittsburg, Jim Hamalainen, a band teacher at Martin Luther King Jr. Junior High School, is using similar methods while also teaching Zoom online lessons with his band students. Because he had posted YouTube music and tracks for students in the past, they were a bit more familiar with some of the techniques.
Hamalainen has converted a small studio above his garage into a teaching space and surrounds himself with instruments in case he needs to demonstrate a musical passage. Class participation is slowly climbing, he said, noting that he leads Zoom classes in which students take turns playing parts. But first, he lets them socialize a little because after being stuck at home “they are definitely excited to see each other.”
“It’s a little hectic because it’s a new platform for us,” he said. “But I can mute everybody, and then they’re forced to listen to me. I can control the chat (function), there are a lot of functions.”
While the kids can’t play together because of latency issues with sound, he’s hoping students can share musical clips so he can put together a special project of their work.
“Everyone is so hopeful that we will be back to normal soon,” he said. “I can tell my students really want to get together and play music, and that’s what they signed up for — to play music together.”
Like the others, Zack Pitt-Smith, a music teacher at Edna Brewer Middle School in Oakland, said he was not prepared for the switch to online classes and has found the coronavirus crisis has underscored the digital divide at his Title 1 school.
“It’s just one more way this crisis is hitting the people in the fringes of society,” he said, noting his students have “all kinds of hurdles” — including poor Internet connections and having to share computers with siblings.
“This is a pandemic — this is not distance learning, not homeschooling,” Pitt-Smith said. “Maybe it would be better to put away the Zoom learning etc. … On one hand, it is very exciting to try to learn these new tools. (But) I want my learning experience to be creative and not one more reason to be in front of the screen — I am very conflicted.”
Even so, Pitt-Smith said the pandemic presents “a great moment for all of us to step back and think about what’s of value.”
Edna Brewer Middle seventh-grader Declan Ewbank said distance learning has “forced students to think more creatively,” but he prefers learning at school.
“It’s not as good as being in the classroom, but we are all dealing with it pretty well,” the 12-year-old trumpet player said. “None of us asked for this — I’d much rather be rehearsing — but I’m taking it as an opportunity to focus on intonation and building good (playing) habits.”
Though his students will miss out on performing concerts and a school trip to Washington D.C., Pitt-Smith said they will play “Pomp and Circumstance” for the school’s virtual eighth-grade promotion. The teacher will collect all their individual tracks and put them together in an iMovie.
“We aren’t giving them that time — the end-of-middle school promotion — but this will be one good piece, a finished video project that we can later share.”
Teacher Trantham sees an even broader takeaway for music amid the difficulty of sheltering in place.
“I think people are realizing that everyone is turning to the arts for comfort, so we are seeing how important the arts are in our schools and in our lives,” she said.
