Disrupted by the Pandemic, Music Ensembles Had to Get Creative
Sam McIntosh//The Riverdale Review
A Trombonist plays in the tent outside of Lindenbaum
With the Covid-19 pandemic disrupting the school structure, all teachers at Riverdale have been forced to adapt. However, while most classes simply moved to a virtual format without many changes to the way they were executed, the Ensemble Music department encountered an array of unique difficulties. Playing together over Zoom is virtually impossible, so the teachers of the Ensemble Music department came up with creative ways to conduct their classes. The solutions each teacher found varied based on the specific challenges their ensemble faced.
As soon as it became evident that classes would be conducted remotely, the music teachers gathered and began discussing how they would change the programs for them to function over Zoom. Ms. Sue Poliacik, the Lower-Strings teacher, runs her classes by playing the section of the piece the class needs to learn that day and then having the students unmute and play one by one, while everyone else plays on mute with a metronome. As Ms. Poliacik explained, “the use of the metronome is something that we have never done before, and it has raised the level of people’s playing a lot.” On days when students were on campus, the strings ensembles had the rare opportunity to play together while maintaining social distance.
The band faced entirely different challenges when it came to running their classes. As the band consists mostly of wind instruments, its members could not practice in person until very recently. Mr. John Lettieri, a Middle School band teacher, explained that the students could not rehearse at school until a couple of weeks ago, when the school set up music tents outside of Lindenbaum. These new tents also allowed the entire orchestra to rehearse together. Mr. Lettieri commented that these tents were a life-saver because putting things together “on a recording doesn’t really feel musical” and instead falls flat. During in-person Middle School classes, Mr. Lettieri can spend some time working individually with students instead of always focusing on the larger class. He finds that one-on-one help for even ten minutes is more beneficial to students than sitting through 45-minute class periods in the bigger group.
Rock Band teacher Ms. Jane Getter was able to have her students play together on campus because the class consists of only drummers, bass players, and guitar players this year. Ms. Getter made use of Zoom time by teaching Music Theory and the History of Rock. Rock Band continues to be a collaborative class; the students find their own arrangements for music. The students have also learned how to record music using a collaborative recording program called Soundtrap. Ms. Getter explained that “the whole recording process is really educational, especially because it shines a real light on your playing.” Ms. Getter also noted that the students were able to create a music video of sorts to go along with the recording.
For all Riverdale music ensembles, one of the greatest challenges that came with the transition to Zoom was the lack of a concrete goal to work towards, as normally the classes focus on rehearsing for a final, in-person performance. While teachers hope to return to an in-person performance next year, they are currently unable to do so; instead, to create a sense of culmination, students recorded videos of themselves playing, and the teachers mixed those videos together to form one long video to play. This video will be shown on May 20th. Dr. Eva Nathanson, the Upper-Strings teacher in both the Middle and Upper Schools, believes that this remedy was very successful and “helped the students be part of something.”
This year’s virtual setting also provided an opportunity for the students to connect with other music ensembles outside of Riverdale. Dr. Nathanson reached out to the Elisabeth Morrow School and the Brearley School to work on a larger project, “United in Music.” The three Middle School music ensembles created a virtual music collaboration through use of a video. Dr. Nathanson explained that this collaboration was important because it showed that no matter what, “music is something that is a universal language, that can actually unite us.” Music has the power to bring people together emotionally, even when they are physically far away.
Though the music department has faced many challenges this year while on Zoom, they have managed to create a sense of community and shared appreciation for music safely.
