Music students taking their skills to the virtual stage

As schools continue with E-learning for the rest of the academic year, orchestra directors are finding new ways to keep students fresh on their skills.

At St. Joseph High School, orchestra members got together – virtually – to perform their school fight song.

While this wasn’t a graded assignment, orchestra director Burke Lockey has put a lot of effort into figuring out what E-learning looks like for a music class.

“I’ll send out assignments where they need to practice or play, then they’ll send me videos of them playing and I’ll send them some feedback,” said Lockey. “We do some music theory assignments that they get to work on. And then based off the success of this video we’re going to start doing more collaboration type things.”

At Mishawaka High School, band directors uploaded a video of them performing virtually then encouraged their students to do the same.

Directors Kaleb Chamberlin and Dennis Gamble say this is a great way to keep students spirits up when they can’t meet in person.

“Not being able to see them on a daily basis is very tough. However, these little things are helping,” said Gamble.

“The best thing I could think of was to send them a video. So I just typed up some thoughts and sent them a 5-6 minute video,” said Chamberlin.

While all spring concerts have been cancelled, schools aren’t sure what this pandemic means for summer orchestra events yet. That decision will be made by the districts in accordance with their state.

If your school has found creative ways to keep music students learning and involved, email those to [email protected]