Deerfield school music classes move through pandemic

As they worked through basic scales, students were bundled in winter coats and wore surgical masks with slits across the mouth to accommodate their instruments. They also wore cloth masks on their chins, ready to pop up onto their faces when the instruments came down.

The band students were also spaced out in a line, six feet apart. Music was attached to their stands with binder clips to keep it from blowing away and all of the instruments had fabric bell covers.

Band Director Ryan Petersen said April 19 was the first time since schools closed due to COVID-19 in March 2020 that students were able to play together, in-person. It had been 413 days since elementary band students had been able to say that, and 404 days for middle and high schoolers.

“It was amazing to hear kids playing together, that brought warmth to my heart. Even though it was cold outside,” Petersen said.

In a pandemic year, Deerfield music teachers and student musicians have been challenged to keep up with their craft. With ever-evolving public health precautions, teachers say they have had to reinvent band and choir classes multiple times over.

This week, the situation changed again with the release of yet another Dane County public health order update.

With Dane County case counts and hospitalizations continuing to decline, and vaccinations rising, band students were finally to begin rehearsing inside on May 5, after being outdoors for two weeks.

Prior to that, elementary band classes were virtual, first during all at-home learning and then on Wednesdays, when students were learning from home one day a week, and were in-person the rest of the time.

Middle and high school choir classes have been allowed to sing a bit indoors, after returning to in-person learning in February.

Band

During at-home learning, Petersen held individual and group lessons virtually. However, he said it was “almost impossible” for musicians to play together given computer audio delays.

Even after the return to in-person learning in February, Petersen said band students in Dane County could still not play their instruments together indoors. Because public health orders in Dane County prohibit wearing masks with slits in them, Petersen said there was no way for students to play wind instruments with a mask on.

From February to April, Petersen instead held drumming units, letting students learning percussion on plastic buckets.

“If we can’t do pitch, at least we can do rhythm,” Petersen said.

Fifth-grade band students, who would normally be learning wind instruments, have been doing percussion as well, Deerfield Elementary School music teacher and fifth-grade band director Ashley Meyer said. They will have mini concerts in groups of 4-5 students at the end of the year, to show off their drumming skills.

On April 19, Petersen began holding outdoor rehearsals with small groups of sixth-graders on a DES service driveway, and with middle and high school bands in the football stadium bleachers.

“We’ve turned the football stadium into our band room,” Petersen said.

Included in the new May 5 public health order update is an exception to mask requirements, no longer mandating that woodwind and brass musicians be masked while playing.

Safety

Lange and Petersen said they will continue to require students to wear masks inside during class – with a slit for band – despite the county’s loosening of that restriction.

And students will have to keep using bell covers for band.

Both band and choir classes will now gather in the DHS gym bleachers, socially distanced, to sing or play for 30 minutes. Any longer than that, and voices “create clouds, and (potential virus) particles stay in the air,” Lange said.

A study conducted this year at the University of Maryland and the University of Colorado on music and aerosols has been the guide post for Deerfield music teachers.

“Band is an activity where we basically blow on each other,” Petersen said. “We’ve been saying all along since, the fall, we want to play as soon as we can, but we want to make sure we’re doing it in a safe format.”

Meyer said she continues to limit the amount of singing by elementary students, having them hum or clap instead.

Community

Lange and Petersen said their secondary challenge this year has been building community between musicians. Normally, that happens naturally as students gather regularly in the same room to play or sing, Petersen said.

“We have been forced to take the group out of the group activity,” Petersen said. “Trying to replicate all the joy that the kids have had” in music classes together has been a feat, he said.

“Relationships matter more than the content,” Lange agreed. “They don’t remember the singing (after they graduate). They remember how they felt, and that they were noticed...and being part of a community of musicians.”

On some days, however, high school choir students don’t sing, Lange said. In those hours, they’re focused on rebuilding community.

At the start of the pandemic, Lange said she surveyed students about why they took choir. It revealed that singing is less important to students than being part of a musical family, and using music to process their emotions.

And so now, Lange moderates full class and small-group discussions about a different prompt every day, just to give kids a chance to connect.

Lange said she will “ask them something that helps them realize...they matter, their voices matter. They’re so used to being on mute, they forget that they have ideas and opinions, and they can be innovative.”

Lange said she’s also guided students as they write their own music, research new genres, record themselves, learn dances, do mindfulness activities, draw and just be together.

When they do sing together these days, Lange said it’s different. Students are not preparing for a concert or have a specific outcome. It’s “just to be present with each other.”

DHS choir students say they’ve appreciated that approach so far.

Senior Clayton Mathwig said Lange has this year “connected with students on a more profound level, understanding what they are going through during these times.” He said her efforts to “spread positivity,” in her lessons have been appreciated.

“She also viewed choir as being a break during the virtual school day,” Mathwig said, something students also needed.

Lange is “big on keeping up with her students’ mental health,” said DHS sophomore Savannah Tomlin. It’s a class where “you can try to expand and try to grow with yourself,” Tomlin said.

Tomlin has continued to learn virtually, and is learning the ukulele as an independent choir project.

DHS student Breanna Ezzell said it was challenging to sing at home during virtual learning, and she missed her peers.

“Before COVID, sitting in choir, there were a lot of inside jokes, messing around and laughter,” agreed Tomlin. “We don’t really get to do that anymore.”

And DHS senior Chayne Bush said during her first year of taking choir, she has been inspired.

“I love singing and the chance to be shown new songs. I was always too scared to take anything like this before...but taking it has been worth it all. I have learned more ways to power myself through fear and increase my confidence in far more ways than just musically,” Bush said.

Petersen has called the return to playing together in-person “a relief and a release.”

“At all levels, it’s been wonderful for me to see the band member’s expressions of joy and happiness as they are able to make music together, with their friends, again. It’s warmed my heart to know that after all of this time away and apart, that they still care about their music and our groups,” he said.