Music Monday - Music teachers and musicians – keep playing those ‘Covid Concerti’

A week ago, I experienced a sudden and unexpected attack of gastro. It started as I got my backpack out of the car to start a new term of teaching – not great timing at all. After a hasty retreat to the staff facilities, I returned to my car and headed home to spend several hours in bed and the bathroom. Luckily for me it was a 24-hour thing and I was pretty much back to normal the next day. But I was perplexed. How had I caught it? Over the 7 months since the pandemic struck, I have followed strict routines of hand sanitising and cleaning the touchable surfaces in my home and teaching spaces. Here in Western Australia we are fortunate to have gone 6 months without community transmission of Covid so I – like many – have hugged the occasional friend. Could the gastro have come to me that way? And if so, had I passed it on to my husband? I kissed him goodbye that fateful morning. I was still pondering all this when I ran into a friend and work colleague. She shared with me that she, too, had had identical symptoms, and so had a student in one of her classes. Because the student fell ill during class, my friend had taken care to avoid direct contact with her (it was an acting class). However, at the end of class my friend had packed away ( and therefore touched) various shared props and equipment. This was possibly the source of transmission to her. That sparked a memory for me. A few days earlier I had been running late for a singing lesson. The student was waiting outside the room and there was also a student inside the room whom we had to ‘evict’. Usually I would sanitise the surfaces, including the piano keyboard, before starting on the lesson, but on this occasion, I recall thinking, “What harm can it do to skip that? After all we have no Covid in WA” I suspect (and I realise that this is anecdotal and speculative) that I could have picked up the virus that way and later, inadvertently touched my face. Now this was not Covid – it was a short-lived bout of gastro. But it serves as a reminder to us all – especially those of us living in the relative safety of Australia, where governments, both federal and state, have based their advice on medical science rather that politics – that the basics of hygiene are still our best protection against this awful virus. Observe social distancing, keep surfaces sanitised, wash your hands frequently, don’t touch your face – and when necessary, wear a mask! Some of my colleagues joke about the sound we all make when wiping down the piano keys with disinfectant as being the ‘Covid Concerto’. Musicians and teachers – please keep playing these Covid Concerti, whatever your instrument, until this damn pandemic ends.