Music Monday - More Covid Curiosities

Earlier this year I wrote about a soprano in a Perth fringe show asking the audience, “Twenty years ago, who would have thought that in 2021 there would be more work for a singer in Perth, Western Australia than in London?”

Although the UK and USA are now opening up to live music performance again, here in Australia (where our state borders are still subject to closure as we try to curb the Delta variant of Covid-19) the phenomenon continues. Over the past few weeks here in Perth, there have been more performances and shows involving students and friends than I have had spare evenings to attend. 

Local commercial theatres, without bookings from the national touring companies, are more open to taking local bookings. Several WA based companies have sprung up, particularly in music theatre. These companies mostly operate on a ‘pro/am’ basis; they pay some or all the performers in principal roles, but the ensemble often do it for little / no monetary reward. 

There are also smaller companies who do shows on a profit-share basis.

Some graduating actors and music theatre students from WAAPA are planning to stay in Perth for the time being, seeing it as a place where there is some possibility of work. Until the pandemic that was unheard of – graduating performers always headed to the larger, more performance active cities of Melbourne and Sydney.

On a side, but connected, note – yesterday I adjudicated some vocal sections at a local, well-established eisteddfod. In chatting to the organizer at the start, he commented that the number of piano competitors was at a record-breaking high, but that they had never had so few singers. Later, as I drove home, I pondered that situation. Are all the singers in Perth now in rehearsal or performance for our plethora of shows? 

There is no doubt that it is good to see a much more active local performance scene here. (That must be one of the few positives of the pandemic.) There is a much stronger sense of a local arts community.

 And if we also keep our ears tuned to what is happening nationally and internationally, the future of music performance in Perth could be a healthier and more abundant one.

Music Monday - And into another lockdown we go…

Today was the first of 3 days of stage one restrictions being reintroduced here in Western Australia, in response to an outbreak of the Delta variant of Covid-19 in Sydney and a case brought home to Perth by a traveller returned from the east coast. By 8pm the 3-day restrictions had developed into a 4-day lockdown from midnight. 

Australia has an embarrassingly low rate of vaccination – less than 5% of our population is fully vaccinated. Compare that with around 59% in Israel and 45% in the USA, to name just two of the many countries ahead of us. I sense that it’s not the anti-vaxxers here (though they are out in their minority with rattlings of ‘it’s a worldwide experiment’ etc), but more the  sense of ‘she’ll be right, mate’ complacency which comes from living in a country where the rate of infection has been relatively low throughout the pandemic. 

Our Australian government responded firmly and effectively at the start of the pandemic, following health advice rather than the political polls, to ensure that Australians stayed safe. Unfortunately, they took a too relaxed approach to rolling out the vaccines, contributing to our current situation.

So today at school, the students were back in masks, never ideal for singing. It is the last week of an 11-week term so as far as possible, I tried to make each voice lesson about the preparation for next term. Where singing had to occur, I encouraged the students to sing lightly and rest frequently if they felt too constrained behind their fabric. 

After school we ran a rehearsal of Matilda (Junior Version) as that performance is scheduled for the 2nd week of next term. Again, the kids sang lightly in masks while the director and I struggled to hear them – but at least they rehearsed the blocking, choreography and music accuracy.

Earlier in the school day, I couldn’t help observing, as I walked past the school gym, that around 30 students were exercising without masks – properly spaced, as the regulations require – but shouting and calling out to each other as they chased a basketball. This struck me as a metaphor for Australia’s response to Covid-19. The Arts are constantly locked down while large sporting events have still gone ahead. Are Covid-19 aerosols just more contagious when sung than when shouted out of someone’s mouth?

And so we start another lockdown. Everyone on the planet knows what to expect from that. Let’s hope that lockdown fatigue inspires more and more Australians to get vaccinated so that outbreaks in the future are significantly curtailed.

Music Monday - ANZAC Day

On the eve of the Anzac Day long weekend last Friday, Perth, and one regional area, Peel, in Western Australia, were plunged into a snap lockdown for the weekend, after a case of community transfer of the more contagious Covid variant. It came as complete surprise to us all, as we have been covid-free for months now. 

As many music teaching friends went about cancelling their bands’ and choirs’ attendance at Anzac Day ceremonies on Sunday (all public events were cancelled) I couldn’t help but reflect on my post from last Anzac Day. As the rest of Australia held ‘normal’ Anzac ceremonies on Sunday many Perth households revisited the tradition started in 2020.

Here’s the post from last year – I refrained from calling it the Last Post!

Anzac Day 2020 was like no other before it in the many years since 1915.

In Australia, with gatherings banned due to covid-19, the usual services and parades were cancelled  - except for one at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra attended by only the few dignitaries who conducted it, telecast to the nation..

Instead, at the tops of suburban driveways across the country, Australians gathered just before dawn, holding lighted candles, and sometimes waving to acknowledge their neighbours without approaching or speaking to them.

 In quiet reflection Australians remembered their Anzacs  - and all who have suffered and perished in war – and as the skies softly lightened with the dawn, the morning chorus of magpies and crows was augmented by players of music – student brass players, music teachers, amateur and professional musicians and singers – each contributing to an extraordinarily moving tribute.

On my own driveway I could hear from the next street the hesitant sounds of a student trumpeter playing “Lest We Forget”. Further away there was the faint sound of the Last Post with its tricky high notes for beginner players. 

In the couple of days since Saturday the papers have carried letters from Australians suggesting that the dawn driveway tradition be kept and commenting on how moving it was to have their own silent contemplation accompanied by the sound of live music. My music teacher friends as well as non-muso neighbours have all said much the same.

Music is SO important in our many life rituals. When we work on the tedium of music theory, or teaching the singing and playing of scales, it is worth remembering how important our job is. We are contributing in our way to the rich tapestry of our country’s unique culture.

How is drama travelling a year into the Pandemic?

We are a year into the Coronavirus COVID-19 Pandemic. Even though the roll out of a vaccine is happening in countries around the world, there are still students not in classes – not in drama classes. In many places, theatres remain closed and creatives are out of work.

The immediate responses to the Pandemic are one sign of the vital concerns felt in the drama education community – a pragmatic response.(See, for example, the support from IDEA:  https://www.ideadrama.org/Supporting-teaching-drama-and-theatre-in-these-times)  

But how are we travelling now 12 months on?

If anything, the Coronavirus COVID-19 Pandemic has provided increasing opportunities for these alternatives to drama teacher education to flourish. In the midst of disruption there are  entrepreneurial openings (for example, Roundabout Theatre Company, 2021. https://sites.google.com/schools.nyc.gov/theater-ralp/home). 

The rescue has two modules – with grade related resources. Module 1 focuses on using your voice; Module 2 is an Introduction to Design. There are lesson plans and video resources to support instruction as well as independent  student learning.

There are professionally produced videos with personable presenters published in a YouTube channel. Check out the Using Your Voice: Vocal Warmups video to see if it will work for you.

For teachers working in Zoom environments these are valuable resources.

As always, check that these resources are suitable for your students.  also, question whether the US accents are useful or helpful. 

Australia

Closer to home, the Inclusive Creative Arts digital teaching resources produced by the New South Wales Arts Unit are also worth considering. 

https://digital.artsunit.nsw.edu.au/the-arts-unit-home/art-bites?subject=drama 

These Arts Bites are another source for stimulating drama activities. The accents are Australian and the presenters are enthusiastic and focus on speaking directly with students. 

The question still remains

What is unclear is how they present antidotes to trends towards dis-embodied drama education. The lure of the on-line world and the ZOOM meeting present traps for embodied drama learning and teaching. 

Drama is practical, hands on, embodied learning. How does that change in the “new normal”?

Whatever approach is taken to drama teacher education, there needs to be an underlying robust, durable, practical schema to serve as a living and responsive guide to our work.

Learning to teach drama focuses on embodied learning in the arts  (Bresler, 2004). Through practical, hands on experiences in the drama we model the ways that your students learn the arts and ways that you teach the arts. This engenders embodied teaching.

Bibliography

Bresler, L. (2004). Knowing Bodies, Knowing Minds - Towards Embodied Teaching and Learning. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic.

Music Monday - Masked Music Teaching

In Western Australia, teachers and students returned to school today after a snap lockdown of the Perth and South-West for the week before – the week which should have been the first week of term. 

For this past week, Western Australians have been very diligent about mask wearing. After 10 months of not needing to wear masks, it was almost as if we as a community thought, “Right, let’s put these masks on and make sure we don’t have further community spread”. And this was based on one case of Covid-19. 

The strategy warranted an article in the New York Times last week.

At the end of the week, after no further cases emerging, the South-West region had all restrictions lifted and the Perth region had lockdown lifted, but with some restrictions – masks to be worn in all public places, 4 square metres distancing between people in any venue and the maintenance of 1.5 metres between people elsewhere.

And so, I returned to my secondary school singing teacher position today.

Music teachers of wind and voice had been given permission to have their students out of masks during lessons. I found that a challenge, given the ongoing research into the aerosol transmission of Covid-19 and the heightened level of aerosol involved in singing. I elected for my students to remain masked.

Each lesson started with an acknowledgement that our masked situation was a good reminder of what life has been like for most of the rest of the world for nearly a year. The students got it. I got it. Masks are incredibly annoying.

Because it was week one, I was able to avoid a certain amount of singing by talking through the course outlines and assessment procedures. I recorded backing tracks on piano for those students who needed it. We sang some muffled scales through our masks. One group tackled their first set song. The lessons were not significantly different from what I would usually do in week one.

One aspect of mask wearing that I hadn’t thought of is how little you see of a person’s features in a mask. I met a new class of year 8 students and really would not recognise them again next week – masked or unmasked.

It is highly likely that we will all remove our masks in WA at 12.01am on Sunday the 14th February. If so we remain incredibly fortunate and should not forget it.

But what if we had to do many weeks of music teaching in masks? Class music is fine. Many instruments are fine. I guess I’m asking my voice and wind instrument colleagues from elsewhere about strategies they are using. What do you do?

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.

Music Monday - Resilience in music teachers during Covid.

I have been thinking a lot lately about what it means to be an effective and resilient Australian music teacher in 2020.

The ground has shifted multiple times this year and each shift has found music teachers seeking new ways to find balance and stay effective in the job.

First there was the lockdown- which of course is still in place in parts of Australia. In the early pandemic lockdown days teachers learned to adapt and implement online learning over a variety of platforms. Those of us engaged in teaching singing quickly found the frustrations of the lag on every online platform. We started to prepare and issue backing tracks so that our students could experience accompaniments in real time when singing for us. Ideas and tips were shared.

Zoom fatigue became a thing- after a day of online teaching in front of a laptop screen our necks were locked and our brains exhausted. But then we would turn to watching videoed self-tapes submitted by students for our critical response.

When some states returned to face-to-face teaching we felt relieved. But then a new reality kicked in. Teaching rooms needed to be sanitized between students. Piano keyboards were sanitized between players. Social distancing rendered some of our teaching spaces unusable. Points of assessment missed in first semester were scheduled into a much tighter time frame. At the secondary performing arts school I work in, we scheduled two senior school musicals in the space of two weeks with a fifty percent capacity audience in keeping with the level of restrictions still in place in WA.

Our final year secondary students who are applying for places in tertiary music performance courses find the rules changed here too of course. Instead of live auditions in November - after final academic exams will be over- most tertiary institutions are requiring self- taped videos to be submitted from the end of August. This has significantly reduced the preparation time.

And of course, running underneath these shifting rules is the consideration of ‘what if?’ What if there is another wave (as there has been in Victoria) and we are locked down again? Will 2021 be the year in which most students in elite performance courses - like NIDA, WAAPA, VCA to name only three- are sourced from their home state rather than interstate and overseas? So many ‘what ifs’.

In the meantime teachers are dealing with understandably stressed students.

There has not been one week this year when I have not had at least one student at the secondary or tertiary level in a state of stress which has significantly compromised their work. I get it- none of us knows what the way out of this pandemic really looks like. None of us were around in 1918 for the last one.

But as teachers we are the guides, the strong ones, right?

But who looks after us? And if we are responsible for that, how do we do it?

Among my colleagues I have observed several approaches. One friend took a term of leave and has returned to school refreshed. Several friends are drinking more alcohol in the evenings than in non- Covid times. Yet another colleague has abstained from alcohol altogether and looks and feels fantastic. I have started knitting- nothing complicated, just long scarves with uncomplicated stitches. I find it curiously calming and meditative.

As I write this I am reminded of a radio interview on mindfulness and resilience which I heard in my car early on in the pandemic. A three point approach was encouraged:

1. Each evening think of one thing which went well in your day.

2. Each day make contact with someone in your address book- by phone, by text message, by an act of kindness or a social media post.

3. Spend 10 minutes a day being mindful- eg walk around your block focussing just on the sounds in your immediate environment.

What are you doing to stay healthy and strong in these challenging teaching times?

As always, we encourage and welcome your comments.

Music Monday - staying vigilant

Yesterday the WA Chapter of ANATS (Australian Association of Teachers of Singing) held its AGM. We are the only state to hold our AGM in person this year, and at the meeting there was a real sense of how very lucky we are on the west coast of Australia that currently we have no community transmission of Covid-19. Life feels pretty normal right now.

And yet the situation could change in a matter of days. All it takes is a single breach of the rules from a returned international traveller or staff at a quarantine hotel doing the wrong thing and the virus could take off again.

And there is a potential danger in the kind of complacency we are starting to feel in the west.

In the past few days I have observed a number of behaviors which would be risky with even a slightly larger higher viral load here.

I attended a high school music theatre performance on Friday evening. It was SO good to be back in the theatre. But although the theatre seating had been sold at only fifty percent of capacity (in line with the current restrictions) there was no actual separation of patrons inside the theatre. We were seated next to each other with no spare seats between. Of course, there was less congestion than usual in the foyer, but any virus here would have had ample opportunity to spread during the show.

Furthermore, at both of my workplaces recently I have had the awkward experience of being in a toilet cubicle when the cubicle alongside was vacated- then no sound of water running at the wash basin followed - ie no hand washing.

I too have definitely caught myself being less constantly vigilant about frequent hand washing and hand sanitizing lately. But FaceTime chats with our daughter and her husband in the USA are a stark reminder of how much worse things could be. And tend to pull me back on track.

As arts workers we make close physical contact with each other on a daily basis. Singing and woodwind playing produce significant aerosols. Many pianists play the same piano. Dance routines often involve touch. So many scenes in plays involve embracing and kissing.

In order to inch slowly towards being able to do all of these things again we must stay vigilant in doing what science tells us to do in this pandemic: wash our hands regularly, avoid touching our face, keep a social distance from each other and where required- wear a mask.

Music Monday - Don’t sing ‘Fah’!

Yesterday morning our friend John sent us a link to the recently -gone -viral Dustyesky Fake Russian Choir from Mullumbimby on the northern coast of NSW in Australia. Here a bunch of Aussie blokes, who speak no Russian but have a love of vodka, Russian music and song, have formed what they claim to be ‘the largest fake Russian choir in the southern hemisphere’. In that mysterious way that things go viral, they have become an internet sensation and were actually invited to visit Russia (before the pandemic put a stop to their plans). Instead they sent to Russia a video collaborated through social media. 

And that video has been popping up all over social media.

(As an aside, a Russian choir responded by sending a performance of Waltzing Matilda – in that wonderful way that choirs unite people across cultures).

Anyway, later yesterday I was driving from my school to another campus when our local ABC radio conducted an interview with the conductor of the choir. And then later still, when I was finally home in the evening, ABC television was doing a feature on the same choir. 

I was saturated with fake Russian choir singers yesterday!

Now what was of particular interest to me – and the point to today’s post -  was that, at the end of the TV report, a disclaimer was flashed across the screen alerting viewers that singing in groups at this time is not considered safe.

And so back to our previous Music Monday post where we alerted you to the disturbing findings by NATS in the USA.

In the fortnight since, the Guardian has published another finding which many singers and singing teachers - and possibly wind instrument players and teachers – have seen as a glimmer of hope.

But then a few days later, the highly regarded Australian Gondwana National Choirs hosted a webinar with a leading epidemiologist and an aerospace engineer with further findings. As one of my colleagues commented, “It seems we need to stick to pentatonic scales for now – or at least avoid singing fah.”

This evening ANATS (Australian National Association of Teachers of Singing) are hosting a ‘coffee and conversation’ webinar (for members) on health and hygiene in the singing studio.

Where do those findings leave us? I think that at the very least, we should be cautious about observing a safe distance between us and our singers. Many usual teaching studios and rooms will be of insufficient size. 

For the past 2 months I have been very aware of how dirty my laptop screen becomes after zoom lessons and classes. I demonstrate directly to the screen and aerosol droplets collect on the surface. The days of the singing student reading music over the shoulder of the pianist are sadly over - at least for now.

For so long we have recognised how beneficial singing is to all aspects of health (for example: https://ideas.time.com/2013/08/16/singing-changes-your-brain/). Singing is also immensely pleasurable and fun. 

We all owe it to ourselves to search for the safest ways forward at this time.

Music Monday - ANZAC Day

Anzac Day

Anzac Day 2020 was like no other before it in the many years since 1915.

In Australia, with gatherings banned due to covid-19, the usual services and parades were cancelled  - except for one at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra attended by only the few dignitaries who conducted it, telecast to the nation.

Instead, at the tops of suburban driveways across the country, Australians gathered just before dawn, holding lighted candles, and sometimes waving to acknowledge their neighbours without approaching or speaking to them.

 In quiet reflection Australians remembered their Anzacs  - and all who have suffered and perished in war – and as the skies softly lightened with the dawn, the morning chorus of magpies and crows was augmented by players of music – student brass players, music teachers, amateur and professional musicians and singers – each contributing to an extraordinarily moving tribute.

On my own driveway I could hear from the next street the hesitant sounds of a student trumpeter playing “Lest We Forget”. Further away there was the faint sound of the Last Post with its tricky high notes for beginner players. 

In the couple of days since Saturday the papers have carried letters from Australians suggesting that the dawn driveway tradition be kept and commenting on how moving it was to have their own silent contemplation accompanied by the sound of live music. My music teacher friends as well as non-muso neighbours have all said much the same.

Music is SO important in our many life rituals. When we work on the tedium of music theory, or teaching the singing and playing of scales, it is worth remembering how important our job is. We are contributing in our way to the rich tapestry of our country’s unique culture.