money Music classes pivoted to virtual. Here are the lessons they will bring to in-person classes
After months of teaching on Zoom, MetroWest music schools are sounding a tentative but hopeful note as they return to in-person lessons, but virtual sessions will remain an option.
“It’s definitely been like reinventing the wheel every few months, trying to figure out what people’s comfort level is right now,” said Jennifer Tefft, owner and teacher at Franklin Music, Movements & Mindfulness, which offers early childhood music lessons for children and their caretakers.
Tefft pivoted to online, offered outdoor classes and is now hosting socially distanced classes at a local indoor soccer field. She said teaching over Zoom inspired her to be creative when engaging her young students. She even got to meet their pets.
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“Zoom is hard enough when you’re a grown-up, never mind trying to get a zero to 5- year-old crowd to engage through Zoom,” Tefft said. “I’m not going to lie, there were days where I was sitting in my family room, being silly and singing songs and doing these things to completely empty Zoom windows on my computer. All the toddlers had wandered off."
Virtual might not be the best fit for the youngest aspiring musicians, but it offers flexibility.
“Normally when students would call out sick, that was it. The lesson was a wash,” said Max Larson, the manager of Centre Music House in Framingham. “Now we can at least offer the virtual aspect so they can stay home and not risk getting anyone sick but also continue to learn, and the same goes for our teachers.”
The store, located on Route 9, has been around since 1973, is a family business and offers private lessons as well as instrument rentals, accessories and sheet music.
“It’s a place where people can get together to share music, to talk about music, and you can’t really replicate that online,” Larson said. “It feels like it was kind of strange how quickly it felt normal again.”
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Never too late to learn
“Music is like a language. If you don’t use it, you lose it,” Tefft said. “The more you can strengthen those pathways in your brain as kids are developing on their musical journeys then the stronger their foundation is going to be for whatever they decide to do musically later on in life.”
Aspiring musicians of all ages can head to Encore Music Academy And Recording Studios, which has been around since about 2011, co-founded by longtime friends and collaborators Lisa Ostrow and Patrick Dreier. The school is also part of The Royal Conservatory of Music, and has students who have excelled so much they’ve performed at Carnegie Hall.
“Most people when you think of a music school, you think of a stodgy old place,” Dreier said with a chuckle. “We’re not that. We try to provide a welcoming environment.”
Ostrow said Encore has plenty of space with room to grow at its Franklin location, which occupies an entire building customized for the business, including practice rooms, a recording studio and lots of instruments. Ostrow said her favorite part of her work is teaching.
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“I could be having a terrible day. Face it, we all do. And then one of my kids will come in for a lesson and they walk through the door and they tell me about their day and we talk for a minute,” she said. “By the end of the lesson, I’ll usually come out bouncy, feeling good. That’s what they bring. They bring energy to the place. They bring life and exuberance.”
The school's youngest student is under 5 and they once gave lessons to an 87-year-old. Adult students have been everything from past performers to complete beginners, Ostrow said.
“We take pride in having adults come back. You’re never too old to learn,” Ostrow said. “We really try to make music as approachable as possible so that they can feel safe come in and trying something so completely foreign.”
Dreier said the most difficult thing for adult learners is finding time to practice.
“From the time an adult wakes up until the time that they go to bed, their entire day is mapped out,” Dreier said. “I literally tell my adult students at the end of their first lesson, I say, 'Look, this is the hardest thing you’re ever going to do.' ”
One such adult learner was Dawn Reda. She and her two children have been going to Encore for about seven years on and off. Encore offers ensembles for singing and instruments. Reda joined an instrument ensemble with her daughter, and they weren’t the only mother-daughter duo to join.
“It was a lot of fun. We learned it’s very different from playing individually. We had to learn, in an ensemble, how to listen to each other, and listen to each other’s parts,” Reda said. “I felt very welcomed joining the group, in spite of being an adult. ...all ages are definitely welcome.”
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Reda said she was impressed with the instructors, whom she described as “professional, kind and caring” and appreciated the flexibility of scheduling.
“Zoom was good for when we needed it," she said.
Encore began offering in-person lessons again in September after more than a year of running the business virtually, but Zoom isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
“It’s become our new norm, and it will remain part of our model moving forward,” Ostrow said. “We will offer the option for anyone who wants it.”
Lillian Eden can be reached at 617-459-6409 or leden@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @LillianWEden.
This article originally appeared on MetroWest Daily News: Music lessons return to in-person after months of COVID restrictions
