Band sectionals from home
Despite not being able to play in the band hall, band students are meeting weekly. This way, students can do warm ups together as well as socialize virtually.
May 11, 2020
With school not in session electives are having to find a way to meet at home with the band using a virtual format to focus on certain areas.
“The weekly class Zoom meetings for the band are focused on two different levels,” assistant band director Tyler Elvidge said. “Social interaction and individual growth. Zoom is not used in the way that we have normal sectionals because you can not have multiple students play at the same time with how bad the lag is. But by meeting on Zoom weekly we can still track progress and give immediate feedback to every student as they play an exercise and the rest of the group plays along muted.”
The players that play brass instruments meet on Tuesday and woodwind players meet on Thursday.
“I like the sectionals because they allow us to continue practicing and make sure we don’t lose touch of our music,” junior Jack Milleson said. “The goal is for us to continue practicing to make sure that we know how to do a proper warm-up so that we can be our best when we begin playing music.”
The meeting usually lasts about one hour with players doing their daily warm-up routine they do at the beginning of a class.
“I like the online sectionals, because they allow us to focus and refine certain skills that normally wouldn’t have much growth in normal class assignments,” sophomore Matthew Marshall said. “The goal for these sectionals is to keep the students accountable for their work. It also bonuses as an opportunity to meet up online with our classmates during our quarantine.”
The meeting also allows player a chance to talk about their lives during eLearning.
“I have my Zoom meetings split up into brass and woodwinds. That way I can tailor the class to what will be most beneficial to that instrument group. It also allows for smaller class size so I can give more feedback,” Elvidge said. “For instructional purposes no, online meeting will not continue after we return to school however, currently band registration is being set-up to be 100 percent online and that has potential to be great for future use.”
