{"id":6626,"date":"2020-11-06T17:35:54","date_gmt":"2020-11-06T17:35:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/wordpress\/lavie\/?p=6626"},"modified":"2020-11-06T17:35:54","modified_gmt":"2020-11-06T17:35:54","slug":"teaching-music-ensembles-during-a-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/2020\/11\/06\/teaching-music-ensembles-during-a-pandemic\/","title":{"rendered":"Teaching music ensembles during a pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Aly Richards ’22, staff writer<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many music ensembles, such as jazz band and orchestra, were held over the course of the fall semester despite the abnormal circumstances. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Jeffrey Lovell, one of the two instructors for the Valley Jazz Orchestra, explains the fundamentals of the ensemble he instructs and what the goal is in leading these ensembles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was really about helping students to understand the vocabulary of jazz and how to speak jazz and how to sound homogenous as a group,\u201d Lovell said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While these fundamentals are still present, Lovell explains how many other aspects of the ensemble have changed. Students must wear masks when they are not playing their instruments, and students must be at least six feet apart during rehearsal. The distance between students presents a new challenge for the students that Lovell believes could be beneficial to them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt forces them to have to listen more carefully because they are not sitting next to the other section member, which isn\u2019t a bad thing,\u201d Lovell said.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Johannes Dietrich, the director of the LVC orchestra, echoes some of these statements. He also expresses how the new circumstances have uniquely affected the orchestra.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLast March, we were gearing up for our tour to Europe, and none of that happened,\u201d Dietrich said. \u201cThis fall, for a number of reasons, the orchestra is on the smaller side.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dietrich says that the thought of whether students would be able to participate in ensembles this semester crossed his mind. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOver the summer I was not sure,\u201d Dietrich said. \u201cBut we did a lot of work as a department, and as a college. I think we did a lot of work to make things happen.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dietrich emphasizes that through it all, making music as a group again has been a positive experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWith the group that we have and the music that we are playing, they are doing some really nice playing,\u201d Dietrich said. \u201cI think when we look back at this semester, and it\u2019s profoundly odd and it\u2019s not anything remotely like what we would like to be doing. But the members of the orchestra have really risen to the occasion and have done some really nice stuff.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regardless of the changes, both instructors echo that they and their students are still enjoying the ensembles. The purpose of all ensembles, making music with others, is still a key part of the experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Students of all majors are invited to participate in any of the ensembles on campus. For more information on how to sign up, students should search for the ensemble in the course catalog in AccessLVC to find the course description. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Aly Richards ’22, staff writer Many music ensembles, such as jazz band and orchestra, were held over the course of the fall semester despite the abnormal circumstances.  Dr. Jeffrey Lovell, one of the two […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-6626","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-campus-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6626\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}