The devil and the deep blue sea

News and events from around the world this month

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Young cellists perform outdoors at the height of the pandemic during the summer

MILJU VARGHESE/ISTOCKPHOTO

As this issue goes to press, children in the UK have been back at school for several weeks, and the country is experiencing an alarming surge in Covid-19 cases. String teachers who have returned to in-person teaching face di ering local and regional restrictions, as well as the prospect of pupils having to self-isolate because of coronavirus cases at their schools. Whereas private teachers have mostly had the option of continuing with online lessons, many visiting music teachers have been asked by their schools tocome back in. Having adapted to online lessons, teachers are now adapting to new situations and requirements on campus.

e level of support that visiting string teachers have received from schools is varied, reports Philip Aird, chief executive of ESTA (UK), the UK branch of the European String Teachers Association. He says: ‘With so much focus on classroom teaching and group bubbles, and with resources already stretched, for some schools the practical needs of aperipatetic instrumental teacher are a long way down their list of priorities.’ With classroom space ata premium, some teachers are working in less than ideal settings, or alternating between teaching one week in person and the next week online. ‘ ere are some schools that have gone completely online,’ adds Aird, ‘making rooms available for students to use for remote teaching. But that’s mainly in the independent rather than the state sector.’

For Celia Cobb, a violin and viola teacher in Cambridge, returning to face-to-face teaching inschools has meant getting used to the schools’ di erent requirements. ‘In one setting the rooms are small and the two-metre distance rule can’t apply, soboth the student and I have to wear a mask,’ she says. ‘ ere are communication challenges with this, as I . nd it di. cult sometimes to read the students: you can’t quite tell if they’re having fun, if they’re on board, or if you’re pushing too hard. As for practical di. culties, like the mask slipping up the student’s face when she lifts the violin to her chin, we just have to get around those with humour.’ e need tominimise risk as much as possible when teaching means Cobb cannot take the more hands-on approach she is used to. ‘I’m finding it hard not to intervene,’ she says. ‘But in a way, that can be a positive. For example, if you can teach a student to tune her own violin, that’s a good step.’

Another dierence that Cobb has found at one of her schools, and one that she has introduced herself at Stringmoves, the junior strings project she directs in Cambridge, is ensembles being kept in age groups rather than banded together by ability. ‘€is approach isn’t necessarily worse, just dierent,’ she says. ‘You simply have to teach in a more layered way, making sure that everyone can do something, and then adding in more complex material for the more advanced children.’

'If you can teach a Student to tune her own violin, that’s a good step' - Violin teach er Celia Cobb

A way from the school setting, private teachers have been weighing up whether or not to go back to face-to-face teaching. Aird says that many have chosen to stay online, or only do a small amount of blended learning: ‘Very few are fully going back to face-to-face, especially because a second wave of the pandemic seems to be coming.’ Private teachers must write their own Covid-19 risk assessments, and although ESTA (UK) and the Incorporated Society of Musicians have provided members with sample risk assessments, every teacher’s circumstances will be different. The need to risk-assess for every Student was one of the deciding factors for cello teacher Naomi Yandell in choosing to stick with online lessons. ‘If you have an asthmatic Student, for example - and I have two - you have to check how they’re getting to you, and ensure you’re being especially careful.’ She cites the extra cleaning requirements and her evaluation of the risks to her own health as being other reasons to stay online. ‘Also, last term, many of my pupils did very well online,’ she says. ‘Some parents have been quite supportive, too, in that they don’t have to deal with transport issues and can easily be present during the lesson.’ Yandell also teaches at a school which was happy for her to keep teaching pupils online.

Although teachers have been quick to adapt to virtual lessons, with the new term the challenges of online-only teaching remain clear, and in some respects are sharpened. Yandell says teaching very young students is difficult on screen: ‘It is harder to change tack instantly when you sense they’re losing focus, and you can’t do some of the more entertainer-style things you can do face-to-face to keep the lesson continuously fun and positive.’ And whereas teachers resuming in-person teaching have been able to welcome beginner students, teachers staying online have had to put new learners on hold. ‘Teaching stringed instruments online to beginners is a big challenge,’ says Aird, ‘and we’re not aware of anyone who’s really pulled that off.’

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