The next two Sundays, March 22 and 29, I was supposed to play the organ for services at Waiokeola Congregational Church … CANCELLED.
I was contracted to play organ continuo for a performance of the Mozart Requiem by the Oahu Choral Society on April 4 … CANCELLED.
Tom Poole at Calvary by the Sea Lutheran Church had asked me to play for their cantata on Palm Sunday, April 5… CANCELLED.
The entire island of Oahu is virtually shut down, with schools, churches, movie theaters, restaurants, and many stores closed, and people are urged to stay home. Yesterday Governor David Ige even requested that tourists stop visiting Hawaii for the next 30 days, and with an average of 250,000 tourists on a typical day in March, that’s really drastic.
Even though Hawaii seems to be about 2-4 weeks behind the mainland in terms of spread of the coronavirus, and visitors feel safe here, they were urged to go home. “Aloha means goodbye,” was how the local newspaper described it.
I even suspended all my organ lessons, with the excuse that I wouldn’t be able to teach and stay 6′ away from my students!
Years ago, when Lutheran Church of Honolulu parishioner, Vicki Gorman moved to Houston, she continued teaching her Hawaii voice students via Skype. I had toyed with the idea of doing similar for organ students, but couldn’t figure out how we would place the camera and equipment for doing virtual organ lessons.
So it was most interesting when today I attended a webinar with Juilliard professor, Noa Kageyama, and guests Tim Topham and Rob Knopper, in a most timely discussion, “How to make online lessons more effective and less frustrating.”
They discussed the technical aspects (what software to use: Zoom vs. Skype vs. Facetime video software; where to place your phones, laptops and iPads, the use of USB microphones, etc.) in addition to the practical: using an overhead webcam mounted on a microphone stand; setting up a Google document for assignments and lesson notes; having the teacher play a passage, followed by the student, and asking the student what sounded different. The whole concept of online teaching could be quite efficient and enjoyable.
Unfortunately they said doing clapping exercises, playing duets (with one person in one geographical location and another person in another) and ensemble rehearsals were out of the question because of audio cut outs and delays. So when my cousin Mary Au and my sister, Margo Ewing, both pianists, and I tried yesterday to experiment by using Zoom to replicate a piano class, we found it frustrating and difficult if not downright impossible.
Yesterday I gave my first online organ lesson to Janet Sharp, and after we experimented with the placement of our phones and iPads, the first thing I discovered was that the transposer on her home organ was ON and she was playing notes about a 6th off!
I guess without having perfect pitch, she didn’t notice anything was wrong! She had sent me PDFs of the pieces she was playing ahead of time, which made a tremendous difference in how I could hear her performances.
One of my “gigs” which did not cancel is a wedding I’m playing at Iolani School this Saturday. With the school shutdown since Monday, I wondered if the wedding was going ahead. “Yes,” was the reply, “and we are going to limit the number of people to under 50.”
That was a couple of days ago. Today, they promised to have less than 10 people in attendance. That probably includes me in the count (and I have never met them!) I feel sorry for them, in that they can’t be with all the people they love on their special day.
