Music lessons impacted by pandemic

EAU CLAIRE, Wis. (WEAU) - Local music teachers say studios around the state have lost 25%-50% of their students due to the coronavirus pandemic.

For the students that have remained it's turned into virtual lessons or socially distanced ones.

There are more than 20 private music teachers with the Chippewa Valley Music Teachers Association, with expertise in instruments ranging from the piano to the oboe.

But since the coronavirus pandemic in the US started, it’s thrown the business into changes.

That being learning how to teach instruments virtually, or in-person but with a lot more precautions.

It's a new kind of private music lesson, one that Sandra Statz has had to adjust to after more than 30 years teaching piano, organ, and flute.

“We have a local music teachers association and we have been meeting every week to make sure that students are going to be safe or are safe. There’s vocal teachers teaching outside to be able to make that possible,” said Statz

Ever since March many private music lessons has turned virtual, as some are now starting to come back in-person with social distance and cleaning protocols being followed.

For 5-year-old Libby Beck, Wednesday was her first in-person music lesson after starting virtually over the summer.

“Libby has only done virtual and she’s done really awesome with it and it hasn’t been a struggle for her at all. She works really well with her just on the iPad and she can see the keyboard and I was worried that it would be hard for her to start like that, but it hasn’t been,” said Libby’s Mom Shannon Beck.

“It’s definitely helped us keep some sort of normalcy. You know you still have to, we still do piano practice every Thursday we still have piano lessons. And it’s something that, I don’t know, during this whole pandemic there were times were I had a hard time keeping track of what day of the week it was, but we always knew that Thursday was piano lessons,” added Beck.

Statz currently has 30 students that she teaches, and says that for the first time in years she has openings for new students.

While she is familiar with teaching virtually, for other music teachers, and their students, it was a big adjustment.

“All of the sudden, you know the students would always come with their books and we’d look at their books and make comments on their books and music but all of the sudden all teachers had to have basically doubles. They had to have their own music as well as being able to do it,” explained Beck.

While it's been a change, the beat goes on for music teachers and their students in the Chippewa Valley.

Statz says that members of the CVMTA are taking new students and lessons can be done virtually or in-person.

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