Music students and faculty bridge gaps in virtual learning | Culture - ithacaweek-ic.com

Instead of practicing in her professor’s studio in the James J. Whalen Center for Music, congregating with her friends in the Diva Lounge or even struggling through late-night study sessions with her peers, senior Alex Renna spends most of her work time in her Danby Road living room, hoping that when it comes time to sing, her roommates will be upstairs by Emily Lussier, senior journalism major from Bedford, New Hampshire.

Senior Karly Masters is learning two new instruments this semester via Zoom, trombone and horn. 

Photo: Emily Lussier/Ithaca Week

I hate practice rooms,” Renna said. “I have never wanted to be in a practice room more than I do now.”Renna is a vocal music education student at Ithaca College, where Fall 2020 classes are all being held remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Faculty and students in the School of Music are also grappling with the challenges of teaching and learning music virtually...

Masters also said that having her viola lessons and secondary instrument classes over Zoom has been challenging. 

“As many people might have realized, the quality over Zoom is not too good with the audio, so it’s really hard to pinpoint specific things in your playing that are not really visual, like you can hear intonation, you can hear a lot of stuff, but really just the nuances of your playing is hard to judge over Zoom,” she said.

Matthew Clauhs, assistant professor in the Department of Music Education, said he is structuring his courses mostly asynchronously by packaging all the content into weekly modules. 

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Source: ithacaweek-ic.com