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PerSkypeun Lessons

I am overwhelmed by the good wishes and offers to get groceries for us by my students and their parents. There is a silver lining for being an older person during this Covid-19 time.
I'm going to try and do some lessons by Skype (PerSkypeun Lessons). I'm sure it's been done before but this is a first for me. I know there are a lot of logistic issues to do this and even a lot more that I haven't even thought of, so we'll see how that works out.
I've also decided to forgo the monthly rental fees for the instruments. People don't need to worry about renting an instrument paying for mortgages/food/gas, etc. during this time of decreased income.

For years I was frustrated that I couldn't teach my students mallets. Rarely did music stores offer xylophone/marimba rentals and when they started they would charge $75-$100/month. The alternative was for the parents to purchase an instrument outright from $1000 and up, or for the student to practice on the little 'bell kits' that they had. Neither option was feasible. About 15 years ago I started to collect old or damaged instruments and repaired them. I have rented these instruments for $15-$35/month. Since then I have had a number of students going to college with a strong background in their overall percussion studies. One student purchased his own marimba and won the Concerto contest for the Colorado Springs Youth Symphony.  This is just another reason why I can't justify stopping the lessons during this national shut down.











Comments

  1. Hope you can work something out for lessons! How wonderful that you have students and parents thinking about you!

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