The Blade | April 2020 | Many Fiddle With Learning Music During Lockdown
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Many Fiddle With Learning Music During Lockdown
By Jon Chavez | The Toledo Blade - April 2020
As many people face idle time during Ohio's stay-at-home order to stem the coronavirus pandemic, some are relieving their boredom by taking up a musical instrument and learning to play through online lessons.
"We began shifting to online lessons about four or five weeks ago. They're working very fine, very well," said Virgil Lupu, director of Forte Music School in West Toledo.
"I'm seeing many of our existing students continuing online, but we are actually getting new students enrolled. We do have some requests for lessons and are very excited that people are looking for ways to stay active during this time," Mr. Lupu said.
It isn't just local music schools that are encouraging students. Major guitar manufacturer Fender Inc. helped push the idea of telemusic last month by offering three months of free guitar, bass, or ukulele lessons through its online Fender Play website.
On the Fender Play site, the company posted a note saying it was blown away by the overwhelming response to its offer and said it would extend the free lessons to the first 1 million users who sign up for Fender Play.
"We're all going to be spending more time inside, so we might as well make some noise," the note read.
At Forte, Mr. Lupu said the music school sensed a lockdown was coming in early March, and so it began to prepare to move onto the internet and advertise online lessons at its website, ForteMusic419.com.
"We took an early spring break. We took it in March in order to take the time to figure things out," Mr. Lupu said.
"We came up with all the training and logistics for the teachers and the students to know how to approach this online. We were offering classes using Zoom, FaceTime, and Skype, but we had to train for it first to understand how a virtual lesson between teacher and student would work and what to expect when they log on," he said.
Some students dropped out mainly for financial reasons, Mr. Lupu said, but most adapted quickly to telemusic with the school lending out some keyboards, guitars, and violins--the three most popular lessons at the school went virtual.
"We're actually seeing a lot of kids making a lot of progress right now. We aren't surprised either that they are making a lot of progress because they have a lot of extra time to practice these days," he said.
At Durdel's Music in West Toledo, owner Fred Shuman is among those surprised by the sales of musical instruments he has experienced despite the lockdowns.
Durdel's is not considered an essential business, so it only takes online orders that it later ships out or delivers to local customers. Even so, "Business has been better than I expected, honestly," Mr. Shuman said. "I think there's such a desire by people to do something extra with time. Pretty soon it gets tiring looking at screens all day."
Mr. Shuman said he has sold two higher-end guitars and several guitars for beginners. He is not taking orders for small items while the store is closed.
"Still, I usually count on selling something significant every day," he said. Just since the lockdown began, he sold a guitar to a nurse in New York and guitars to customers in Georgia, Kentucky, and Chicago who were browsing the internet and saw something they wanted that Durdel's had.
"Don't buy something you can't try out-- that's what we've always thought. But you have to remember that over the last 15 years, all of retail has gone through a change... and the current generation doesn't seem to think trying before buying is as important as my generation did," Mr. Shuman said.
"We began shifting to online lessons about four or five weeks ago. They're working very fine, very well," said Virgil Lupu, director of Forte Music School in West Toledo.
"I'm seeing many of our existing students continuing online, but we are actually getting new students enrolled. We do have some requests for lessons and are very excited that people are looking for ways to stay active during this time," Mr. Lupu said.
It isn't just local music schools that are encouraging students. Major guitar manufacturer Fender Inc. helped push the idea of telemusic last month by offering three months of free guitar, bass, or ukulele lessons through its online Fender Play website.
On the Fender Play site, the company posted a note saying it was blown away by the overwhelming response to its offer and said it would extend the free lessons to the first 1 million users who sign up for Fender Play.
"We're all going to be spending more time inside, so we might as well make some noise," the note read.
At Forte, Mr. Lupu said the music school sensed a lockdown was coming in early March, and so it began to prepare to move onto the internet and advertise online lessons at its website, ForteMusic419.com.
"We took an early spring break. We took it in March in order to take the time to figure things out," Mr. Lupu said.
"We came up with all the training and logistics for the teachers and the students to know how to approach this online. We were offering classes using Zoom, FaceTime, and Skype, but we had to train for it first to understand how a virtual lesson between teacher and student would work and what to expect when they log on," he said.
Some students dropped out mainly for financial reasons, Mr. Lupu said, but most adapted quickly to telemusic with the school lending out some keyboards, guitars, and violins--the three most popular lessons at the school went virtual.
"We're actually seeing a lot of kids making a lot of progress right now. We aren't surprised either that they are making a lot of progress because they have a lot of extra time to practice these days," he said.
At Durdel's Music in West Toledo, owner Fred Shuman is among those surprised by the sales of musical instruments he has experienced despite the lockdowns.
Durdel's is not considered an essential business, so it only takes online orders that it later ships out or delivers to local customers. Even so, "Business has been better than I expected, honestly," Mr. Shuman said. "I think there's such a desire by people to do something extra with time. Pretty soon it gets tiring looking at screens all day."
Mr. Shuman said he has sold two higher-end guitars and several guitars for beginners. He is not taking orders for small items while the store is closed.
"Still, I usually count on selling something significant every day," he said. Just since the lockdown began, he sold a guitar to a nurse in New York and guitars to customers in Georgia, Kentucky, and Chicago who were browsing the internet and saw something they wanted that Durdel's had.
"Don't buy something you can't try out-- that's what we've always thought. But you have to remember that over the last 15 years, all of retail has gone through a change... and the current generation doesn't seem to think trying before buying is as important as my generation did," Mr. Shuman said.
