Students create music without instruments after COVID forces classes online
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BARNSTABLE, Massachusetts (WBZ) — Students and teachers alike are learning as they go- and navigating a routine of in-person classes one day, and virtual classes the next. Dan Felix is a music teacher at Barnstable United Elementary School. He said, “basically it’s been different in a way that we’ve had to be more adaptable and creative.”
For music teachers like Felix, things can get a little tricky, especially when there’s no singing or instruments allowed in class. The restrictions are for health reasons, with Principal Mike Wojkowski explaining, “we don’t really have the ability to sanitize them and have them get used by the next class.”
So, Felix’s 250 fourth and fifth grade students are making music, with whatever they can find.
Felix said, “it’s more about finding common objects, wherever they may be. Some of my students aren’t even at home- they are at their parents’ work.” In Thursday’s class, they’re using pens. It’s far from the only creative object they use.
Felix said, “we’ve had rice, we’ve had pots and pans played with spoons.”
Now there’s even a YouTube Channel “Mr. Felix and His Students” where the class combines to write and play a wide range of songs- from rock, to hip hop.
Felix said, “they have the vocabulary so they communicate what they want out of the song while they’re doing it. This is all over Zoom. I’m at my humble abode while they do this.”
“It’s really bringing the students together as a community as they make the songs and they put the different bits of information in it to make the melody and make the rhythms,” said Wojkowski.
Felix said, “Music is something that’s within. You don’t need an instrument to love music.”
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