Keep calm and play on: Summer schools

Most musicians of a certain age can recall a formative musical experience on a summer course – or they can hope to look forward to one, since summer music courses are also offered for adult amateurs. Sadly, such experiences are unlikely to be face to face this year, but some course providers are determined to keep the music going by offering online alternatives.

Courses for adults

Music courses for adults were among the first to go online. Morley College in London (www.morleycollege.ac.uk) is running online courses this summer that include piano workshops, jazz composition and aural skills. Appropriately, it is also offering a range of online music technology courses, from music production and mastering to sound art and Logic Pro. For all courses, learners must have a basic home tech set-up (reliable internet connection, computing device, microphone, speakers or headphones and ideally a webcam).

City Lit (www.citylit.ac.uk), the capital's other major centre for adult education, is also providing online courses. Like Morley, it is offering various music technology options, as well as more traditional musical appreciation and performance choices. Its website allows you to browse courses by popularity, which reveals that the highest demand is for mixing, production and GarageBand – perhaps reflecting the importance of digital music-making right now.

Benslow Music in Hitchin, Hertfordshire (https://benslowmusic.org) offers courses for adults that are usually residential and focus only on music. Anyone who has attended this kind of course will know that the social aspect is just as important as the learning side, and Benslow's tutors have addressed this by including a ‘virtual bar’ in the evenings via video conferencing. Participants’ special requests, which might include more tech guidance than on a regular course, have also been sought. Online courses this summer include Summer Saxes (see box), Sing Brahms’ Requiem, Late Starter Violins and many others.

Riga Jurmala Music Festival will hold sessions via Facebook

Younger students

Most youth summer music courses this year have unfortunately been cancelled or postponed. However, digital projects – which at least offer some alternative – are being widely undertaken by groups ranging from the National Youth Orchestra to local music service ensembles. Such projects typically involve the young musicians recording individual parts at home to be assembled into a virtual performance later. Even though this type of activity cannot replicate being part of a real ensemble, it can generate great excitement among young learners who get to see and hear themselves on screen in a permanent recording – as in this rendition of ‘Grand March’ from Verdi's Aida by Wandsworth Youth Philharmonic (tinyurl.com/yd4zur9r). Ask your local music service or hub about similar opportunities.

There may be a lack of structured online music courses for young people this year, but many worthwhile resources are still available to teachers who might feel inclined to create their own courses. A great place to start would be ABRSM's Play On initiative (https://gb.abrsm.org/en/inspire), which offers plenty of free materials that have been made available to support young people's musical learning during the current challenging period.

Learning opportunities for all ages

A number of international music festivals are offering digital content of varying kinds in lieu of a face-to-face event this year. The Riga Jurmala Music Festival and Academy is a classical music festival in the Baltic States, presenting a combination of concerts and masterclasses by prominent artists and orchestras. It is hosting a series of masterclasses on its Facebook page (www.facebook.com/rigajurmalaacademy) that would be of interest to aspiring classical musicians of any age. Similarly, the 2020 Heifetz Institute, which usually takes place in Virginia, US, will now happen on a website called The Violin Channel (https://theviolinchannel.com) with over 40 concerts scheduled to be streamed live. Paying participants will also get two private lessons and one group class per week.

The American violinist Anthea Kreston and her colleagues are offering an innovative online ‘Coronavirus Bootcamp’ as part of Inside Music Academy (www.insidemusicacademy.com). With daily sessions running from 10am to 3pm (with slight variations – bear in mind that this is central US time!) there are separate classes for early years, young artists, pre-college, college and adults, across several instrumental disciplines. Each day contains warm-ups, buddy practice sessions, ‘nano-concerts’ and musical games, representing an interesting model for what is possible online. Prices and full details are on the website.

Finally, individual resources of relevance to all musicians are widely available across the internet, which may help keep the creativity flowing this summer in place of an intensive course. The BBC's Get Creative at Home series features a beautiful video of the pianist Jools Holland demonstrating a breadth of non-classical styles that could form the basis of a whole summer's study in itself (tinyurl.com/ya62l3tp). For additional inspiration, visit Get Creative 2020 (https://getcreativeuk.com), a website supported by Arts Council England and other public funders. Use its search function to browse dozens of free and affordable online musical activities that you can join in with at home, from virtual choirs to drumming workshops and much more besides.

Summer Saxes online

This year, saxophonists Alastair Penman and Gerard McChrystal are running an online version of their regular Summer Saxes course at Benslow Music. Penman spoke to MT about how the new course came together

How did you get the idea?

It started back in April. Gerard and I run courses together three times a year at Benslow, and the March one was cancelled. The June one also looked unlikely, so we suggested to Benslow that we run the course online instead. They were already planning other online courses and were happy to proceed.

Why did you limit the course to 12 places?

We were quite keen to do things we would usually be unable to do. One of these things was to give individual lessons to all course participants, which limited us to a certain number. Another limiting factor was putting together a virtual concert. More than 12 participants makes things a bit complicated, and 12 is also a good number for a saxophone ensemble.

How quickly did it sell, and to whom?

Incredibly quickly. There was always going to be a physical course in June, which usually sells out. Those participants were all refunded, but a lot of them rebooked for the online course. If the course goes well, we have the possibility of doing another one in August. We've had more international sign-ups than usual, in Europe and further afield. One guy in Saudi Arabia thinks it's great – he normally attends the physical course and now doesn't need to fly in!

Have the finances worked out OK?

As tutors we are being paid the same fee as normal. Benslow has made the figures work even though the cost to students is lower than the physical course, but that's because there is no boarding.

How will you provide camaraderie on an online course?

One of the things with Benslow is that everyone is in the bar every night talking about the saxophone! To replace that we are going to host an ‘online happy hour’ every evening, so that participants can socialise as they would normally. Smaller break-away groups will be allowed too!

How have you planned the course content?

We're keen to make a good impression with this course, so we have been working out the technology and checking to see that it all works. We've also been finding out our learners’ expectations and what they want. Common requests are for us to cover elements of home recording as well as the usual saxophone technique, and to make recordings of everyone playing together. They also want a magic way to play together in real time over the internet! In fact, this technology is now emerging – for example, using Soundjack [www.soundjack.eu], a free piece of software, Gerard and I have been able to play duets via the internet with a latency of only 20 milliseconds.

Has working with this kind of technology been a learning curve?

I do a lot with technology anyway. When the lockdown started, I got a few requests to teach students about home recording, and I've now delivered sessions on this at a few different music colleges. We're more concerned that the students can access the technology, so we have asked them to tell us what their tech experience is and what equipment they've got. Thankfully most seem to have MacBooks, just like us!