Porch Concerts #MusicConnectsUs

Music connects us.

During times of celebration & times of solemnity.
During times of tradition & times of loss.
During times of peace & times of stress.
During times of love & times of fear.
During times of joy & times of sadness
During times of change & times of hope

At all times, music connects us.

This is a challenging time for music education. A subject that is best taught together, can not be taught together for a time. Band is inherently about coming together as a group to make music. And music education is build on the joy of performance. And the joy of an audience.

Sharing our talent and emotions through music. With each other. Together.

As teachers navigate the current reality of distance learning, our hearts are heavy as music doesn’t lend itself easily to ‘distance.’ Music, by nature, lends itself to connection.

Music connects us.

Although we will find ways to dive deeper into music theory, to explore new technology as we teach by video, to motivate students to use this time to do the best thing they can – practice – let’s not give up on allowing music to connect us.

Let’s find ways to allow music to be one of the few things that CAN connect us. You may come up with many creative ideas and share them with your colleagues – we’ve seen music educators helping and supporting each other in massive ways this week. Here’s an idea we’d like to contribute.

Let’s encourage students to give concerts on their porch. If possible, invite them to perform any song they love at 8pm Eastern Standard Time (7 Central, 6 Mountain, 5 Pacific) every weekday to remind family & neighbors that music can still be shared. Music need not be feared. Music helps bring peace and healing.

Music connects us.

And let them know that there may be students all around the country, perhaps the world, who will be participating as well. What a way to connect our students not only to music, but to each other. To fellow music students on the other side of the world. Feel free to invite any musician – community band member, college student, retired directors – even yourself – to participate as well.

Music connects us.

If your students would like for us to share a portion of their performance, have them record it and submit it to you, their director. If you share it on a public school or band Facebook, Instagram or Twitter account and tag us we will be looking to share some of these on our page.

Here’s to all the music teachers out there!
We are a community
and music connects us.