Can’t stop the Music” (AKA NSU Music during

“Can’t Stop the Music” (AKA - NSU Music during a Global Pandemic)

COVID-19 certainly put a halt to many of our lives. It especially disrupted collaborative music teaching and music-making. Despite campus closing early, learning continued through the end of Spring 2020 semester via several creative distance learning measures put in place by our fantastic music faculty. Kudos to all the students that perservered through the end of the semester in alternate learning delivery methods for which they did not sign up. Here, we will feature just a small sampling of the innovative ways that learning continued.

The end of semester brought many challenges. One of those challenges was how students sheltering in at home could practice for piano classes without access to a piano at home. Piano professor, Dr. Ron Chioldi, collaborated with Saied Music of Tulsa and the College of Liberal Arts to arrange for electronic pianos to be delivered to students’ homes so that they could continue their studies. Thank you, Saied!

Dr. Ben Hay provided weekly meetings and playing sessions for the NSU trumpet studio and wider trumpet community by offering weekly warm up and playing sessions via Facebook Live and Zoom. He focused on fundamental playing techniques and also invited guest collaborators like, Ryan Beach (principal trumpet for Alabama Symphony Orchestra) and Joe Gray (Associate Director of Bands and trumpet instructor at the University of North Alabama).

The NSU Jazz Ensemble, under the direction of Dr. Clark Gibson, performed “Nutville” arranged by Greg Hopkins as a virtual performance piece via cell phone recordings from across Oklahoma. You can find the recording on our Facebook Pages by searching for either NSU Music @nsumusic or NSU Jazz Lab @jazzlab. “In the last 20 years, the home studio has become a crucial component of any musician’s recording career. In this way, the recent social distancing has forced the music students in the NSU Jazz Ensemble to create art in a way that is relevant to the modern day music industry.” Here are the secrets to creating this video: -The students recorded two rounds of their piece on their personal devices. The first was a practice run that Gibson gave instruction on; the second was the final round. -To keep to one beat, students listened to a recorded version of the music in their headphones. -For editing, Gibson imported the files into Logic Pro X, where he could edit and improve on the sound of the phone recordings through EQs, compressors and other sound plug-ins. -Gibson then used Adobe Premiere to edit the video portion. -Audio and video were combined in Logic Pro.

While the NSU Chorus would normally be singing together, they used the time online to explore various choral topics from experts in the field. Calling it the “NSU Virtual Choral Cafe,” the Chorus welcomed, Dr. Gene Peterson from California Baptist University; Composer and Editor, Susan LaBarr; Dr. Cameron LaBarr from Missouri State University; Dr. Christopher Harris from Arkansas Tech; and Dr. Gary Packwood from Mississippi State University.