Music Activities in Schools in a Post Lockdown Covid World

With the UK Government wanting English schools to open next month[1] and no specific guidance on how each subject might prepare to teach there is a lot of concerned chatter on social media as to how music might be taught in the classroom and how instrumental and choral groups might once more begin to rehearse. There are similar concerns in the USA where the music curriculum is much more ensemble orientated than in the UK. This blog reviews some of the articles and guidance which has been published throughout the world. The starting point is a review of instrument cleanliness and leads into a review of the conditions to be considered before embarking on ensemble rehearsals. Also assessed are the considerations needed to teach music in the classroom. This blog does not consider how visiting teachers will be used. This will be explored in another article.

In the USA, the NAMM Foundation[2] has a batch of resources concerning instrument cleanliness.[3] “Instrument Cleaning: Guidelines and Information”, has been written with advice from the Centre for Disease Control. The full article gives a description of how various parts of instruments should be cleaned. How often is discretional but where instruments are shared then it should be noted that the virus can remain on surfaces as follows

Brass – Up to 5 Days

Wood – Up to 4 Days

Plastic – Up to 3 Days

Strings – Up to 3 Days

Cork – Up to 2 Days

There is more specific guidance for pianos from the Piano Technicians Guild [4] and for guitars and microphones[5]. However, I can find no guidance on natural skinned drums.

Each of these articles refers to the type of disinfectant to be used but they do refer to American products.

However, there are general principles which cover both whole class instrumental teaching and general classroom creative work.

Avoid sharing as much as possible
Whenever possible provide individual mouthpieces or recorders for students.
Reeds are never to be shared, and do not require sanitizing.
When mouthpieces must be shared, they should be disinfected

There have been reports of choral performances in the early days of the epidemic leading to choir members falling ill. This article[6] points out that these instances were before such things as lockdowns and social distancing came fully into place, but the production of aerosol and droplets is now the subject of research.

Several media reports (especially of choirs) have suggested that COVID-19 can be transmitted via aerosols (microscopic water droplets too light to be affected by gravity) from asymptomatic persons. But infection can also be spread through droplets. These are heavier and drop to surfaces quicker but can be picked up by touching a surface.

This article explains the differences between droplets and aerosols well and there are a couple of interesting video clips to demonstrate the points embedded in the article.[7]

As reported by the Slipped Disc website [8] “Professor Christian Kähler and Dr Rainer Hain from the Military University in Munich have been conducting experiments with singers and orchestral musicians to determine whether their activities can spread the Coronavirus.

The initial results from the Institute of Fluid Mechanics and Aerodynamics are encouraging.

Air was set in motion no more than half a metre in front of the mouth, making virus spread beyond that ‘extremely unlikely’, according to the study leaders. Kähler nonetheless recommended a 1.5 metre safety cordon in a choir or church, as well as distancing between singers to prevent droplet infection.

For trumpet and trombone and euphonium, the air-motion was again half a metre. But clarinet, oboe and bassoon moved the air more than one metre and flutes reached an even greater range. The recommendation was that flutes should be played with a gauze over the outlet.”

More detailed research has been undertaken by the University of Freiburg and has been reported by Music Mark[9]. The broad conclusion here being that a 2-metre distance between players should be a minimum. Cleaning out condensation from instruments should not be done on to the floor but a container should be provided. Wind players should not blow through their instruments to clean them. The cleaning of wind instruments should, wherever possible, be done in a room separate to the teaching/music room.

As reported in the Wiener Zeitung [10] the seven Berlin Orchestras published research on seating arrangements for rehearsals and performances with the general conclusions being

Strings chairs should be 1.5 metres apart
Winds chairs should be spaced 2 metres
Brass are also to be shielded with plexiglass protection.
Conductor should be 1.5 metres away at concerts but because they speak during reaheals 2 metres is recommended

Further to this the College Band Directors National Association[11] in the USA noted that early Japanese research[12] suggested the virus was 20 times more likely to be passed on indoors rather than outdoors and recommended for rehearsals that:

To the extent possible, students should use their own music and own personal stand in rehearsals and concerts
In order to reduce possible transmission through the sharing of chairs, students (other than bassoons and tubas) should be encouraged to stand in rehearsals and performances. (It is a band article so probably the same for cellos, double basses and percussionists)
To the extent possible, students should not share instruments.

The New Zealand Choral Federation [13] have published guidelines for choirs, I assume of the adult variety wishing to rehearse at the New Zealand Alert Level 2[14]

Stay home if you are unwell

Choir management should turn away any singer displaying signs of being unwell.

Contact tracing

Ensure there are sign-in forms at the door (singers should use their own pens) and contact lists are kept up to date.

Wash/sanitise hands

Ensure there is access to hand washing/hand sanitiser at the door to the rehearsal room and in the bathrooms.

Space out at rehearsals

2 metres between singers; the conductor should stand as far back from the choir as practicable. Don’t sing in a circle formation. All the singers should face forward.

Length of rehearsals

Limit to 2 hours to limit exposure to the virus.

Ventilation in rehearsal rooms

Ensure adequate ventilation, with a minimum room temperature of 18°C.

Snacks & drinks

No sharing of snacks or drinks before, during or after rehearsals.

Limit physical contact

Singers should not pass around music or folders. If music needs to be passed out it should be done by one or two people who use hand sanitiser before touching the copies to be handed out.

Whilst the above advice is aimed at community choirs it transfers well into school settings.

For the day-to-day life of delivering the music curriculum in secondary music departments there are many factors to consider. Schools will make their own decisions as to how students will move around the building, if at all. Social media shows pictures of wide corridors divided with tape and news items feature schools where up to ten minutes is allowed between lessons to ensure that one way systems work, in other schools students will remain in a classroom and the teachers will move and in this instance there will need to be creative thinking as to how composing and performing tasks might be carried out. This of course has implications for all subjects that use specialist equipment but assuming that students are allowed into the music room what then? Will Heads of Department be creating their own risk assessments and modii operandi for how students participate in effective, practical music lessons?

Some primary schools have specialised music rooms and similar considerations will apply, but in those primary schools where practical music making is limited to the resources available on the music trolley, then the trolley itself will need to be sanitised!

Regardless of what the school policy on sanitisation is given the sheer amount of both static and portable equipment in music rooms should additional sanitiser to be available and students “drilled” into the habit of sanitising before entering and leaving each area? Inevitably there will be late comers and so as not to shorten rehearsal time could an ensemble member be nominated as door monitor?

All guidance on use of instruments suggests that where there are multiple users, hands should be washed before touching an instrument and, in a classroom, where keyboards are used, they should be sanitised between use. This will minimise risk. However, for djembes and the like, whilst the wood could be cleaned the skins really cannot so the only advise is not to use them at all or quarantine the instruments for 3 – 4 days. Plastic beater handles could be sanitised between lessons but not wooden sticks.

In some music departments students carry instruments into smaller areas or practice rooms for group work. There are several issues here. Carrying instruments could allow the virus to be transmitted from clothing to the instrument and students would still need to socially distance while carrying and in the practice rooms. In reality, there are few practice rooms that could accommodate more than two people at any one time! So, group work becomes hard to manage.

Sound transfer has always been a problem in schools and it has been reported from music teachers working in schools with key worker and vulnerable children throughout the lockdown that school policy has been to prop doors open throughout the setting in order to reduce the amount of touching of door handles. It therefore is obvious that a fully practical music lesson or rehearsal is bound to put more sound into the environment and therefore teachers in other subject areas will have to be more tolerant.

Music teaching demands close contact with students. Sometimes teachers need to get close, to demonstrate, to alter settings on keyboards, parameters on computer programmes. They need to sing!

Whilst well – designed music rooms are larger than many rooms in a school with an advisory minimum of 63m² [15] but, given all the equipment that is in the room, to ensure social distancing in classroom could mean realistically teaching 10 students. However be to ease timetabling schools could seek to teach half classes of may be 15 because of whole school practicalities.

The need to ensure social distancing could impact on curriculum content. Students are unlikely to be able to work in pairs or groups. Working on their own they have no peers to discuss and somehow teachers will have to develop strategies to assist from 2m away.

Possible solutions are:

Choose tasks that are very scaffolded with baby steps all the way so there is no question about what to do next.

“What to do steps” can be put onto laminated (easy-wipe) cards so they have the instructions in front of them. Important for lower ability or those with working memory issues who can’t hold the information in their heads when looking at a board and down at their desk, back at the board, down at the desk.

Therefore, to ensure music lessons are practical, should music teachers consider the Government advice to the public to cover faces in enclosed spaces?[16]

People who use public transport or visit shops should consider covering their mouth and nose based on advice from SAGE
Face coverings are not a replacement for social distancing and regular handwashing which remain the most important actions, says Chief Medical Officer
Public urged not to buy medical grade masks so they can be saved for frontline health and care workers, and instead make their own face coverings at home

Viral load remains a big unknown. Professor Yardley of Bristol University and a member of the Government’s SAGE panel has warned that the greater amount of virus that a person comes in contact with increases the chances of becoming infected.[17] However there is as yet no definitive data on how much virus a child may transmit. It is known that children infected with the virus do on the whole experience mild symptoms. However a German study of people aged 1 – 100 as reported in the Guardian[18] found that regardless of age, people appeared to shed a similar level of virus, but noted that there had been no child specific research.

Whatever happens in our schools, readers of this article will be working with children and the jury is still out on the implications of this. Whilst the largest review of the evidence shows children and adolescents are half as likely to catch the coronavirus, theyalso appear less likely to spread the virus, but the team said there was still uncertainty on this.[19]

There are many caveats to consider. In the UK, the recommendation is to social distance at 2 metres on the Continent it varies from 1 to 1.5 metres; in the USA it is, “at least 6 ft” or just over 1.8 metres. Each country mentioned is on a different path to controlling the virus being at different stages of controlling the lockdown and some of the articles are to do with actions that can be taken by professional and adult ensembles. Government advice is constantly being updated and schools in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are the responsibility of the devolved administrations.

In writing this please note I am not a health or legal professional. Please do not consider any of the above as medical or legal advice, it is merely a collection of articles and news bulletins. A number of colleagues have also helped shape the article and I thank them for their professional expertise and enthusiasm. In particular I thank Becky Elderton, Head of Music at The Castle School in Thornbury, South Gloucestershire who has shaped the input on classroom activity.

I am not here to recommend. Schools will have to make their own judgments as to the risk they wish to apply to other practical subjects as well as music. Music teachers like all teachers have continued to work throughout the UK lockdown. They have not been doing nothing. For me the health and well-being of students, teachers and the wider community are of primary and critical importance and I hope that this presentation of some of the evidence which has not been done systematically but I believe is representative will help music teachers come to their own decisions as to how music might begin to return, or not to their schools.

[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-for-schools-and-other-educational-settings

[2] https://www.namm.org/

[3] (https://www.namm.org/sites/www.namm.org/files_public/resources/COVID-19%20Instrument%20Cleaning%20Guidelines.pdf) .

[4] https://www.ptg.org/covid-19

[5] https://sheshredsmag.com/how-to-disinfect-musical-instruments/

[6] (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/17/did-singing-together-spread-coronavirus-to-four-choirs)

[7]https://www.drheathernelson.com/singingandcovid19?fbclid=IwAR20WrzeLavGpLFcRZ4p11neNWIawkXdrgq0wGolERTYNXE4863Ho_HOxmA

[8] https://slippedisc.com/2020/05/two-munich-scientists-pronounce-singing-to-be-covid-safe/?fbclid=IwAR1sG8oCU3wkmHi1ZcUImMk1pFOOWEJnAxTPtIuMD73OAc8Atz83qc5ttSc

[9] https://www.mh-freiburg.de/fileadmin/Downloads/Allgemeines/RisikoabschaetzungCoronaMusikSpahnRichter19.5.2020.pdf

[10] (https://www.wienerzeitung.at/nachrichten/kultur/klassik/2059818-Orchester-Regeln-der-Berliner-Charite.html)

[11] https://www.cbdna.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/CBDNA-COVID-19-Response-Committee-Report.pdf?fbclid=IwAR3tnll35beadoDysZ7NVjqpQ0uUtnGVik9dxIEa8j8vs7xW6mYF-HzfH9g

[12] https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.02.28.20029272v2