A Guelph music school simply demonstrated that even in times of isolation, people can come together to create something beautiful.
A staff of 14 music teachers at JamSchool worked together to recreate a classic rock track Baba O'Riley by The Who by piecing their individual musical performances together.
The end result looked and sounded fantastic.
“I picked that song because there’s a certain mood to it,” said JamSchool manager and co-founder Dan Drysdale.
The track includes performances from Dan Drysdale, Steve Thoms, James Robertson, Steve Richards, Audrey Coates, Marc Mongrain, Nathan Coles, Alpha Kayondo, Gabby Santin, Samantha Piper, Spencer Arn, Steve Zuccala, Tyler Bridge and Robert Leader.
Drysdale said that specific song was able to highlight the various instruments taught at the music school such as a synth, sequencer, guitar, bass, piano, drums, violin, and bagpipes among more.
He said as many businesses have faced challenges with the pandemic, social distancing doesn’t work well for the 30 bands the music school teaches because technicalities online make it difficult for musicians to synchronize with one another.
“The problem with bands is you cant play together online because of the latency. One person is playing and the other person is hearing it a little bit late,” said Drysdale.
“It was basically just me doing tech support with all the parents trying to get the students on skype,” said Drysdale about the music school once it went online on March 16.
He said the school had to come up with an idea for musicians to perform together despite the struggles they were facing while teaching online. The recreation of The Who song was an embodiment of the school adapting to the circumstances of the pandemic by weaving the individual compositions together.
“I guess its a celebration of the teachers that we have and the music, and it’s kind of a way to still create and do things together even though we can’t physically be together,” said Drysdale.
Drysdale said the teachers are also uploading videos of themselves playing instruments for students to see so they can still be involved in music and also use it as a way to cope during this time.
“What better time to get better at your work and get better at your instrument?” said Drysdale.
