Some students chose to play Fischer yesterday!  I can't say enough times how wonderful to be making music together again!

Kyle's first time seeing a baby grand in person!

Tim let me record him playing a song--the first "recital" on Fischer!

Carly at the keys! 

She has done an awesome job learning the first movement of a Sonatina mostly on her own! Staring the second movement this week!

Meet Fischer!

A new friend arrived at Music In Your Heart yesterday, and I want to kind of make introductions before students arrive for lessons today. First, I would like to tell a little story about pianos.

The piano I've had in my home for the last 21 years, an upright Kimball, was a graduation gift from my parents when I received my music degree. It had been their friends' and hadn't had much playing since it was bought new in the '90's. It lived in my apartment in Columbus, Ohio for a short time, our first house in Columbus for an even shorter time, and came with us when we moved here to Arrowsmith in 2001. 

Pianos require a consistent temperature and humidity level to be maintained. Our old (125+ years) house has not had central air conditioning for the 19 years we've lived here--until last month! (I could talk about how how life-changing central air is, but that's another story!) My point is, Kimball has been through some life over the past 19 years because we couldn't regulate the humidity level and temperature in the house consistently. I stopped having it maintained and tuned several years ago because my piano tuner became so frustrated that his work would be undone so quickly. My students can probably tell about sticky keys in the summer (That low B that won't even play!) and clicky keys in the winter (We just call it "extra percussion!").  When I had toddlers, one of them left a sippy cup of water on the keys for who-knows-how-long before I found it, and my piano tuner had to heat up the wood of the key over my stove and sand it down with sandpaper to get it to work right again. Yes, Kimball has been used and "loved" a lot over the years. 

My kids have grown up playing it... 

My students have spent a lot of time playing it...

And, I'm so, so, so happy that 5 students returned to lessons in the last couple weeks to play it!

Now, as much as I've loved Kimball and have been SO thankful for all the music made on it, I have always wanted to have a baby grand in my home.  I grew up playing on a baby grand in my parents home from the time I started piano lessons at age 5, and there's just something special about it. 

But, because we didn't have central air, we didn't want to put the money into buying a baby grand we couldn't maintain. So it has just been a dream...until yesterday!

A little over a week ago, my friend Tracie texted me pictures of a little baby grand piano and asked if I might be interested in having it for free!?!

Now, I am always hesitant to consider taking a piano that someone wants to give me for free. They are such sensitive instruments, and you always need to know as much as possible about a piano's history and condition before agreeing to take it and assume care of it. 

Upon asking some questions, I learned that this piano was been in a beautiful old mansion that is about to be demolished after sitting empty for at least a year or two. I watched many videos and read up on how to inspect a used piano.  And two of my kids and I went to inspect the piano ourselves.  

We were amazed at the condition the piano was in, 

and felt confident we needed to rescue it to come live at our house!

So just yesterday, the moving company we hired met us at the house in Decatur and carefully packed up  and transported our new friend Fischer!

I followed them and watched them bring it into our house!

And now it is at home at our house!

Fischer will need to rest for a few weeks before I will have it tuned and regulated, so it is a bit quirky right now with some keys having a little more ring...but actually less so than my Kimball, really!

My daughter Annah and I have already spent hours carefully cleaning the keys and wiping down the surfaces on Fischer.  And for now students may choose if they want to play on Fischer or Kimball.  I will disinfect both between lessons so that students have a choice which they sit at, and I will stay at whichever one they don't choose and we will still have social distancing.  

I'm happy that my students and I will get to enjoy this new-to-me piano together!

Returning to In-Person Lessons

July 1, 2020

Hello dear Music In Your Heart students and families!

I hope this finds you all doing well and enjoying this beautiful summertime! I have missed you all very much, and am sorry for going such a long time without checking in with you. I hope you have been continuing to make music even though we haven’t met for lessons. I know that for myself, making even just a little bit of music at home has helped me a lot over the past few months when I felt like there wasn’t much else I could do. 

When the shelter-in-place went into effect in March, I had 16 students who were coming to my home for lessons in-person each week and 4 students on my waiting list to start lessons as soon as possible. I have had one student consistently continue piano lessons online for the past 3.5 months. It hasn’t been ideal for either of us with spotty wifi and cellular connections, but it has been wonderful to continue to learn and make music!

For weeks, I’ve been thinking about how and when to invite students back to my home, and with Illinois entering into its Phase 4 Plan this past week, my husband and I have been discussing how that can happen and how it should look for us. Like every other business and organization, I have to put a number of rules and requirements in place. I don’t like having to do that, but I want to protect my family as well as any of my students who do choose to return to lessons in person, and I want everyone to feel comfortable.

My students and families have all been so flexible with me and my family’s ever-changing schedule over the almost 19 years I have been teaching in my home, and I am ever-so-grateful to all of you for that!!! As much as I may dislike what COVID-19 and its mandates have done to the study and performance of music (and so many other things!), I hope that we can be understanding with each other and be happy to return to making music even though it has to be differently. 

Sadly, my voice students, I still cannot currently consider a way to consider teaching voice lessons within CDC guidelines in person, and I have found that most connections have too much delay to manage online voice lessons. 

I also have to say goodbye to my youngest students for a while longer and not admit any who are younger than [going into] 3rd grade. It is just too difficult to ask a child that young to sit still and not touch anything but piano keys for half an hour, not allow them to use the bathroom if need be, and not have their parent nearby if I need assistance. 

I am also not taking on new students during this time.

I cannot explain to you how much this breaks my heart. I’m so sorry. I pray for and look forward to the day it is deemed safe to return to the important practice of making music together.

Before listing the regulations for in-person piano lessons, I would like to reiterate that I am willing to offer online video piano lessons for those [going into] 3rd grade and older. I have used FaceTime, Google Meet, Skype, Zoom, and would be willing to try any other platform if you have some other preference. (For students younger than high school, I would prefer that a parent stays nearby during the lesson to help with technical issues.)

All students and a parent/guardian (if student is a minor) must sign a liability waiver. 

As a student arrives for each lesson, I will verify that they have had no symptoms of illness in the past 14 days and take/log their temperature with a no-contact thermometer.  If any symptoms or temperature above 100.4, the student may not enter my home. 

Following verification of no symptoms, social distancing of 6 feet will be maintained throughout the lesson. I am fortunate to have a large enough space and multiple keyboards in the room to accommodate this.

Only the student who is having a lesson may come into the house, and the student will only be allowed in the entry way and the music room. The living room, bathroom and all other areas of the house will not be accessible. My family will not be present in the entry way or music room space while I am with a student. 

For students under 18, I will be implementing a written progress report to the parent/guardian following each lesson.

Both student and I will wear facial coverings during the in-person lesson time. 

Before and after each lesson, I will disinfect the piano keys and all doorknobs a student could have possibly come in contact with on their way in/out of my house.

I will be using a timer so that lessons remain within each student’s designated 30-minute lesson period. The timer will start and end at the scheduled 30-minute lesson time, regardless of whether or not a student arrives on time. I will do my very best to complete as much work as possible during the scheduled lesson time, but will have to end when the 30-minute timer goes off. (If further communication is necessary, I will include this in the progress report or via email/text…This has always been the case.)

I will also be implementing an empty 15-minute space between lessons. This should allow students to come and go at completely separate times, as well as give me time to properly disinfect.

If anyone in my household has any symptoms of illness, as always, I will notify students and try to offer an online/video lesson at the usual time if I am able.

Please know that I wish things were not this way. I feel like an old grouch having to implement all these rules. But at the same time, I want as many of you as possible to feel comfortable returning to lessons. I love and appreciate each of you and your families and look forward to seeing you soon.

If you would like to return to lessons in-person, please reply to this email or text me to work on scheduling.

Blessings,

Taryn