Welcome to the Mrozinski Piano Studio!

♫                                ♫                                     ♫

Fall lessons begin the week of August 24!

August 17, 2020

Dear Parents and Students:

It has been quite an adventure we have been on since March! I hope you are enjoying these final days of summer and have been able to get out and enjoy the warm weather. I have missed seeing each of you and look forward to the return of lessons the week of August 24. It has been a long break and hope that you and your students are ready to get back to a regular routine. 

There is a lot of important information in this newsletter. Please take time to read through and share with your student. 

We will be doing a combination of in-studio and virtual lessons: one week in-studio, two weeks virtual. There will be safety guidelines for having in-studio lessons similar to those when visiting the doctor’s office. In addition, I will be trying out a new virtual platform that has been developed for online music lessons. Details are below.

Please send three lesson time preferences. Lessons will be on Tuesday through Friday afternoons.

So excited to see each of you and get back to lessons! Contact me if you have any questions or concerns.

Fondly,

Vonnie Mrozinski, NCTM

• Upon arrival, please remain in car or sit in chair under carport.
• Text that you have arrived: 847-721-7813.
• Students must wear a mask to enter studio and for duration of lesson. Mrs. Mrozinski will wear a mask and face shield.
• Only the student may enter studio, no parents or siblings without prior arrangement.
• Mrs. Mrozinski will open door, take temperature and ask COVID questions:
  1. Have you traveled in the past 14 days?
  2. Do you or anyone in your family have symptoms of COVID-19?
  3. Have you been around anyone with symptoms of COVID-19?
  4. How do you feel today?
• Students will be given hand sanitizer.
• Students will play on grand piano. Mrs. Mrozinski will be on other side of Plexiglas divider and play on the upright. Once behind the divider, Mrs. Mrozinski will continue to wear face shield, but take off mask for easier communication.
• At end of lesson, students will be offered more hand sanitizer and walked outside.
• There will be 5-10 minutes between lessons to wipe off stair handrail and keyboard.

As we have seen, virtual platforms such as Face Time, Skype, and Zoom, were developed for use with talking, not streaming live music. The compression and expansion of sound through these platforms do not work well for music lessons. RockOutLoud.live is “a virtual music platform. It has a secure P2P layer of encryption for a safe video music lesson…” It will seem almost the same as one of the other platforms, but you will hear a significant difference in sound quality of the piano. Students will receive a lesson link before the private lesson. Please visit one of their websites to see and hear a demonstration:

https://ikilledzoom.com/

https://rockoutloud.live/login

Group lessons for the foreseeable future will be virtual. For the fall semester students will be grouped according to their AIM level. A link will be sent five minutes before the start time.

Mozart, 4:00-4:45 pm                  AIM Levels 1-2: 4:00-4:50 pm

Beethoven, 5:00-6:00 pm            AIM Levels 3-5: 5:00-6:00 pm

Chopin, 7:00-8:00 pm                   AIM 6-12: 7:00-8:00 pm

This is the 250^th anniversary of Ludwig van Beethoven’s birth year. Around the world his life and music are being celebrated. His music is some of the most performed music of the classical style. It spans the style from the Classical to Romantic eras. Despite the pandemic many performances are taking place and being posted online.

Students in the Mrozinski Piano Studio will celebrate his life and works as well. This semester each student will be learning a piece of music composed by Beethoven. Our December performance class will feature these pieces. Students will receive and/or choose a piece at the first lesson.

One positive about our virtual lessons is that I get to “visit” each of your homes and hear your instruments. Several of you have noticed the difficulty during lessons if our pianos aren’t tuned the same. It is a common practice for technicians to tune pianos slightly below pitch if they are not used with other instruments.

It is recommended that pianos should be tuned twice a year, usually around May after the humidity has risen, and in October once the humidity has fallen.

If you need a recommendation for a piano technician, let me know. The piano technician that I use is booking tunings about one month out. When your technician arrives, please ask that your piano be “tuned to pitch.” This means the A above Middle C is tuned to an audio frequency of 440 Hz. Make that phone call today!

 

 

You probably haven’t given much thought to cleaning your piano or keyboard other than occasionally dusting the outside. But it’s not a bad idea to wipe down the keyboard from time to time. Steinway Pianos has an article giving good advice about how to clean keys. The recommended way to clean keys is below. For the complete article visit https://www.steinway.com/news/features/utilty/cleaning-your-piano    

• Dampen a cotton pad with hydrogen peroxide and use the pad to wipe down the piano keytops (back to front) between players.
• Use diluted alcohol-based disinfectants, do not use bleach-based disinfectants or any product containing citrus.
• If using a spray or liquid bottle, use a disposable pads or soft cloths. Put the disinfectant on the towel and not the piano.
• Always follow up with a dry towel and never leave any liquids on the piano or keys. 

Congratulations to all the students that completed the Piano Bingo challenge!

 

 

(updated August 17, 2020)