Sounds of trombones blasting and tubas robustly humming fill the hallways outside the band room, as Moses Lake High School students finally have a chance to practice together, after nearly a year playing and performing over Zoom.

Moses Lake High School band director Dan Beich discussed navigating the school year with students during COVID-19 and looks forward to some opportunities for performances this spring.

Beich said this year is “without a doubt the hardest year teaching” he has ever experienced in his 30 years of doing so. He said the expectations for the program, the technological hurdles and issues of teaching virtually have been a struggle.

He said teachers, including himself, had to reinvent their approaches almost on the fly, as regulations and school district plans continually shifted and changed.

“We’re rebuilding the plane while we’re in the air,” Beich said. “It’s hard not knowing where we’re going with all of this, so many unknowns.”

Beich was forced to end the 2020 school year completely virtually rather than at the 803 Sharon Ave. E. building. He said the approach with band classes has been the same as in-person, but it only covers about a fifth of what they’d normally tackle.

Without any performance opportunities on the horizon in the fall, he said the focus was keeping the students playing. Beich said they took advantage of some warmer days in January to get some socially-distanced group practice outside for the first time in almost a year.

More recently, he said they’ve started some small group work with students in the high school theater. Students are required to wear a special musician’s face covering with a small hole for the instrument’s mouthpiece. A bell cover is placed on the opposite end of the instrument to help prevent any contaminants from spreading.

“With that PPE and adherence, I think it’s nine feet between kids, we’ve moved the kids out of the band room and into the theater so they’re well-spaced and wearing PPE so we can play indoors now under these conditions,” Beich said.

Beich said he saw mixed results in the success of his students progressing as musicians through the virtual lessons and assignments. For some students, he said the virtual setup was highly successful and allowed them to demonstrate their musical prowess. For some students, he said he doesn’t have to tell them to practice because they play all the time anyway.

For others, a number of factors made it tough. Some students struggled with the technological issues involved with the virtual Zoom lessons, while others had to wrestle with much more serious issues at home.

Beich said for every student not quite as successful in their virtual assignments or lessons, there’s a story.

“The best quote I’ve seen that really resonated is we’re all in the same storm; some folks are riding it out in a yacht and some folks are riding it out in a rowboat,” Beich said. “And that goes to speak to everyone’s personal condition.”

Did their parents lose their job? Do they have younger siblings to take care of at home? Do they have to work full-time because their parents are out of work? Beich said these are all real issues some students have had to address on top of trying to adjust to virtual remote learning this past year.

Beich said they’ve been able to practice in the theater for just a few weeks now and he can get a better idea of students’ progressions. He said he can see more clearly how students are negotiating instructions, how well they know their instruments, and how technically sound and confident they are as performers.

Senior Stephanie Foryan said she has been taking private lessons with an instructor in Wenatchee through Zoom in addition to her work with the high school program. Foryan said the biggest challenge with practicing virtually through Zoom or other platforms is the quality of the sound each person hears on their end.

“You can’t really tell what we sound like,” she said. “There’s also significant lag. it just kind of depends where you live, too, and I live out in the country.”

Foryan said it has been nice practicing in person in small groups, but the required musician’s masks can make playing a little challenging. She said the mask tends to get in the way of her mouth and instrument, making things especially tough for a wind instrument player like herself.

But, Foryan said she’s glad she gets the chance to play with her classmates in person again and rekindle some of their band traditions.

“After rehearsals, we have the tradition of going to Shari’s and getting pie, so we’ve been able to do that even with limited capacities at tables,” she said. “So I can talk to them and see what they’re up to.”

Foryan said she’s been so caught up with school she hasn’t even thought about having a “last performance” as a senior. She said she doesn’t know what that might look like, but she’s hopeful to get one last chance to perform with her band mates.

While keeping students like Foryan playing has been a goal for the year, Beich said he wanted to keep the kids happy.

“What is it about our curriculum that we can leverage to keep them happy?” Beich asked rhetorically. “We’ve done a number of things to try and keep them connected, including virtual game nights.”

Beich said he and fellow band teacher Pablo Hernandez gave some private one-on-one lessons through Zoom and in-person, socially-distanced. While not as effective as working in a larger group, he said the private lessons have been “workable” to help students improve.

Sophomore Sam Elliot said it’s been nice with his “band homies” practicing again. Elliot said practicing in person is a huge benefit to practicing alone because of the importance of everyone being in sync when they perform.

“If you’re playing along, it’s good,” Elliot said. “But playing with other people, I think it helps you learn a lot better. Band isn’t about playing with yourself, it’s about playing with other people, too.”

Setting up a time for students to practice together, with the student population broken up into two cohorts, has been a challenge. Beich said he wants to set up at least once or twice a week to meet outdoors for rehearsals.

Beich said he isn’t sure if they’ll be able to perform for the Moses Lake Spring Festival this year or if they’ll even be having a parade. But, he said he is looking at alternative outdoor performance options this spring.

“If, by chance, there was a Spring Fest and there was a parade, I would like to have something as part of that,” Beich said. “The alternative things would include maybe one weekend where we can have the band doing a socially-distanced outdoor performance event at the amphitheater, something like that.”

Beich said he is also looking into having a live performance tied in with graduation ceremonies for the high school in May, but those things are still up in the air for now.

Casey McCarthy can be reached via email at cmccarthy@columbiabasinherald.com.