Music School Embraces Online Learning Through Pandemic

East Brunswick, NJ — Music Notes Academy started by accident nearly twenty years ago. Founder and owner Brandon Kurzawa was asked by a parent to teach his son drums. From there, things snowballed. Now, Music Notes Academy is a fully-fledged music school, offering lessons for just about every instrument in two locations across New Jersey.

“In 2006, I decided to make it more of an official pursuit,” Kurzawa said. “I set up the LLC, started having meetings with the SBA and started to put a lot of effort into it. We've been doing it ever since.”

When the initial pandemic lockdowns began in mid-March of 2020, Kurzawa shut down the academy for what was intended to be an informal spring break.

“I spent that week trying to figure out how to make the school an online school because I just felt that this was going to last a lot longer than 14 days,” Kurzawa said. “I started doing all these demos with Zoom and Google. I had to quickly learn and train everybody how to get acclimated to start that following Monday as an online school.”

Though he considered staggered, distanced, partial reopenings over the Summer and again in the Fall, the interest just wasn’t there — Music Notes Academy has essentially been a fully online school for a full year.

“We started the school year doing in-person on a staggered schedule only on Saturdays,” Kurzawa said. “We didn’t have many parents that wanted to return. So, we’ve pretty much been teaching online the entire ‘21-’22 school year. Little by little, there’s been more interest to come back.”

But the interest to return to regular, in-person instruction is mixed with interest to remain online indefinitely. Despite this combination of differing viewpoints from parents on where to go at this stage of the pandemic, the bottom line for Kurzawa and the Academy has always been on the instruction.

“Just trying to keep students playing music through this covid has really been the bottom-line goal,” Kurzawa said. “Just trying to keep the students' wellness in the front of our minds seemed to be the major objective for each private lesson or class. Just trying to get them to listen to music, to play music. Lowering the objective or goal just to keep them doing something artistic has really been the pursuit. And it’s helped a lot of kids.”

Kurzawa has many students that have even increased their skill level during the pandemic; kids have been practicing more because, in quarantine, they have simply had more time. His students were also in a uniquely advantageous situation, as the Academy has always stressed having the proper equipment at home, including method books that essentially allowed students’ homes to easily turn into an alternative classroom. Nothing was missing, save for in-person contact.

“For our students, it’s always been about a curricular method. All of our students always had method books and sheet music. When Covid happened, all of our students had things to practice at home. The only difference was they weren’t coming to the building anymore,” Kurzawa said. “Having that proper structure pre-Covid helped them get through Covid.”

Throughout the pandemic, Kurzawa shipped students the necessary books, offered free tuning days and free rentals on loaner instruments.

“We just tried to navigate the wave, essentially, day by day,” he said.

And though this new remote learning method was not easy, it did create several intrinsic positives. Comparing a remote lesson to an in-person one, the biggest difference is in usable time. Pre-covid, students would, after packing up their gear and driving to the studio, have to set up, tune up, and warm up — eating a few minutes into the lesson. In this remote situation, the drive time is eliminated and the tuning/warming up time is performed right before the lesson starts, giving students more time for instruction.

“When Covid started, I would tell a lot of the parents, ‘now’s your time to maximize your class time with us.’ When we start at 3 o’clock, we’re jumping right in. And then once we’re done with class, I would tell my students ‘don’t leave the drums. Stay here and practice for 15-20 minutes, work on the stuff that we just worked on to maximize what you’re going to do tomorrow.’ For some of those students, they actually gained more time at the instrument simply because they’re not leaving and coming back.”

Now, the Academy is largely still in the throes of online education. Mixed interest from parents has made it difficult to reopen definitively.

“Enrollment is taking longer than ever because parents want a couple of days to think about it. So that part’s been more difficult, but the interest is definitely there,” Kurzawa said. “We’re just trying to teach music the right way, and keep kids playing music. It’s not easy to do it the right way — reading music, having theory, having goals, being able to perform on their own — but it’s a big mix right now.”

Looking ahead to the Summer and Fall, Kurzawa is hoping for a more complete return to normal, in-person instruction.

“I hope September’s a new rebirth of getting back to normal,” Kurzawa said. “Because I don’t think students can handle any more online. Being in a classroom and having a teacher in the classroom, it’s crucial for any kind of learning.”