For ASU Fine Arts majors, missing half of their spring semester was only the first of many cancelations that COVID-19 brought for them. Seeing no end in sight to canceled performances and Zoom rehearsals, Maggie Reynolds, a sophomore Music Therapy major, shares her perspective on what's like to be Fine Arts Major during a global pandemic.
Autriya Maneshni:
The Gammage stage is empty. The spotlights have turned off. No sound of the people filling in the rows of seats and especially, no sound of the many performances by ASU students.
While the pandemic might be hard for all us as we adjust to classes on Zoom and trying to remember our masks right before we leave for class, for one group in particular it’s been a little bit more rough. I’m talking about the Fine Arts majors. Fine Arts students have a lot of things involved in their major that require mass gatherings, such as rehearsals and performances and even some study groups. They also might have a little bit of a harder time trying to hear the right pitch of the note through a computer speaker.
I sat down and talked with Maggie Reynolds about her experience as a Music Therapy major. Maggie has been doing her whole semester remotely. Not only is Maggie a very talented musician, she also shares some of the things in her life that have been keeping her grounded when it comes to dealing with the pandemic.
Maggie Reynolds:
I’m Maggie Reynolds and I’m a second-year Music Therapy major on the Tempe Campus of ASU. So, I also right now am working as the arts and creative expression Event Programmer for Barrett. So I plan all the art-related events which also has been kind of a transition online because all our events right now are via Zoom. I kind of have two aspects there of planning events online that are art-related and doing art-related classes online.
Autriya Maneshni:
Nice! So, you’re pretty much art all the way.
Maggie Reynolds:
I do music and art all day long. And I am not on campus right now. I’m primarily at home and I don’t really go out.
Autriya Maneshni:
Right. That was actually going to be my first question. So you definitely you just said that you’re not on campus, so how has that been as a Fine Arts major? I don’t know much about your major, but I know you guys have practice rooms and obviously, you don’t have access to that right now. So how has that been?
Maggie Reynolds:
I’m lucky enough to live in a house that has a piano. My main instrument is piano. I actually kind of dodged a bullet.
The practice rooms are great except for there’s a lot of students and not a lot of rooms comparatively. I would spend maybe at least an hour every time I went to practice just waiting for a room to open up and now, I can just practice immediately. So I’m really lucky with that, but it is less private.
Granted, I usually just live with my boyfriend, sometimes his parents come, but it’s definitely less private so it’s a little bit more awkward. That actually hasn’t been the worst transition. It’s hard just not being around other students for moral support and for studying purposes because it’s hard to do our classes on Zoom and it’s even harder to get people together and study on Zoom.
Autriya Maneshni:
What are some of the things that you’re involved in as a Fine Arts major that have been really hard to do right now or get done because of your situation and because of quarantine?
Maggie Reynolds:
I’m right now in choir. I’m in the women’s choir called “Soul Singers.” I’m also in Class Voice (Classical Voice). Obviously, we can’t all get together and do choir. That’s not a good option for (the) coronavirus.
Our teacher has been scrambling a little bit and we’ve been trying to do a lot of assignments that are about talking to community members about music and just trying to get to the bottom of how our voice works, versus actually singing songs. It’s a whole different kind of feel.
In my Class Voice, my TA is doing the best she can, I think she’s doing amazing, but it’s different doing it over Zoom. You kind of lose some of this physical aspect. You can’t always gauge your posture; you can’t always gauge are they breathing correctly? Besides really with the sound. It’s been a transition to try to figure out how to manage these kinds of classes that would be obviously way better in person, but to make them meaningful during this time.
Autriya Maneshni:
You did mention that you’re in choir, so I’m obviously going to guess that you were going to have performances this year that got canceled. Were there ones that you were specifically looking forward to that you’re not going to be able to do this year that you wish you could have because of this virus going on?
Maggie Reynolds:
I kind of went into this school year knowing that we just weren’t going to perform. Last semester, we had a great repertoire. I’ll shout out Kiernan Steiner, that’s our director. She picked amazing repertoire for us and we didn’t get to perform it. It was really really sad. I am missing the performances that we could have had if it weren’t for Corona, but I think that no one’s hopes were super high for this year.
Autriya Maneshni:
I totally get that. I remember I wanted to audition for an acapella group, then I was like I’m at home and I feel like that’s just going to be awkward because I think they’re doing rehearsals in person. So it’s just been rough because in my mind I was like, “This is going to be the year I’m going to go back to music,” but I’m not which is sad.
Maggie Reynolds:
I know. It’s so rough. And I heard that acapella auditions were kind of strange this year because they were like video auditions and Zoom auditions.
Autriya Maneshni:
What has been your highest high and what has been your lowest low this year so far?
Maggie Reynolds:
My highest high, I love event planning. I would love to do it in person. But what’s so great about doing it online is you actually get to bring in all these students who necessarily wouldn’t have gone to events, like students from the West campus come and the Downtown campus and the Poly campus. Which is so great because these wouldn’t be coming to these events if they were in person; but because it’s on Zoom is more accessible. So that’s my highest high.
My lowest low is that I take a class--I take my theory class and part of that is oral skills, where basically you listen to the pieces and you write out the notes. That’s like the very basic version of it. Computers don’t really do all the notes so well, especially higher notes. I found that anything above an E5 doesn’t come out and anything below like a G3 doesn’t come out. That’s been my lowest low because I’m like I’m trying, but I just can’t hear it at all.
Autriya Maneshni:
I totally get that and just thinking about that makes me shiver because of how hard that sounds, but good on you for being good at that because I could never.
As a Fine Arts major, I know that it’s hard to be with other Fine Arts majors. So, what are some ways that you’re staying productive? I know you said that it's good that you have a piano at home, but what are other ways? What do you do? Do you practice alone? In the shower? Tell me about that.
Maggie Reynolds:
So right now, as a Music Therapy major what’s really important is that you learn piano, voice and guitar. So I play my guitar a lot. I try to play every song that I’m learning for voice on my guitar and my piano with it so I can practice. Besides that, I think I just try to be practicing as much as possible but honestly it gets a little bit difficult with timing because I take other classes too and everything online is so much more demanding than it was in person.
Autriya Maneshni:
I feel like there are more assignments than there used to be.
Maggie Reynolds:
Yeah, all of a sudden, I’m taking an online class, but this class also has this in-person (element). So, it feels like I am taking this class like a double load.
Autriya Maneshni:
Another thing is, other students basically freshman, that are Fine Arts majors that are basically going into this without being able to perform with other Fine Arts majors, being able to join choir or look forward to the performances. So, what do you say to those people that are kind of in a funk that are maybe even thinking about changing their major? And as a Music Therapy major and a Fine Arts major what is kind of your advice for those people?
Maggie Reynolds:
My advice is, for one, participate in breakout rooms. I know this is like a thing now where everyone is like, “Oh my god, the awkward breakout rooms!” and it’s awkward because people don’t participate. In choir, we have been pretty regularly going into small four or five-person breakout rooms, and if you participate and you talk to people in the rooms, you’re going to feel more connected. That’s some of my biggest social interactions nowadays. So that would be my biggest advice to them; is to participate when your teacher is giving you the chance to be social.
Also, there’s three more years full of performances and basically, all your band instructors and choral instructors and orchestra instructors get to spend basically a whole year picking out really good repertoires. I would say that next year is probably going to go off (with music).
Autriya Maneshni:
Kind of as a wrap-up question, what is something that you are looking forward to this year even though things are kind of whack and online and it’s something that would be related to your major? What would that be?
Maggie Reynolds:
I’m really looking forward to, for one, I’m declaring my minor soon. So, I’m really looking forward to that. I’m going to minor in Family and Human Development, so I'm going to start taking some of those classes. I’m also really looking forward to next semester, I’m taking a Repertoire for Music Therapy class, which I’m just really pumped for. I’m hoping to learn a lot of new stuff that’s going to be relevant. It’s really nice because second-year it becomes way more relevant.
I would say those are my two really big things, but honestly, I appreciate everybody who’s trying to make this new normal work. I find that a lot of people, it’s not ideal, but they’re dealing with and they're trying.
Autriya Maneshni:
I love that and I love that you still have a positive outlook despite what you’re going through. I feel like it’s very hard. My job, my major is super easy because I’m online anyway, like regardless of what it would be like. I would just have to write stuff. For you, I know it’s a lot more hands-on and I’m just glad that things are going well. Thank you so much Maggie for answering my questions.
Maggie Reynolds:
Yeah! Thank you for calling me.
Autriya Maneshni:
As someone who’s done choir for 7 years, I cannot imagine what it must be like to have rehearsals online. Music is such a personal topic for me, and I can’t wait to see the Gammage stage filled with talented performers again. For the State Press, I’m Autriya Maneshni.
Reach the reporter at amaneshn@asu.edu or follow @autriya_manesh on Twitter.
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