Murray County Central Schools Band Director Mike Helgeson recalls the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic last spring when the music stopped playing.

“We had just had a concert and we were getting ready for a large group contest and we missed out on it by a couple of days because nothing happened,” he said.

After that he had to do some quick research on long-distance teaching with his music students at home.

He was able to execute lesson plans online with students, but found it challenging with some students having weak internet service.

“Some of the online aspects are pretty beneficial. I’ve been using a website called musictheory.net,” he said. “The hardest part was reading everything and just kind of focusing in on what I want to use, because there were a lot of resources.”

This school year, his students returned to school for instruction except for one week before Thanksgiving. However, social distancing guidelines still make teaching music to large number of students challenging.

“It’s really been interesting. I’m not teaching anything in my normal areas (in the school). For the elementary, I teach my lessons on a stage with everything else going on. A lot of screaming kids,” he said. “I teach my ensemble lessons over at the high school in our new gym that we built a few years ago. Because the kids are not wearing masks as we are playing. They have bell covers (on instruments).

“We’ve gotten used to it over time, especially the high schoolers. They really adapted well, but it’s still really tough when you are in a big space. The sound just kind of escapes. When you are 12 feet away from each other, it’s really hard. They (students) can only hear the people that are right next to them. It makes it tough.”

Meanwhile, Helgeson said there are no public performances this school year. The students are only doing recordings.

“With playing in a gym, we made the best recordings we can. It’s been tough, but the kids have really stepped up and made some pretty good recordings. One thing that we are going to actually be able to do in person is a solo ensemble contest through the Minnesota State School League and we’ve figured out a way to do it.”

Helgeson said the judges will go to the school and be in the back of the auditorium and the students will play on the stage.

“We will be able to perform and get some live feedback,” he said.

Other than that, it’s been a year of no performances.

“We didn’t have a marching season. All of our parades were canceled. We are a parade marching band, not a field marching band. We haven’t done any pep bands. We have no concerts. We didn’t have large group contests.

The students also missed out on a trip to Disney World in Florida to perform.

“That’s probably the toughest thing — the kids not having that outlet. They’ve been understandably disappointed,” he said.

Helgeson even had to put his personal musical outlets on hold. He enjoys playing the trumpet win the Route 68 jazz band based in Minneota and played the French horn in the Worthington symphony orchestra. All of those outlets have been canceled this past year.

“But last week we talked about not having any regrets about this year. Even though we have a lot of things that we’ve missed, compared to some places we are lucky that we are even in person. I hear from some band directors in bigger cities that they’re just starting to get back on having parts of their band. So you got to look at the silver linings.”