Supporting 20 talented students to study music

 In December last year, KMS was finally given the go-ahead to open again. It was a bit late to get things going at that time, but nonetheless, it meant that people could look forward to a new year, with some lessons resuming on site in January.

For many of the students, the time closed off meant that they could not study. In some cases, practising itself was difficult. The brass students, Ian, Babirye, struggled to stay on top of their game. No school often meant also no structure and as such it was hard for them to keep going.Nonetheless, they did make an effort, and not a small one.

"They are very dedicated students for sure, because they show great motivations and are always full of questions which they ask at any opportunity that they get”, their teacher Shafic said. In fact, two of them have done great work in this period, that we should be looking at pushing them up from Grade 2 to Grade 3" he added. Their lips may have been out of "shape" so to speak but their motivation clearly isn’t.

On the singing side of things, physical lessons have not quite been able to get started but safe ways of doing these are being explored. This challenge of not being able to for some was more of a problem than for most.  Immaculate for instance continued to work hard and progressed well enough to make the progression to begin working her way through the Grade 4 and 5 repertoire. She went through a patch where internet data and access to a workable phone were difficult, and this hindered the ability to keep up with lessons. “Her sight-singing continues to improve steadily” her teacher Francis said.

Beatrice continues to be a very enthusiastic student who works with minimal push and is now steadily working through Grade 6 and 7 repertoire, She has been working most recently to polish especially work on foreign language songs and Operatic arias. Seeing as she has completed her Grade five theory, she can now work towards higher Grades in the ABRSM Scheme.

All in all, Kampala Music School continues to open up and new talent is being brought to the fore. There some new prospects recently auditioned that the Writer has interviewed that are bright new prospects. As restrictions begin to ease, the school continues to wake up once again and to sing.

The past few months have been a challenge for our students in coping with life in general and also with their learning. The Lockdown which had meant that people were not able to move, has eased, however, each student has had different experiences. As we move towards opening up, there are a few reflections from those concerned.

All in all, the students are looking forward to the time when we would be able to meet again, which is hopefully soon, but is dependent largely on the government organs.

Babirye noted the challenges she has faced being a musician, for her, not being able to have lessons, personal training and is worried that everything she had learnt before lockdown, she would forget.

Due to the pandemic, the situation has not been easy on her side whereby “I and my family had to struggle hard for a better living. As a music student it has really affected my goals, my plans and expectations in music now are a bit behind and as a person she has not been doing personal practice due to the situation.”

“There's a time when I lost faith in Music, I thought we won't study music again. I couldn't get access to online lessons because of some issues of our phones, which locked us out.”

She was not alone in this struggle, as most students on this programme had neither smartphones, nor computer, nor reliable enough internet to be able to get this forward.

“During the lessons, I was gaining a lot. Right now, all schools are closed so this was sad for me. I feel like when we reopen, we should add some days of the lessons like two to three days in a week and also we need a flashback in the things we were taught to bring back our memories in music but not to just start from where we stopped.”

Phiona also felt the slowdown in acquiring new skills. “I am in lack of new skills due to inability to have lessons, I haven't been able to have my interesting music lessons for a long period and the chance I had to have group practice sessions were put at stake, and physical interaction with fellow musicians was blocked due to social distance and lockdown.”

She resorted to keeping her passion going and moving forward, that she would do some personal research on YouTube.

“The time I was able to have my lessons before COVID-19 my expectations were indeed met and gained a lot and was in a gradual journey of achieving a successful professionalism musically”

The hope for all the students would be the eventual reopening with of with Kampala Music School with Sops guidelines so that they can resume enjoying our lessons plus acquiring new skills.

We look forward to also in the future providing a basis for which students such as those included in this report can also have