When They Cant Rock In Person, These Kids Rock Online.

In the interest of full disclosure, I am the instructor for these amazing kids. And from time to time, I may wax rhapsodic about how proud they make me on a regular basis. So forgive me in advance if I gush a bit here and there.

Symbol For A Theory, and Catacomb Stew are two bands in the Bangor Rocks! program, which is part of the Maine Academy of Modern Music. Every weekend throughout the fall and winter, we've been meeting up at the Bangor Arts Exchange to spend our Saturday mornings in full rock mode.

Naturally, like all events/gatherings affected by COVID-19, we had to pause our sessions, and re-group with the home office in southern Maine to figure out our plan. Thankfully, in a combination of Google Classroom and Hangouts Meet, we can all video chat through our lesson, and talk though parts.

It's cool, because the kids all have their instruments ready, and teach each other things. Sadly, the technology doesn't quite allow for them all to jam in real time, but if one person is struggling with a part that another one understands, they can show it to the other. It's so cool to watch them help each other out!

Obviously, there's no substitute to watching them all together in the room, playing their hearts out. Often, I get kind of jealous. It's been a long time since I've had that wide open, unfiltered passion for music. It's amazing to witness.

But for now, until we can all get back in the same room again, we'll hop online, share some stories, and then get down to business. It may just be an online band-aid for the time being, but we still make it rock.