Providing aid through music

“I first came up with the idea when I noticed how cooped up my sis was, so I started giving her mini music lessons. ... After me teaching her, she started to want to take classical classes that I didn’t know so I set her up with one of my friends and they both loved it. She was kind of the guinea pig,” said Segal.  

Their mother assisted in scheduling a virtual meeting for the lessons and what started out as two sisters exploring a mutual interest, quickly turned into something much bigger. Segal began recruiting a team of fellow musically inclined high school students and launched QuaranTunes, a virtual platform seeking to offer music lessons to children stuck at home. 

“The craziest thing has been the scale and speed it took off. I thought six lessons in one day was big, but as of today we have 65 lessons for the week,” said Segal.

She later said the platform, staffed by volunteer high school and college level musicians, now has an estimate of 20 future lessons scheduled per day. All lessons are offered free of charge with the option to donate at the end once the client can evaluate how much they believe the experience was worth. All donations are going toward the Center for Disaster Philanthropy COVID-19 Response Fund and $700 has already been donated through the group.  

Rebecca Vincent, whose 10-year-old son Jacob is taking guitar lessons through the website, said the experience has been enjoyable and affordable. 

“After his first lesson, my son thanked me and let me know he enjoyed it, then he asked me if it was going to cost a lot, he knows his ice hockey is expensive. It felt so great to let him know that not only is it free, but I was donating to their cause, so he actually was helping by learning guitar,” said Vincent. 

She went on to praise Jacob’s instructor, Zachary Chang-Otanez, who advised the 10-year-old that playing video games could strengthen his hands.

“The teacher was great too, very patient and positive. ... That’s the kind of advice you can only get from an awesome music teacher who is destined to win over their students,” said Vincent. 

Chang-Otanez, a 17-year-old junior at Gunn, said he was “half joking” about the advice, pointing to practice as the best way to strengthen a skill set, but also said he “told the student to play video games to develop their visuomotor control.” 

Beyond the guitar, Chang plays several other instruments including drums, bass, piano and vocals. He developed his skills through self-taught lessons and live performances, noting an opportunity he had to perform at the Milwaukee-based festival, Summerfest. 

“My passion for playing music began at age 3 when I started to tap along to the rhythm of radio songs. I later got my own drum set at the age of 4 and completely taught myself how to play, no lessons, no YouTube videos, no books on percussion. Much later, I learned how to play bass and guitar,” said Chang-Otanez. 

Now with four students, Chang-Otanez is running into issues not experienced during in-person lessons such as poor audio and video connections that can make it difficult to spot finger placement and other errors. Despite these concerns, Chang-Otanez said lessons have been successful and he is thankful for the opportunity to teach. 

Classes have started up for many of the student-teachers associated with QuaranTunes, challenging volunteers to strike a balance between their schooling and their newfound responsibility. To this point, Segal said the team is looking to add more instructors to meet growing demands. 

When asked about the responsibility load, Segal said she has felt a lot of pressure but appreciated her family and the team for lending a hand.  

“We have a lot of new projects and new stuff coming. This has been more difficult than I imagined but I’ve received a lot of support from my parents and my friend’s parents,” said Segal. “I think what we’re doing is really special.”

Visit www.quarantunes.site to learn more about services provided by QuaranTunes.