What to do at Lessons during COVID-19

  1. Please put your mask on before you come in.  If you have forgotten to bring one, I will have one for you.

  2. When you get here, I’ll open the door - I’ll be wearing my mask.

  3. As soon as you’ve taken off your shoes and hung your coat on the coat stand, please sanitize your hands, or wash them in the powder room if you prefer.

  4. Your singing station is hard to miss - there’s a HEPA filter, music stand, coat stand with shelving for your things, a chair, and a little carpet for you to stand on. Please keep your mask on.

  5. At the end of your lesson, please sanitize your hands, gather your things, and let me open the door for you.

Studio Pandemic Protocol

Air quality:

  • The studio is now equipped with an appropriately sized HEPA filter positioned in exhalation range of the singer.

  • There will be a gap of at least 30 minutes between singers so that I can circulate enough fresh air through the studio.

  • Studio CO2 is maintained below 600 ppm. (We can’t measure virus molecules but if they are present in a person, they are exhaled along with CO2, which we can measure. Keeping CO2 levels below 600 ppm means we have diluted possible virus concentration enough that infection is unlikely.)

Other engineering:

  • The singer’s station is set up to allow approximately 3 metres (10 feet) of separation between us at all times. 

Personal protective equipment:

  • I will be masked, with a non-medical N95 quality mask, to protect students.

  • Students will be masked. A person can sing while masked, however there is apparently a CO2 build-up within the mask, which makes the wearer short of breath after a little while. We take a few seconds periodically to ventilate, for this reason. 

  • Custom singer’s masks are available at cost through the studio.

Disinfection:

  • hand sanitizing - upon entering and exiting the studio

  • Disinfecting between lessons - this applies to all contact surfaces, including the front door and anything else someone may have touched (with Spray-Nine and isopropyl alcohol, both listed by Canada Health as effective against coronavirus).

Screening:

  • Alberta Health expects all home businesses to ask standard screening questions before each lesson.  I’ll be asking the same questions your health practitioner would be asking, before the lesson starts.  If you’re feeling at all ill, let me know, and we can either meet online, or reschedule.

Sources*:

Alberta Health Guidance for Singing and Vocal Performance

University of Colorado/Boulder:

  • aerosol study for singing and wind instruments

  • Jose Jimenez Group Covid-19 Airborne Transmission Estimator for studios, classrooms, choirs etc. (presented to members of the National Association of Teachers of Singing in August 2020)

  • *studio protocol is governed by Alberta Health regulations. Additional measures come from The University of Colorado aerosol study.