The Upside To Teaching Online Piano Lessons During A Pandemic
The pandemic has undoubtably been a challenging time for all of us working within music education, having to either quickly adapt to delivering our lessons online via Zoom or sometimes even losing students and income altogether — it has not been an easy ride.
I must admit, my first few weeks adjusting to online lessons was something I hope to never experience again; there were countless issues from the student struggling to understand a task without proper practical demonstration to losing internet connection every five minutes, everything that could go wrong, did. However, as time went on I started to get used to the “new normal” and also began to appreciate the hidden benefits of it.
1. I had more time to create resources and mark student work
When delivering lessons in person, it was traveling to student’s houses that took up the majority of my time. This meant that I had less time to create resources and mark any homework my students would submit which of course had a negative affect on their learning and progression. Whilst delivering lessons online, I could spend the time I would usually be traveling to create tasks and help sheets to aid my students in between our lessons.
2. Parents were able to take a more active role in their child’s learning
When working in person, my biggest barrier was keeping the parent actively involved in what their child was working on and learning in our lessons. Of course I would give the parent a quick update before leaving to the next pupil (“X did really well today, they work on a, b and c and their homework is d”) but for me this wasn’t always enough to help parental involvement and I feel this is a key element, especially with the younger pupils. During online delivery, it was stipulated that parents had to sit in on the lessons due to safeguarding laws in the UK and due to this, parents got a first hand experience of their child’s learning and progress which not only helped teacher-parent communication but also helped re-enforce the benefits of music for the parent.
3. My students became more independent learners
Although there was an obvious downside to not being there to physically demonstrate a new technique, the lack of face-to-face support also forced my students to gain the confidence to essentially teach themselves and work on their own ways to overcome any sort of hurdle. This not only made my job easier because of their increased musical intelligence, it also made them enjoy learning a lot more and prove to themselves that techniques and pieces of music they previously struggle with on their own could be achieved with the right amount of work.
4. My students began to use technology to aid their learning
Pre-pandemic, a lot of my students hadn’t been exposed to software like Garageband, Logic Pro and Sibelius and MuseScore, This made it sometimes difficult to explain something using this software. Nowadays, al of my students are becoming more and more adept at using all of the above software packages to learn, demonstrate and compose in their own time. We live in a very technological age so being comfortable to use the industry standard software is essential, even at a young age!
I am now back to in-person lessons, which I prefer purely because I feel that my students are far more engaged and therefore learn more. That being said, I wouldn’t object to working online again should the need arise, there are downsides to it of course, like everything in life but the above list are just a few benefits I noticed during my time working within online teaching and learning.
How did you all find it? Leave your stories of success and horrors below!
