Lockdown provides unusual conditions for music lessons!

What unusual times we live in! Having almost the whole world in lockdown certainly creates unique challenges for music teachers, and unique opportunities… many people have more time for practice than they usually have. I have noticed quite an increase in interest in online music lessons in the last couple of weeks.

I had already been moving my teaching to be more online because I live rurally, so I already had many systems in place. I’m still running my real-time webcam lessons using Zoom (similar to skype) and students can send me videos (via my secure upload link). I then respond to the videos by emailing feedback and helpful suggestions.

The advantage of a webcam lesson (over sending a video) is that it is more social to be able to interact in real time. I feel like I am getting to know the student and vice-versa.

However, the advantage of sending a video is that I get to see the student’s best performance and the audio-visual quality is better. If a parent is videoing their child it is also very helpful when the camera can be moved around so I see different angles.

Because both my lessons and video-uploads are booked as one-offs (no regular lesson times) most students are experimenting with a bit of both to see what works best for them.