While teaching online has been an option for some time, there has been a sudden increase in online lessons while we are all staying home and trying to slow the spread of the virus. I have recently started teaching online as well, and while I am definitely not an expert, I have been doing a lot of thinking and reading about how to conduct effective online music lessons so that my students are not getting a sub-par experience online.
Pros
First, let’s go over some of the benefits of teaching online and dwell on the positives of the situation. You can stay at home and eliminate some gas expenses or studio rental expenses you may have had. You can reach more people and expand your “range” to anywhere in the world. You can have more flexibility in your schedule. This setup will likely also make your students more comfortable, especially if they are young, since they are in a familiar environment.
Teaching online, I have found, also forces you to think more carefully about what you are doing. Because of the limitations we are about to address, you are going to need to be more creative perhaps in how you teach. This type of critical thinking and self-evaluation will sharpen your teaching skills even when you are not online, I would bet.
All of these pros are really great things to think about. I would not be surprised if more instructors expand their businesses to include online lessons after being forced into them this year!
Cons
The downsides to teaching online are also important to think about, and these are the ones we need to get strategic about overcoming. First, you need to have a good internet connection. Living in a more rural area, I understand the struggles of a bad connection. Luckily, this is getting better all the time even in areas like mine, so hopefully you are not too affected by this. Being online also means that you need to get used to the lag time, no matter how good your connection is. There is going to be space between you speaking and the student actually hearing and responding, and this new rhythm in the lesson might be frustrating.
Because of this lag, you are also no longer able to play with your student. And this includes any sort of clapping, snapping, or singing exercises that you used to do together. If you want them to play with a metronome they must use their own. And that transitions smoothly into the new difficulty of students having their own equipment and set up. They need a way to record video and audio and they might need some instructions during or before the first online lesson on how to set up so that you can see and hear them properly. You cannot lean around or even walk around your student to examine their technique but your view is fixed.
This limitation makes me feel like I can’t see them very well, but I also can’t hear as well. Without having my student invest in a microphone for their device, the audio I am getting will never be really great and that makes me feel limited in how I can teach good tone color, something I really try to focus on with my oboe students.
And finally, while they may be more comfortable at home, they may also be more distracted. You are not going to be able to control the environment and they might have siblings or pets running around that steal some attention. All of these drawbacks to online teaching I think can ultimately be overcome or worked around. Here is some advice for teaching your lessons!
The Strategies
All of these are going to be possible for people like me who are just starting out with this and are not investing in extra equipment. In case you are curious, I have been using Zoom for most students, and even before we were all staying in our homes, I was teaching a friend on Facebook video chat. I use a laptop and the camera and mic that came with it. These don’t fix all the downsides and some may feel like poor substitutions for in-person lessons, but teaching techniques like these with all the built-in pros of online instruction can make for a really great teaching experience online.
Speak slowly: Because we are working with lag times and less than amazing mics, be sure not to speak too fast. I have a tendency to do this when I am excited and have too many great tips for my students! But relaxing and speaking slower and maybe a little louder than usual will help keep things from getting muddied.
Use more specific words: Without being in the room to gesture, point, manually manipulate your students, pull out the right music, etc. you are going to have to use your words carefully. Get better at describing what you want them to change or when you are moving on to the next exercise. Be descriptive and colorful to get your message across.
Talk less: Also really helpful when working through screens has been to do more demonstration than description. Their attention is more on you I find when you are actually in the room, but when you are suddenly reduced to a square in the room (and all those possible distractions are in their house!) it is harder to listen to you drone on and pay attention. So keep your sentences short and effective and play for them what you want them to do which is usually more interesting and sometimes way more helpful in any teaching situation.
Practice Parroting: Because we cannot play with our students, which is a deep loss, having your students mimic you in a back and forth interaction is the next best thing. Instead of playing a piece together, you play a phrase, he plays a phrase, you play the next phrase, he plays that phrase…. This still gives the student the opportunity to compare his playing to yours.
Be more prepared: You might need to think ahead more. Some lessons in-person work fine when you teach based on what the student has prepared or what you are noticing the student is particularly lacking in that day and you go from there. But because visuals and audio are a little more limited, you need to know even more what you are looking for from them. Make sure your student gets the email you sent and can print the music you want to work on. Think about what you want to work on so that you know if you need them to sit at a different angle this lesson. Let them know that if they want to bring in something new, they need a way to get that to you so you can see it with them. Think about what your student is seeing and make sure you are set up well and have enough light in the room. You might need your student to mark the measure numbers in his music so you can be on the same page…or measure rather. Try to imagine the lesson and think ahead as much as possible.
Ask the student to move: Having my student moving around a lot is something I do not feel super comfortable with yet. But sometimes I need them to be more sideways, or farther away, or closer up and ultimately if you just ask they don’t seem to be bothered by this too much. So don’t feel as awkward about this as I do! Also, while this has not happened to me yet, if there are distractions around them that are really disrupting the lesson, speak up about it or maybe contact the parent about adjusting the set up. No one wants the lesson time to be wasted.
Teach them note-taking: This is a great time to push your students to write more in their music if you have not been doing that. There are some things that I may write for them, and now I just tell them to do it. If it is a new marking they are learning about, draw it on your copy, hold it up close to the camera and have them copy. You can also dictate their assignments for the week to them for them to write. Taking notes and writing in your music are two great skills that online lessons might expose a student to more than he might have been otherwise.
Use Google Docs: Another way to get notes or assignments to students is to use Google Docs so that can access them from any device. This is an option that appeals to me a lot, especially since the same document can be added to each week giving them opportunities for easy review, but you could also email them each week.
Thoughts?
What are some other tips that you have? Do you want to do online lessons long-term, or have you been doing that already? I hope this was helpful for you. I am definitely open to more advice, so let me know in the comments what helped you or what else you do for effective online teaching!