There's Never Been a Better Time to Learn Online.
There's never been a better time to learn online.
Now is the time to start on-line music lessons.
Never before in history has there been so much and so varied an opportunity to learn music so fast! Until last week face to face music lessons were the go.As a child taking piano lessons I was introduced first to middle C and then to simple pieces, scales and so on.Everything taught was regimented to examination standard. As a teenager and several exams later I wanted to bring my newly acquired sheet music "The sounds of Silence" to lesson to learn. "No", was the unexpected reply, "We only do classical music."And so it continued until I left school and moved to a small country town. I took up piano teaching and immediately asked my students "What would you like to learn?" I've been asking the same question over the past 39 years and am happy to say that I have had many contented students and parents who have played and heard modern songs of their own choice, along with the classical repertoire of examination standard.
Today we live in a different, rapidly changing world. We are forced by Coronavirus fears to separate and survive.A myriad of teachers are suddenly offering on line music lessons.Understandably questions arise:"Will my child's lessons be compromised?" "Will I get value for money with online lessons?" I want to take this opportunity to address some of the interesting points raised when transitioning to online learning of any kind. Some seemingly obvious drawbacks might be:
- Lack of instant answers from the teacher thus extending lesson time
- Lack of hands on correction of posture, hand position and fingering
- Internet connection hiccups
Well, that's all I can really think of. If you have more, please let me know. As far as getting instant answers from the teacher goes, I feel that there is possibly too much of this in any typical face to face lesson anyway.Online music students are inevitably required to think more carefully, become more focused, be more aware of their own actions and create deeper understanding of the relationship of the aural and visual components of playing an instrument.
Creating and maintaining correct and relaxed posture of body, hands and fingers remains firmly the responsibility of the teacher, at least for a few years for beginners.However I do not remember my teacher, Miss Dorothy McGregor, using any physical touch to correct my posture in any way. Dear Miss McGregor used to raise both of her arms in the air, asking me to do the same and say "Just give them to God, dear." What she meant was just let all tension go from your arms. Then we would lower our arms together and relax into playing position with rounded fingers and flattish wrists...see it is not that hard is it? All this can be done in an online learning lesson as you can see. In order to get the best value from online lessons it really is important to have the best internet provider and hardware you can afford. There's never been so many choices of free online communication apps available. We can teach and learn simply with Facetime, Zoom, Skype and many other platforms. No need for expensive microphones and cameras unless you really want to use them.
Happy kids = Happy familiesPleased do contact me today to get your first online lesson for FREE.If you have never learn music before now is your time to start.Heather Nel 0418 563 226.
