During the last few months, following the global pandemic of Covid-19, many music schools as well as music teachers switched to online music lessons. At The Musication, we expanded our online music lesson options as well. When it comes to online music lessons, teachers need to re-evaluate some parts of their teaching routines and make some changes on the way they worked on things in their in-person lessons. It might not be easy for students to get used to online lessons and take their online lessons as seriously as their in-person lessons, mainly if they are not used to being online.
Both students and teachers require some adjustments moving their music lessons to the online world. One of the most challenging things for teachers is keeping students engaged during the online lessons, as they cannot have the face-to-face interaction. For example, making physical adjustments is not possible any longer and teachers should find innovative ways to attract students’ attention to small details to help them improve. The followings are some helpful tips to encourage students’ learning with teaching music lessons online:
What Are the Basics to Have for a Great Online Music Lesson?
Teachers need to communicate with their students about the basics they require for their online lessons. Similar to other in-person music lessons, the online music lessons should happen in a quiet setting, so students and teachers can avoid interruptions. During the online lessons, having a good set of headphones reduces noise and distractions.
Both teachers and students need to have a decent internet connection and good quality webcam. If your internet connection is not strong or your bandwidth is not sufficient, your lesson cuts out or freezes very often and you cannot enjoy your lessons. These days, most of the students and teachers have access to a tablet, computer, or a cell phone that they can use for their online music lessons. The ideal situation is having access to a second device during the lessons in case students or teachers need tracks for instrumental or vocal accompaniment or they require any document for demonstrating visual instructions.
After making sure that we have the above-mentioned basics, we should have in mind that keeping students engaged in online music lessons is very challenging. At The Musication we started a new program called The Musication's blended music learning. In this program we create a virtual learning space for each student, so they can communicate more easily with their teachers.
Creating a virtual learning space, students supplement their one-on-one online music lessons by completing online multimedia coursework on The Musication online platform. Also, blended music learning allows students to work at their own pace, communicate with their teacher at all times, and make sure they fully understand new concepts before their upcoming one-on-one music lesson.
Another great way to keep the students engaged is providing them with the opportunity to display an audio or a video of their practice for their teacher. Through The Musication’s portal, students can record their practice and send it directly to their teachers for feedback. Musication interactive learning platform collects each student’s weekly music practice data and measures students’ music learning progress.
A different option for showcasing students’ talent would be incorporating them in their own music videos and promoting the videos on social media. In this way, teachers encourage their students to continue working hard, so they can give their best performance. Appropriate use of technology makes The Musication’s online Music lessons even more effective than traditional music lessons.