Covid-19 has forced unlikely industries to adapt to remote learning at lightning speed. Here, we spoke with a piano teacher from New Jersey for a glimpse into what worked and what didn’t. By gaining insight from other professions, we can apply overlapping ideas to our own endeavors.
What are some of the biggest challenges you faced in teaching remotely?
One of the challenges with teaching music remotely is the time delay. A virtual time delay makes it impossible to play together in real-time with students, which can be a useful tool for reinforcing steady pulse and interpretation. It also prevents us from counting or tapping along with our students to help them maintain a steady beat. However, this challenge proved to be a benefit to students, as it forced them to become more independent. Students have become better at setting their own tempos, counting off before they start playing, and using their own metronomes at home as a result.
In a remote lesson, teachers also cannot write on the students’ music. Having students mark their own music takes more time, but ultimately helps them remember better, and encourages them to get into the habit of writing in reminders whenever needed.
Sometimes, poor sound quality or weak internet connections make it difficult to assess students’ performance. To overcome this, I occasionally ask a student to record a video of themselves playing and submit it for feedback. Doing so can provide a more accurate representation of their playing, and also offers the opportunity for the student and me to watch the video together and discuss. Whether it be through recordings or during live lessons, students have been required to self-assess more often and more critically.
Which types of students struggled the most when switching to virtual?
Each student is different. Some transitioned to virtual instruction smoothly. They continued to progress steadily, and in some cases, progressed even more quickly, given that their other activities, such as sports, were significantly limited or canceled, allowing them to spend more time practicing. These previously “over-scheduled” students also seemed less tired and stressed.
Others seemed to have a difficult time dealing with the stress of the pandemic and the disruption to their lives. These students seemed to miss seeing their friends and became somewhat anxious or depressed, which can inhibit learning. With these students, it is essential to be sensitive to their feelings and support them emotionally. Our lessons can provide important structure in their lives during these times, and music can also be an expressive outlet for them. Focusing on these elements helped us find ways to let music become a source of stress relief and comfort for them.
Because I usually teach in a community music school setting, switching to virtual instruction gave me a glimpse into each student’s home and practice environment. In general, the students who have limited distractions tend to do the best, and students with pianos located in busy parts of the house, have more trouble focusing.
Which online tools and resources do you find most useful for remote piano teaching?
For conducting lessons, I use Zoom, FaceTime, and Skype. Zoom offers the benefit of screen sharing, which can be very effective for younger students who are still learning new rhythm and reading concepts or need more guidance with marking reminders in their music. I can share my screen with a scan of the music and show them how to mark their own book.
Google Slides has also been an invaluable tool, allowing me to virtually produce what I might normally write on a whiteboard in person. I will likely continue using Google Slides for this purpose when we resume in-person instruction, as I believe these visual aids are an improvement over traditional flashcards and whiteboards, and can be easily adapted, manipulated, and shared. For notating short musical examples or rhythms, the Google Slides add-on “Flat for Docs” is extremely useful.
For scheduling and studio management, my school had already been using MyMusicStaff. This program became even more useful during the pandemic because it allowed me to easily keep track of the many schedule changes that were necessitated by changes to each the family’s schedule. It also can store contact information for the various platforms. In my daily agenda in MyMusicStaff, I can click on the student and connect through the pre-selected platform at the lesson time. This way, I did not need to keep track of each student’s contact information or waste time in between lessons switching platforms.
How has your lesson planning been impacted by going virtual versus in person?
My lesson planning has become more time-consuming and thoughtful. In a virtual lesson or group class, it’s even more important to have a clear plan. Preparing my Google Slides, YouTube videos, or music scans in advance, and being able to switch seamlessly helps ensure that I don’t lose the students’ attention during transitions in the lesson. Likewise, carefully planned steps and clear, concise language are increasingly necessary, as any downtime or lack of clarity becomes magnified and risks losing the student’s attention in a virtual setting.
I found that in some cases, I was able to get more done in the lesson, so I needed to plan more activities. In a 45-minute in-person lesson at our school, some time would be spent walking into the studio, unpacking, and at the end, packing up and walking out. In a virtual setting, nearly the full 45 minutes is devoted to instruction. I also found myself planning farther in advance, to allow time for communicating with parents and sending any materials that needed to be printed before the lesson. Adapting our typical activities, especially concerning movement, rhythm, and reading, to a virtual setting required me to be more creative. All of these changes, no doubt, improved my teaching and have benefited my students.
What are some of the ways you keep remote learning interesting and fun?
In a remote lesson, as in person, it’s crucial to plan each lesson so that the activities are varied. Students sometimes need to stand up and move around to stay energized and engaged! I think about which activities will require the most effort and focus, and try to keep those towards the beginning of the lesson, but interspersed with activities that will be easier for them. Drills tend to translate well to a remote setting, since they can often be fast-paced, and I’ve tried to make any drill-type activities even more game-like, with points, or more exciting visuals. Just as in person, it’s always a good idea to start and end the lesson with success and fun, such as a piece the student knows well and can play easily, or a game.
Our school also offers group classes, which we transitioned over to Zoom. One of the great benefits was the fact that students could mute themselves and play on their own pianos, rather than taking turns, as we do in person. I was able to structure activities more similarly to how I might teach in a keyboard lab setting. One of the projects that was highly successful was having my students learn familiar tunes, such as “You Are My Sunshine” and “Can’t Help Falling In Love.”
After learning the melodies, we added chords and gradually created more complex accompaniments. They were able to mute themselves and practice each new step on their own before sharing with the group, and this kind of creative work very much engaged them throughout the class. I have also used this approach with students learning new warm-ups, sightreading musical examples, or performing rhythms. On mute, they can try by themselves, so each student is participating, and then someone can perform “solo” for the group out loud.
In person, students also comment on each other’s performances, and some are more forthcoming than others. Using the chat feature in Zoom helped us teach students how to make constructive and positive comments, and also encouraged the quieter students to share their ideas.
