Online Lessons are Awesome!
Here we are two months into our post-Covid-19-shutdown world. My last day of in-person teaching was March 20th and that feels like about a year ago. I miss seeing my students and hugging them after a great lesson, but I’m relieved that we’re all staying safe and healthy and that outweighs the missing.
Like so many of us, my initial transition to online working was a learning curve. With a lot of persistence and the patience of my students I’ve designed an online teaching style that’s as good as the in-person experience. In fact there are some huge advantages to taking voice lessons online.
Currently I’m teaching online lessons to students ranging from 6 years old to fully formed and grown adults. We’re having a lot of fun! Read on to see what unique benefits online lessons offer:
I get to meet your kids and pets! It has been such a joy to be invited into your homes and get to know you better. Plus, a snoring dog, a cat that just has to find the windowsill and kids heard in the background never fail to bring a smile on everyone’s face.
Online learning is ideal for ear training! Learning music aurally is a critical skill for all musicians and the time lag online makes for a perfect excuse to dig into this skill. I’ve been drilling my students on identifying major and minor chords, learning new scales, reviewing intervals and more! All ear training is designed to meet students right at their level while pushing them just enough to make it fun and challenging.
You’ll get warm-up tracks to practice with at home! Since I can’t play along with you during the lesson I’ve made prerecorded exercises for you to sing with. As a bonus, you get to keep those recordings to use whenever you want!
I can pay extra close attention to your instrument! I hadn’t realized how much attention playing the piano for my students was taking until I couldn’t do it anymore. With the new set up I’ve been able to watch my students singing with extra detail. I notice precisely how your breathing cycle is operating throughout exercises and songs. I am watching much more closely how your body is carrying tension so we can address is immediately. Recently, with an especially tall student I noticed a tongue placement I had never been able to see before!
Students get to take control over how they do songs! It has been so awesome to watch my students find accompaniment tracks, use apps like Appcompanist, MusicNotes and iRealPro, and whip out their guitars and mandolins! I enjoy playing piano for my students and there is a lot of value in that direct collaboration, however in the real world singers have to problem solve their accompaniment needs. With online learning my students have been resourceful and creative. Some of my students have begun to learn how to record themselves on GarageBand and Noteflight. These are skills and tools that will benefit singers for their entire singing journey.
Lessons can focus on establishing solid technique and revisiting goal setting! Without pending auditions, performances, or other deadlines on the calendar, we can revisit topics such as breathing, vowels, etc. We can also talk about building a song book or an audition book if that applies to you. Basically, lessons get to return to the basics and sometimes that’s a great place to go.
Online lessons make a great back up plan for the longterm! Sometimes singers have a scratchy throat and don’t want to spread their germs but still want to have a lesson. Sometimes a kid is sick at home or the commute from work took extra long. Sometimes there’s a blizzard in May (it’s Colorado after all!). Sometimes you are out of town and want to SING! Once we’ve gotten the hang of online lessons they’ll always be an option for you should any of these situations arise. It’s a brave new world and meeting online is going to stay with us.