Reshmi Patel • March 15, 2021
Online Versus In-Person Piano Lessons
As the UK Lockdown restrictions begin to ease over the course of the next few months, we felt it was appropriate to share some of our learnings to support piano teachers and students who may be making a new transition between online and in-person lessons.
Here are our top tips to finding the balance which works best for you and the resources available:
1) Being open to new experiences
Although we miss face-to-face lessons, as a team we’ve worked incredibly hard to create an engaging online experience for our students. We were willing to continue on our mission in whichever medium possible!
Similar to a lot of education providers, we naturally had a handful of students who were reluctant to try online lessons but they gave it a go anyway and have been able to seen the progress and adaptations we have put into place. For this reason, when anyone asks about if they should TRY online lessons, we always recommend they give it a go.
If there are trial classes or periods, we’d recommend giving these a go whether this is in-person or online.
2) Connection
The relationship between student and teacher plays a large role in the trajectory of a child or adults’ success. It’s important for the children to feel safe and be able to express themselves with their teacher, particularly for those participating in creative arts activities. For this reason, whether it’s online or in-person we recommend asking any questions you have and reflecting on your lesson after you have met your teacher. If they are not the correct fit for you, that’s okay, there are plenty of other teachers to choose from.
3) Communication
It may be useful to look at the different forms of communication, both for online and in-person lessons.
It’s important for both student and teacher to have forms of communication outside of their lessons should they require feedback on their playing or have any questions or concerns.
The most important question to ask if you are having an in-person lesson is if the Covid-19 guidelines will be followed (if these are still applicable when you have your lesson) and how to ensure you can best follow these practices before arriving to your lesson. For online lessons the questions may be, which details are required to login to the lesson and what equipment is required before you join the call.
Here’s a brief checklist of what you will need in preparation for an online Piano Lesson with Key Sounds UK: https://www.keysoundsuk.com/our-best-practices-using-zoom-for-online-piano-lessons
Here at Key Sounds UK it’s always been about communication and building empowering relationships with our students.
We are so fortunate to have such cooperative students and tools available to us. Let’s take advantage of them and help spread the joys of learning and listening to music.
Feel free to take a look around our website or connect with us directly.
To find out more, feel free to get involved in our latest project “The Habits of the Top Performing Piano Players”, fill out our survey: https://bit.ly/2FDs8rf
For your chance to win a Nintendo DS Lite or a £50 Amazon Gift Voucher.
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