The Positives And Negatives Of Online Music Lessons

When Lockdown came into effect, face-to-face music lessons became a risk and in the first few months, impossible. The move to online was not as stressful as I had thought and, like me, many people realised that the video medium is a viable option for many forms of work. As a saxophone teacher, I wanted to take a moment to state and compare the positives and negatives I have found when doing online music lessons.

THE LOWDOWN

Before I go into detail about these positives and negatives, I just want to outline a few things. These points are based on what I have personally found during the last six-plus months. Before Lockdown, I used to teach at home on Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays, and in Bristol city centre at a rented studio space on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. I do not teach at weekends.

On the Bristol days, I would walk to the nearest bus stop (taking about 20 minutes), get on the 376 bus from Wells to Bristol, taking 30 minutes from where I got on, costing about £6.20 for a return ticket, and paid £20 for the studio space. I would finish at 7pm, have to wait up to an hour for a returning bus, then take the 20-minute walk back home (in pitch black night during the winter months), arriving back home at around 9pm. In total, I spent on average £52.40 and over five hours in travel time (factoring in the waiting for a bus) a week (in just two days!).

Upon entering Lockdown, I decided not to use Zoom for online music lessons. I don't know how it works but I had heard from other people that it required login details and could only do 45 minutes. I don't know if this is true but I decided to stick with formats I know and use daily: WhatsApp for those without Apple products, and FaceTime for those with an Apple device.

VIDEO LESSON POSITIVES

Safe from viral contamination - This is the main reason we've jumped on the video medium. By doing video music lessons, there is no risk of passing on infection as you are not coming into contact with anyone. By playing a musical instrument, especially brass, woodwind, or singing, you're effectively becoming a beacon of germs. I've seen a lot of music teachers make the move back to face-to-face but with protective gear and plastic see-through walls like those seen at the supermarkets now. It's necessary but does it reduce the risk completely? No, you still need to disinfect everything before and after the student leaves, which takes time.

No travel time to factor into the working day - If you're like me, travelling to music lessons, whether it's to a studio or a student's house, can set you back anywhere between 15 minutes to over an hour. By negating this, you have more time slots to fit students into throughout the day, going from something like five to six hour-long music lessons a day (with an hour travel time in between) up to eight or nine, with a five-minute gap in between, factoring in a lunch break of 45 minutes, and finishing at about 7pm in both cases.

No travel/studio rent costs - Because I no longer need to go into town to teach, I don't have to rent studio space and pay any extra petrol costs or bus fares. I've worked out this saves me a minimum of £200 a month.

Students are less likely to cancel - With no need for travelling, being able to set up the instrument, turn the computer/phone on and, thus, be ready within minutes, I have found my students are less likely to cancel knowing that there is no longer any travelling to factor into the music lessons. Also, if a student is feeling poorly, they don't tend to cancel if it's just a cold or a light headache, whereas if it had been a face-to-face lesson, they'd have cancelled out of consideration for my health.

Easier to rearrange lessons - If a student wishes to rearrange their music lesson for a later day during the week, whether it's because of illness or sudden commitments because there are no travel times to factor in, it's easier to find a new slot to fit them in.

More comfortable playing in own home - This is more of a psychological factor but I've had comments from students stating they feel more comfortable playing at home than they do at my house or in my studio space. As friendly and welcoming as I am, a student may feel slightly on edge during a lesson since it's a space they associate with their music lessons, where they feel their mistakes are being scrutinised. Take this factor out and they feel more comfortable, ultimately meaning better playing during the music lesson.

VIDEO LESSON NEGATIVES

Reliant on good internet speeds - Online music lessons don't require much speed but out of download and upload speeds, the important one to be aware of is upload. It's all well and good having a fast download speed but it's your upload speed that determines the video quality and smoothness of the video call itself. For those whose connection is quite slow, you can expect pixelated video, distorted audio, delay, freezing and complete drop-outs of connection, ending the video call. Ways to improve this are to make sure you are the only one using the internet while having your music lesson (easier said than done when your kids want to watch Netflix or play Fortnite).

I've noticed that, despite having Truespeed with over 200 Mbps of upload speed, if the student having the music lesson has a poor connection, the quality of the call will be terrible. It's worth noting, though, that out of all my students, there are only a couple whose connection drops out a few times during the music lesson.

Internet latency - No matter how good your connection is, there will always be a slight delay, known as latency. This means duets during the music lesson are impossible (at least on WhatsApp and FaceTime). To counter this, I instead record my part of the duet and send it over to the student to download and play along to. If there's a big delay then you've got issues with your internet, as mentioned in the above point.

Audio quality - Aside from the point about internet speeds, you can still have an issue with audio quality, even with the best internet. I'm using WhatsApp on my Samsung Galaxy S10+ mobile phone and FaceTime on my MacBook Pro 2018 model laptop. No matter which device I'm using, I've noticed higher frequency notes, like those in the altissimo register, don't tend to be picked up as well as lower notes, resulting in a muddy sound being heard. I've also noticed that when playing louder, there seems to be some sort of noise protection happening with the microphone so that the notes suddenly sound really quiet. There's a way of turning this off but I believe it requires delving into either the system settings or doing some console command coding, which is beyond my skills.

Because of this sound issue, I find I'm not able to offer precise and detailed feedback to my more musically advanced students about their tone quality while they play higher and louder passages of music. To get around this, I ask the student to record their playthroughs. Then we listen and give feedback on the recordings in the music lesson, deleting them afterwards in regulation with safeguarding. It's quite an interesting way to structure the music lesson as the student picks up a lot about their playing when given an opportunity to listen back to themselves.

Communication - By this, I mean those moments where I've had to be very specific about which section of music I want the student to play. I can no longer point to where I want them to start so I have to say something like 'can you play me bar seven, the second bar from the left of the second line in the third song down on page 14. The one that has a crotchet G followed by two quaver B's and a minim F'. Quite wordy and sometimes the student still plays the wrong thing.

On a more visual level but still relating to communication, the positioning of the screen (and you) is also important. In a music lesson that focuses on fingering and how to correctly position your hands, the student having their camera aimed at their face makes giving feedback difficult. It's not too much of a bother constantly changing the camera position but I do say to my students that it's more important I see the clarinet/saxophone during the music lesson rather than their face, unless we're working on embouchure.

Video quality - I've not come across this problem yet but I am aware that some people may have older devices. This means that, regardless of internet speed, the video quality will still be poor simply because it's an older camera with fewer pixels. That being said, if you have a device from the last 10 - 15 years, you should be fine.

Home Environment - This was more of a problem when schools were still closed but the point here is that a student might feel they simply cannot take the music lesson at home because of the noise their playing creates. A few of those that gave up their saxophone lessons with me in March stated this as a reason for not doing the video music lessons and, while I understand, it does beg the question - before Lockdown, where and when were they practising in the first place?

CONCLUSION

While online music lessons offer the highest level of safety during this pandemic, their convenience is at the cost of quality. They save time and money, are more flexible than face-to-face music lessons, but unless you have a good internet connection and thick walls, the negatives can outweigh the positives.

For beginners and intermediate students who have a good connection, they work well. For the advanced level players, however, those negatives have more of an impact on the music lessons, though recording music beforehand does help. Despite the issues mentioned, I've seen all my students progress in their ability these past six-plus months.

Safeguarding in video music lessons is just as important (if not more so) as in face-to-face music lessons, and as long as you stick to it, they can be a safe medium to use during this time.

If you're thinking about trying online music lessons, whether you're a music teacher who hasn't made the move yet; a performing musician in need of a new income; or a prospective student who has the budget in these difficult times, don't be afraid to give it a go. A lot of teaching sites are free to sign up to and Facebook is great for advertising too. Some music teachers offer a discounted or free first lesson, allowing prospective students the chance to see whether their internet connection and technology are up to it. If you already use your device to video call friends and family with good results, then it will work.

If you've found any positives or negatives I haven't listed, let me know!

P.S.

If you are looking for clarinet lessons or a saxophone teacher near you, I offer face-to-face music lessons in Wells, UK and online music lessons to anyone worldwide. Feel free to get in touch! Back to blog page