Before the pandemic, online piano lessons were not particularly popular, and for good reason; not many trust themself to make it to a class on time, let alone trust a computer, internet, and software to all behave nicely while they try to learn something completely new and not be distracted by technical glitches and malfunctions. Due to the pandemic, however, new software has emerged — and with it, new ways of teaching — and become more popular with music teachers. But is this progress enough to outweigh the potential distractions and the possibility of spending less lesson time actually learning while taking piano lessons? The truth is, it depends.
Issues you may encounter when taking online music lessons.
Internet issues such as bandwidth competition and inconsistent connection, are some of the more obvious things that can ruin your online lessons, but this is easily solved with a higher end internet connection which in urban areas doesn’t cost you an arm and a leg these days. So while the above are obvious faults with online music lessons, they won’t happen to those that are prepared.
Lighting and exposure problems: If you have too little lighting or have too much lighting coming from where the camera is facing, it may be too hard to make out an image for things such as your fingering, or even your posture during play! To prevent these problems, positioning the light source not in view of the camera (ideally behind or above) and closing the blinds if you are positioned by a window will go a long way.
Background noise and feedback loops: A feedback loop is when your microphone picks up what your device speakers are outputting – and if your microphone picks up extra background noise on top of that, it could spell disaster for your lesson. Adjusting the volume and the distance between your microphone and speakers will fix the issue rather quickly, but you might want to use open-eared headphones for better clarity. A separate microphone, rather than the one built in, would also be helpful in making the sound quality much better – but this is not a necessity. I consider these the worst issues of the bunch, as the best solution is to purchase equipment that you likely do not have laying around the house. This can really add to the cost of your online lessons, especially if you are paying for a better internet package just for the lessons AND you purchase a nice webcam to improve your lesson quality further.
Latency issues: Now, this one is not exactly a problem, but rather a limitation. Because of the delay between your playing and your teacher hearing the sound, you will not be able to play at the same time or practice playing in a band via online methods unless you send a recording of yourself to another band member where they can record over it, and so on.
All of these issues, however, don’t seem that bad when you consider some of the benefits that modern online lessons can offer in 2020.
Benefits of taking online piano lessons
Social distancing: Of course, the best part about taking music lessons online in 2020 is the social distancing factor. Aside from not being physically close to a teacher, the teacher is not physically close to the many other students they teach. This greatly decreases the risk of transferring COVID-19 between the students and the teachers, and their respective families with whom they have contact, and so on. These days kids can also enjoy online lessons, although if the child is rather young then this may be better with adult supervision.
Surprisingly good quality: Some older tech that has become increasingly more popular due to the global circumstances are stereo microphones and audio routing software/hardware, to deliver crystal-clear sound. Together with screen sharing and cloud file sharing, these things all fix the main issues of online lessons; bad sound quality, and lack of seeing the same thing that the other person is seeing.
Using technology to improve faster: There have been more and more teachers using apps such as Tonara and My Music Staff to encourage their students to practice more and submit any questions they might have while it’s fresh. This ensures students actually sits down to practice their instruments in between lessons, and thus greatly increases their progress – as practicing more is by far the most important factor in learning anything new – especially when developing new skills.
The rise of newer and better conferencing software such as Zoom, updated Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, and the evolving Skype, has introduced new and easy-to-use features that help online music lessons go smoothly. The most valuable features are probably the easy-to-use screen sharing capabilities and the enhanced background sound removal. Screen sharing tremendously helps your teacher to explain musical concepts that otherwise would be written down in your notebook, while background sound removal helps eliminate distractions from your online music lessons, like someone in your family doing dishes or kids screaming not too far away.
Food for thought
Today, online music lessons not only help with social distancing, but they provide an easy way to learn or develop a new skill without leaving your home or inviting someone new into your home. Through advances in hardware, software and the clever use of technology, effective online teachers eliminate the most common problems of learning online. And of course, if you want to maximize the quality of your online music lessons, there is the option to purchase an extra web camera, a dedicated microphone and comfortable headphones. This way you’d entirely avoid problems with the position of your camera and feedback loops, while at the same time experience a greater sound quality on both ends. You will feel like you’re in your own little studio, and that just might encourage you to spend more time practicing, or maybe put yourself out there as a burgeoning musician through band software such as JamKazam, or even just posting your progress on YouTube for your friends, family, teachers, and potential employers to see!