Learning music remotely is not a new concept. In the 1960s, my grandmother was determined to learn the piano so she could fill her church’s need for a pianist. She courageously purchased a piano correspondence course (since there wasn’t a piano teacher in her small rural town) and proceeded to learn piano independently. It’s actually quite amazing that she was able to become so proficient using a snail-mail piano course with no feedback from a teacher!
Fortunately, long-distance learning has made great strides since then. Virtual education is revolutionizing the way we learn, making all kinds of training more immediate and widely available. Despite my grandmother’s amazing accomplishments, I can only imagine how much further she could have gone with weekly guidance and feedback from an experienced online teacher.
There is still a need for remote music learning today! I’ve enjoyed discovering the many unique situations and motivations my students have had for seeking online lessons. Here are a few of the top reasons to take piano lessons online and some personal case studies to support them. The names of students in the case studies have been changed in order to respect their privacy.
1. Better Time Management
Whether you are a parent or guardian taking a child to lessons or an adult student with a hectic schedule, music lessons often involve working around busy lives. Fortunately, virtual music lessons are great for busy people. If the empty boxes on your calendar are practically an endangered species, online lessons are a great time-saving option.
Attending a lesson is as easy as you or your child sitting down at the piano with a computer or mobile device a few minutes before the scheduled lesson. Since you aren’t commuting to lessons, you can use that extra time to warm-up beforehand or work in an extra practice session afterwards in order to better retain the material covered.
If you are a parent, it means less time juggling a multi-member household’s work, school, and leisure activities. Do you have two or more children that need to be in different places at the same time? Online piano lessons could help solve this problem through the virtues of in-home convenience.
Case Study: Sarah is a busy 40-year-old mom working on a bachelor’s degree as a non-traditional student. She is able to make space in her busy schedule for piano lessons by taking them conveniently from home. She has more time to practice and a much easier time working around her kid’s schedules. Online lessons are working for her!
2. Learn From the Comfort of Your Home
One of the other great benefits of online learning is doing it from the comfort of your home. Taking lessons for the first time can create anxiety for young learners and adult students alike. Studying with a teacher online at home removes some of the pressure of having a teacher standing directly over you.
Also, you get to play on your own piano, which you are probably much more comfortable with. There is something awesome about the feeling of your very own keys under your fingers at every lesson.
And, you never have to worry about forgetting your sheet music or other materials.
Case Study: One of my middle school students named Collin is a very shy, quiet student who has some anxiety. I initially taught him in person prior to becoming an online teacher, but lessons were always a struggle, and I could sense his anxiety no matter how comforting and reassuring I tried to be. After moving lessons online, I noticed that Collin was more relaxed and performed better by putting some physical distance between himself and the teacher. His focus also seemed to be better. When asked if he would like to go back to an in-person teacher, he said that he preferred taking the lessons online. We’ve been successfully learning this way ever since.
3. Improves Independent Learning Skills and Focus
Taking virtual piano lessons doesn’t mean that students have to learn everything by themselves. It does, however, mean that students must build better independent learning skills–which is a good thing! In-person teaching actually leaves a lot of room for spoon-feeding in situations where the teacher should actually be requiring students to take more responsibility. I recall helping my in-person students way too much when I should have been urging them to try more things independently before offering help.
In a virtual environment, students are required to take more responsibility by writing their own lesson notes or marking their own sheet music. We all know from personal experience that it is easier to remember something once we’ve written it down. The online lesson requires a student to be an alert and responsive team player in the learning process.
An online piano lesson also requires more careful listening and attention to details, and this improves focus from both sides of the screen. This means, as the teacher, I must use excellent communication skills, verbal imagery, and relatable examples and demonstrations. The student likewise becomes more skilled at carefully listening, interpreting, and executing things for themselves, while the teacher acts as a guide. All of this leads to more self-sufficiency down the road.
4. Lesson Efficiency
When I teach an online lesson, I have all of the resources open on my computer in advance to keep the flow of each online lesson moving forward uninterrupted. During online lessons, dead space can be both awkward and distracting. So, I’m a lot more aware of planning ways to prevent this and will provide a lesson packed full of useful ideas and resources. By having all of the resources digitized and organized, I’m able to pull up new sheet music, books, and resources almost instantaneously. There’s no time wasted searching for that missing book!
5. Teacher Quality and Selection
The quality of music instruction frequently depends on whether or not there is a good teacher in your area. In this new age of internet learning, you can take lessons from some of the most skilled piano teachers on the planet, no matter where you live. Students are not limited to their local community when searching for a teacher who will be a great fit and help them accomplish their goals.
Case Study: An experienced high school student named Rachel was unable to find a high-quality advanced teacher in a major metropolitan area because of a piano teacher shortage. Online lessons made it possible for her to continue studying with a highly qualified teacher without having to wait for an opening in a good studio.
6. Accessibility
There is a whole world of people out there who may have difficulty participating in certain activities due to accessibility. Imagine you have mobility issues or can’t drive to the teacher in town. You can still have access to a piano teacher.
Similar to my grandmother who learned via correspondence course, maybe you are from a small town without a teacher within a hundred miles. If you have a piano and a decent internet connection, you can take private lessons with a teacher from anywhere.
Also, consider how virtual learning might aid in scheduling an ideal lesson time. Perhaps you prefer to take your lessons before work at seven o’clock in the morning. Good luck finding a local teacher willing to accommodate that! However, a teacher in a different time zone might not have any problem making that lesson time work.
Case Study: One of my adult students named Sue is a house-bound older woman who is unable to easily leave her home. She was not able to find an in-person teacher in her community who would travel to her house. Online lessons made it possible for her to study piano from home. Piano is one of the only scheduled activities she is able to participate in during her week, and she looks forward to every lesson.
7. Technology Benefits
Today’s technology allows for an elevated distance-learning experience. If you haven’t checked out my virtual studio tour, be sure to watch the video below.
With professional lighting, cameras, and microphones as well as multiple camera angles, your teacher can provide a top-notch virtual learning experience.
Screen sharing is a feature that allows for the virtual sharing of sheet music, exercises, videos, games, and recorded music during lessons.
If you are working on composing a piece as a part of your lessons, it can also be a great way for the teacher and student to view the project together in a score editor. This kind of online collaboration space is also great for learning music theory since visual demonstration is so important.
Finally, with lesson recording features available, your teacher can record your lesson and send it to you for review later on. Unlike most in-person lessons, you can watch explanations and demonstrations of musical concepts as many times as you like.
8. Increased Teacher to Student Communication
With so much time savings for both the teacher and student, I find it easier to provide extra communication during the week to keep my students progressing. Practice apps can make it easy for teachers to communicate with their virtual students, send assignments, and answer questions.
I also find myself working more consistently to keep the communication going with piano parents during the week. If I don’t see parents at the virtual lessons, I find it necessary for me to reach out with important information more frequently. These mid-week check-ins are a great benefit to students and parents.
Final Thoughts
Everyone has to figure out which learning environment is best for them, but I find that my online students are extremely happy for all the reasons they have decided to choose this path. And, I’m excited about all the ways technology continues to improve and provide more options and advancements for learning.
Are you still not sure if online lessons would work well for you? Request a free lesson or purchase a four-week trial. Are you ready to get started taking online lessons at Dorrough Studio? Enroll here.