Being a piano teacher is hard. Keeping students engaged for thirty minutes to an hour, staying patient, and repeating yourself for the fifth time thanks to the sometimes poor sound quality… it gets tough. The COVID-19 pandemic did not do us any favours when it comes to our job. That being said, nine months into teaching virtual piano, here is what I have learned so far.
- Take advantage of all the features of video call platforms
With the rise of the pandemic, most companies took a hard hit when it came to their business. Video call platforms on the hand… Fortunately, many have added incredible features that can be used to enhance your piano lessons to help keep your students intrigued and motivated for the whole lesson. Examples include: sharing your screen so you can use your mouse to show your student where they played a wrong note and using emoticons to congratulate your students.
2. Don’t ditch the ear training
I know many teachers who are hesitant to do ear training activities with their students over video chat. Don’t be! Students are now spending much more time online doing virtual lessons for their school; sometimes piano lessons are an opportunity for them to relax so the last thing they want to do is be bombarded with more learning. Of course ear training activities still help students learn, but they can be easily disguised as fun games.
Try the following activities:
- Playing a popular tune and asking them to play it back
- Clapping a fun rhythm
- Sharing your screen to a pop-song and practice sight-reading
3. Don’t forget to keep celebrating your students’ achievements
A huge extrinsic motivating factor for students are rewards, such as stickers or prizes. With piano lessons moving to virtual lessons, many students lose motivation because they do not have physical rewards to keep them encouraged. What you can do is encourage parents to purchase stickers, or substitute them with drawing stars on their songs; one star for every little accomplishment made until they reach five stars, and then they get to pass the song!
The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a toll on all of us and of course presented us piano teachers with new challenges. But it is important not to forget children are facing challenges at this time as well and piano lessons should be an opportunity for them to relieve some stress and express themselves. I will end this off by saying, I am so proud to be part of the music community and we must all continue doing our part to overcome these troubling times.
