Five years ago this month, we were all, quite literally, thrown into the world of online music teaching. In some ways, I had a bit of a head start; I’d been having Skype flute lessons for four years previous to that, but even so, I hadn’t taught online, and it felt, like it did for all of us, a completely different world. Some taught online for a short time during the pandemic, whilst others, myself included, did almost two years of continues online teaching. Sometimes it feels like a lifetime ago, but other times, it feels like yesterday.
Five years on, where are we now? Does online music teaching still occupy a place within our teaching studios? What does the future hold for music teachers within an increasingly digital world?
Does online music teaching have a positive future?
I’m not ashamed to admit that I found teaching online incredibly difficult, for lots of different reasons. Whilst we were incredibly lucky to be able to do that (and in the main, our students were very supportive), and whilst I know many of us sought to draw out the positives from the experience, it was quite honestly, at times, soul-destroying. In fact, three years after I went back to face-to-face teaching, the wounds still feel raw. I don’t think I, or indeed many of us, have made peace with that time in our teaching career.
I’m conscious that because of the wounds I carry from that time, it has clouded my opinion of the online world. Whether it’s music-related or otherwise, my heart still sinks at the mention of Zoom. Even at the time, I questioned whether they were friend or foe. That said, there is still a place for online music teaching in my studio, whether that’s because of illness, the weather, or some other reason which prevents my students and I from meeting in person. In that sense, it has been a blessing, and has offered us all an alternative provision where previously that didn’t really exist (or at least, most of us had never considered it).
Five years on from 2020, I’ve been thinking about the future of online music teaching. Like many things, it’s here to stay, and yes, I can see the potential and possibilities in it. But all that said, what would need to change for me, and indeed, many of us, to fully embrace it once again in some form or another?
We need more training
When we all started teaching online in 2020, we had no training. No one showed us how to use Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Skype or FaceTime, we just fumbled our way through and made the best of it. Those more committed to their digital futures got to know the platforms and their capabilities, but for many of us, they remained a mystery. In fact, the platforms quickly began to change and evolve faster than we could keep up. In many respects, they remain a mystery for many of us today. If I was going to look at actively offering some form of online teaching in the future, I would want to learn how to use the platforms and to get the best from them. Like many of us, I want to feel confident using them. I feel I need a sense of control which is different to those many months when the platforms themselves seemed to rule over me.
We need to evaluate the technology
Technology advances at an alarming rate, perhaps precipitated by the pandemic, and maybe faster in the last five years than ever before. On the one hand, music teachers could argue that no specialist equipment is necessary. I spent two years teaching online with nothing more than my iPad. It worked (though it pretty much killed my iPad in the process), but on the other hand, clearly, there are other possibilities out there. If we were going to actively offer online music lessons in the future, how could technology both help and hinder those? Multiple camera angles, screen sharing, microphones, and cameras each offers potential.
We need better Internet connections
The biggest cause of anxiety for me, and I’m sure for many of us, was the question of whether the Internet connection would be good enough. We use and rely on it on a daily basis, not just as music teachers, but as human beings living in a 21st Century world, but is it good enough? This is perhaps a much wider consideration in an increasingly digital world: how does our home infrastructure support our use of such technology on a minute-by-minute basis, with multiple connections, devices, and users?
We need to balance sustainability with flexibility
Perhaps related to both technology and connection is an overall sense of flexibility and sustainability. Can we be sure that the technology will remain sustainable both in terms of what we need it for, and when we need it? If it doesn’t, can we be flexible enough to adapt? Microsoft recently announced it was, with a few months notice, retiring its Skype platform. This is a platform which I know people use when teaching music online. What happens if other platforms meet a similar fate? Platforms will inevitably change, and anyone looking to teach online on a regular basis in the future is probably going to find that the free versions we relied on during the pandemic, are no longer sufficient. We saw this with the gradual reduction in the Zoom meeting length which, early in 2022, affected my ability to teach 45-minute lessons. Technology will change, and we will need to remain flexible, but is any of it truly sustainable in the longer term?
We need to feel confident
I guess that for me, the thing which underpins all the above is confidence: confidence in technology and confidence in my ability to use that tech. In 2020, even though the rest of the world was doing the same, we had to find our own way through with little support. Times are different now. Is it time for us to consider how we might up-skill for the future? After all, it’s not just about us, it’s about our students, and future students too.
Ultimately, I think there’s a place for some form of positive and confident online music teaching both now and in the future. As I say, it’s here to stay, and like the digital music exams themselves, we have to navigate our own path through these changes. It’s a challenge to us all, but it’s also a challenge to those organisations to which we belong and who we draw on for support in our work as music teachers, and as private music teachers in particular. How can they support us in developing our skills for a digital future?
Time is a healer, and as it passes, those wounds will heal. What will a positive and confident digital future for music teaching look like?
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