TromboneChat

With the shutdown ongoing, I'm wondering if anyone has tried out offering lessons every day, or at least every weekday (5 days per week), as a way to help parents keep their kids on their instruments, with otherwise no school-based musical ensemble to help keep things focused.

Especially with something like Zoom/Skype lessons, the idea is that instead of a weekly lesson where everything is dove into in great detail (as much as is possible depending on a students' needs), the teacher acts basically as a practice monitor to make sure the student plays through required warmups, scales, etudes, etc., every day, and overall acts more like a motivational coach.

like a coach in athletics. setting aside aesthetic concerns for just a moment, we are people who train our bodies to perform in front of crowds, so i'm always surprised the one lesson a week method has been so dominant.

I would be happy to "offer" daily lessons but who would pay for that?

I've had students who would very much benefit from supervised practice, which is probably a better description. Like a trainer, to keep an eye on things temporarily, but at some point you have to develop enough perception to become your own teacher and just get occasional advice and reinforcement.

WilliamLang wrote: ↑Mon Jun 22, 2020 11:49 am like a coach in athletics. setting aside aesthetic concerns for just a moment, we are people who train our bodies to perform in front of crowds, so i'm always surprised the one lesson a week method has been so dominant.

I suspect part of that is practicality: most parents can't justify driving their kid to a lesson every day. With Zoom/Skype/etc., this problem can be solved.

Doug Elliott wrote: ↑Mon Jun 22, 2020 12:36 pm I would be happy to "offer" daily lessons but who would pay for that?

True! I'm thinking more of the scale of young students though, not the extended lengthy (and more expensive) in-depth dives that are more suited to mature students like myself.

I've had students who would very much benefit from supervised practice, which is probably a better description. Like a trainer, to keep an eye on things temporarily, but at some point you have to develop enough perception to become your own teacher and just get occasional advice and reinforcement.

Of course!

A colleague of mine has a young daughter (6 years) who had been participating in a week long music summer camp held via Zoom. I believe that it was an orchestra in Tennessee that had organized it as a replacement for an in-person camp they originally planned. If I recall, she got to take music classes with about 20 other students for about an hour a day for 5 days.

I haven't talked with that colleague since the first day or two of that camp, but when I next do he promised to let me know about how it went. I'm curious as to how the instructors were able to keep about 20 elementary aged children engaged for an hour while online. In order for something like this to be cost effective for the parents you really need to serve a lot of students at the same time.

With young students, it can often take parent supervision to keep them participating. Many friends and colleagues of mine who switched to online teacher have talked about students leaving to "grab a pencil" or use the bathroom and disappearing for half their lesson. Personally, some of my adult students flaked out when I switched to online teaching and that was checking in once a week.


Dave

I have been teaching online since the end of March- not music but ESL. Where that intersects with your question is that I have done spurts of daily conversation practice and reading practice over this period.

The daily thing can get to be a bit of a drag after a while. The reading hasn’t been so bad because I already have a routine for how to teach reading daily in class. But the conversation was not good. There is no time for change or growth of skills with daily meeting and even if you regularly change topic or tense the student’s limitations of vocabulary and fluency are a baseline that just doesn’t move day to day. One needs a group for daily conversation to help mediate between the strengths and the weaknesses of various individuals. Kind of like a band class.

Above someone wonders about the persistent popularity of the weekly lesson model. Since a teaching cycle (with pre and post elaborations possible in all stages) is basically input, practice, assessment, a week is a good amount of time for musical practice to have an effect before it is assessed and new goals are set.

If you end up doing daily check ins you would probably want to set some very small goals to be accomplished between each meet that would feed into longer term goals.

I have been teaching band camps online the last couple weeks. It's exhausting as a teacher, IMO much worse than doing it in real life, and I'm sure it's less enjoyable for the students as well.

Online lessons 1 on 1 are not bad, though they're better in person too, IMO.

Students improve faster having band everyday vs the twice a week model. Most students don’t practice correctly and seeing them everyday keeps them on track.

Years ago - wow, thinking back, it was a LOT of years ago, I was in grad school, and at the time Wisconsin had a 14 week semester and a three week interim period where you could take short classes.

I took a roller skating class, 3 hours a day for three weeks. Every day built on the day before and there was no time to forget or learn bad habits. I'm a slow learner for physical coordination skills but I made more progress in those three weeks at that sport than anything before or since, I think. It probably helped that the instructor was very good.

I fell every single day - but always on a more difficult technique than the day before.

There are some instructors in both athletics and music that book students for two or three day seminars of all day lessons.

Wilktone wrote: ↑Tue Jun 23, 2020 8:55 am With young students, it can often take parent supervision to keep them participating. Many friends and colleagues of mine who switched to online teacher have talked about students leaving to "grab a pencil" or use the bathroom and disappearing for half their lesson.

Exactly one of my concerns. "Grab a pencil" or "go to the bathroom" and so on. I'm not sure how to control for this. Maybe recording the lessons? Most videoconferencing software has a screen record option, so if a kid does this, there is clear evidence to show the parents.

In fact, I would think doing recordings of all online lessons would be a good idea anyway, to protect both the instructor and the student. Much like requiring windows in practice room doors.

Burgerbob wrote: ↑Tue Jun 23, 2020 5:26 pm I have been teaching band camps online the last couple weeks. It's exhausting as a teacher, IMO much worse than doing it in real life, and I'm sure it's less enjoyable for the students as well.

Hmmm, having taught at a few band camps, I'm not sure how I would want to do that online. And I can understand the potential exhaustion - part of being in a location is having a set of rooms where people have to move to between classrooms, which is a great way to get the blood flowing, take a mental break, etc. And obviously the in-person feedbacks.

Burgerbob wrote: ↑Tue Jun 23, 2020 5:26 pm I have been teaching band camps online the last couple weeks. It's exhausting as a teacher, IMO much worse than doing it in real life, and I'm sure it's less enjoyable for the students as well.

Online lessons 1 on 1 are not bad, though they're better in person too, IMO.

I have been teaching online lessons through the Zoom platform since the pandemic began. They are good, but I find them a little wanting with respect to instant feedback, especially when the students have a wonky WiFi connection. Personally, I much prefer in-person lessons (having been a high school/middle school director for over 30 years), but we do what we must to stay safe and keep students safe. I'd also agree that it is probably less enjoyable for the students and their teacher.

I too have been teaching online since March via Microsoft teams, all lessons are 1-1 and recorded not only for child protection but more importantly my own protection

They do work, but not as good as being in the room so to speak in respect of hearing them play, and yes there are issues with a couple of students and the quality of the wifi but overall they are positive at this time when in person isn't viable