The Challenges (And Advantages!) Of Online Lessons

As my current students know, I have shifted all my voice lessons online until the county says it is relatively safe to conduct normal business operations in the county.  We don’t know when that will be, but I am praying and hoping for a resolution to this quarantine.  While I have found online lessons to be enjoyable, nothing replaces the personal interaction and sound quality of a one-on-one in person lesson.
 
The first surprise of online vocal lessons is actually how well they have gone. I have resisted doing any teaching online until I was forced to due to the “stay at home” order.  It was mostly of a resistance to change, as after a week and a half of online lessons I can say with authority that I can still do my job as a voice teacher online SO LONG AS I make the necessary adjustments.

Those necessary adjustments are as follows: even though my Internet connection is super-fast, even the most perfect setup will have just enough lag that it is very difficult to sing along with the instructor playing the piano.  In order to combat this lag, I have made recordings upon recordings that my students can sing along with on their end so we can get around the lag issue.  It has been a tremendous amount of work in a short time – changing your teaching format in one week is insane! – but it has worked.
 
This lag leads to a curious advantage in online lessons.  Because voice students cannot directly sing with me demonstrating on the piano, their ear training (tuning) is going to skyrocket!  Singing acappella – without instrument support – does wonders for tuning and keeping the key in your own head.  It is difficult but will be a nice reward after this temporary hiatus from in-person lessons.
 
Another challenge for singing lessons on my end is that I have to really focus my own ears.  No matter how good the technical setup is, all my voice students’ voices are distorted on the high end of their range and most have sort of minor distortion through most of their range.  As a voice teacher, it really trains my ears to cut through the noise, so to speak, to understand what is really on with my students.  I am very fortunate in that most of studio has taken lessons for some time, so the level of adjustment is less than what I expected.  But it is still an adjustment and something to get used to.
 
Other than that, voice lessons go basically according to plan. My students sing, I listen and modify certain vocal behaviors, and we have a lot of fun.  After the “stay at home” order is finished, I will still keep online lessons as part of my business, but more as a supplement.  I envision it as a tool used to help my students who drive long distances (I have several Galveston and rural area students who drive a considerable distance to see me).  I also plan on using it to make-up lessons due to illness.  If there has been any silver-lining to this crisis, we have learned the value to staying at home when we have even a minor illness.  So instead of my students attending lessons when they feel sick, I’ll offer a makeup via online so they can get their lesson without spreading their cold.
 
I miss you all and can’t wait to see you (in person) soon.  Please take care of yourself and your families and keep your minds active.  Staying at home 24/7 isn’t easy but we all are making this sacrifice to help our front-line warriors of nurses, doctors, scientists and other medical personnel get ahead of this virus so we can reduce its effects.