The prevalence of the long-drawn Covid-19 pandemic has majorly shifted the nature of learning. The rapid advancement of digital platforms has propelled education to pivot from physical to online. Singapore is not an exception. Our country has evoked online learning several times since the first major lockdown, or Circuit Breaker in April 2020.
Learning piano online would have seemed unthinkable in the past. We typically depict piano lessons as a teacher sitting beside the student, personally correcting and guiding the student through pieces and technique. Most may think it is not effective. This is not the case. Online lessons do confer benefits, apart from the usual feature of being easily accessible and flexible. Here are some benefits entailed:
1. Encourages Independence
Often, my constant reminders to students to count before and during playing a piece goes ignored. Counting becomes a lonely affair I would say it aloud by myself and they would follow. I cannot emphasize the importance of counting since we are exposed to different rhythmic patterns. After all, there must be a reason why we are taught a crotchet stands for 1 count, minim holds for 2 count, a semibreve has a note value of 4 counts etc. In addition, it is essential to maintain a consistent tempo from the beginning of a song till the final bar. Some students may find this challenging as they may lose track of the tempo to upkeep when they make a mistake or experience a hiccup while playing. Encountering certain difficult bars can also pose a possibility for them to slow down and this might end up becoming the new tempo for the rest of the piece.
So I was pretty relieved that the online learning arena provided a great opportunity for my students to count. The technical infrastructure on e-learning platforms prevented both parties from counting at the same time - there will be a slight delay which gives rise to confusion. As such, I would either count for my students and set the momentum for them to continue, or they would decide on a speed they are comfortable with to present their assigned pieces.
2. Ownership of Learning
Don't get me wrong. I love writing for my students. Ask any of them and they will tell you I write a lot, to the point I some times feel those books belong to me instead of them. With online lessons, they can no longer rely on me to annotate the scores on their behalf. I would usually analyze the pieces together with them and they would copy it themselves. Students who possess kinesthetic learning styles would find simple hands-on activities like these a good boost in entrenching concepts into their memories. The more one writes, the more one remembers.
3. Fosters Clarity in Teaching
Without the physical interaction, more effort and creativity is needed to keep the students engaged and to communicate instructions clearly. For example, it is very easy to use fingers to gesture a student's attention to a particular part of the score during in-person lessons. However, online lessons meant having to describe with immense clarity the section you are alluding to so both student and teacher are on the same page. Words like "row" and "bar" become specific indicators. Students are also compelled to articulate confidently and distinctly issues they encounter, and this provides a platform for self-examination - to recognize and identify parts that need work and guidance on.
4. Sustains the Momentum of Progress
Some parents and students choose to put a pause to lessons rather than embracing online modes. While their concern that e-learning may undermine the productivity of a student's progress, it is not as impactful as halting lessons altogether. When physical lessons resume, more time and effort needs to be invested for backtracking and getting students up to speed again after the long break. A long-time comatose patient who has just regained consciousness needs to undergo physiotherapy to slowly regain the ease of use of his muscles. The same analogy applies to students who went on a lengthy hiatus and decided to resume lessons again. The finger muscles and memory muscles need time to restart their engines and build the momentum that went flat. The progress for students who continue online lessons would therefore be faster than those who chose to suspend.
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