There is definitely some fatigue with doing online lessons, for both students and teachers since 2020. However, I’ve discovered some new ideas and interactions that have blossomed as a result of Zoom lessons; it might not be a bad thing after all and I would love to share them=)
Most of my students who have been doing Zoom lessons on and off since 2020, have developed a stronger sense of ownership, responsibility and the best part; being able to take down notes and reiterate it for themselves and I’m so proud of them! Note-taking and processing is a crucial part of learning.
Intonation issues are not just a matter of practice, it’s a spatial awareness that’s usually lacking, and we teachers are responsible for pointing out that awareness and working around what works best for each student.
I’d like to focus on how the concept of half and whole steps are reinforced, and have been much more effective for students to understand as a result of Zoom lessons!
Everything becomes more visual when I get to draw on the whiteboard, color code things and shift patterns, drawings around in real time during the process of breaking down a problematic passage. Students immediately become receptive to that and
Here are some of the screenshots for different students:
While working on harmonics in third position:
- Drawing out their finger placements in real time, allowing them to visualize the whole and half steps have been really helpful for students
When a student plays out of tune and can’t figure out why:
- Green spots represent where they were placing their fingers for a certain passage
- Pink spots represent where they should be placing their fingers
An exercise for the young ones on filling in the notes; they enjoy and have fun when they get to switch up the colours!
When a student has no idea how all fingers relate to one another, processing this together gave a better understanding on the distance between fingers across different strings.
Of course there are still frustrations when you can’t have instant access to correcting students’ posture and fingerings, but I also feel that the delayed response or barrier serves as a good reminder to slow down and rethink how we approach the same issues in learning and teaching.
What seemed impossible to work on intonation via Zoom or online teaching no longer posed a big problem when we have to find the best ways to make it work for our students. Of course, nothing can be better than face-face lessons, but I think we all have been adaptable and make the best out of each situation!