By: Debra Lee, DenLee Music School, Ambler, PA

When schools first closed in March 2020 because of COVID-19, our Ambler-based private music school immediately made online lessons available to our students through Skype, an interactive video app that launched 16 years ago and can be downloaded for free.

Even in the best of times, learning a musical instrument has clinically proven advantages for brain development.  Research has shown it increases both verbal and mathematical skills in children, keeps the adult brain sharp, and reduces the onset of dementia in seniors.  Learning music also enhances confidence, and is known to boost dopamine, a neurotransmitter that works with receptors in the brain to produce a sense of well-being and overall good health – especially now!

So, it was important to make the transition to online music lessons without skipping a beat.  Maintaining students’ ability to continue their lessons without interrupting their progress, is key to keeping the health and psychological benefits that learning music brings.

A private music teacher in Ambler, I began teaching piano and singing lessons from my home–based studio in 2001.  When my husband (also a musician) and I joined forces as DenLee Music School several years later, we added guitar, ukelele, songwriting and recording arts to our music lesson services.

Students have traditionally gone to teachers’ studios for music lessons; or teachers go to students’ homes.  We’ve done a combination of in-studio and at-home lessons over the years.  Now, in a matter of weeks, this traditional way seems to have become the “old-school” way, with on-line music lessons quickly becoming the “new normal.”

Online learning has been around almost as long as the Internet, used by home school students, college students, and with business accreditation programs offered by various educational organizations.  Online learning offers flexibility and convenience.

The music lessons we teach via Skype help all students connect directly with a teacher for one-on-one guidance and feedback that they can’t get otherwise.

Additionally, the close, cooperative, synergistic relationship between student and teacher is essential in learning an instrument (including voice) and in developing the physical skills and techniques needed to play and perform music.  We demonstrate hand and body positions or motions that are needed to create the right sound and prevent strain, fatigue or injury from doing something the wrong way. Two-way video is needed for the teacher to provide the feedback a student needs to learn and make adjustments and changes. 

All of our students/parents welcomed the opportunity to do online lessons via Skype, an account for each student/family was completed, and now they dial-in at our regularly scheduled lesson time each week.

The benefits of online music lessons are many.  First and foremost, at this time of COVID-19 mandated isolation, it offers students, mostly kids, continuity in their schedules and a sense of normality in their music practice and study. Many have taken extra time for more practice.  We maintain our student-teacher relationship online, and offer encouragement to keep up the good work and to keep a positive outlook.

The second advantage is the break parents are getting from coordinating busy schedules, driving kids around and dealing with traffic.  A silver lining to mandated isolation has been a decrease in fossil fuel pollution.   Our music school is committed to being a clean energy, zero-emission business run on solar and wind power.  In fact, the school has not purchased a drop of gasoline, oil or methane (natural gas) since 2013.  All our transportation, heating and air conditioning are powered by our own rooftop solar and imported wind power.

We have compensated for not having the physical proximity in our online lessons – with younger children, sometimes parental assistance is needed.  Older students have “stepped up” to listen more closely and to write out instructions, such as note names and beats, that normally the teacher would do when sitting next to them.

Looking forward, our school will incorporate online lessons as a regular part of our curriculum, even after the mandate is lifted.  It has been a pleasant surprise to experience the advantages this “new normal” can offer.

For more information, or to sign up for lessons at DenLee Music School, please visit our website: www.DenLeeMusicSchool.com.