Unexpected Advancement

Resilience. It is defined to be the ability to overcome challenges. March brought unexpected challenges and interruptions to personal realities. Our world quickly experienced something completely unknown for many of us. The mother of one of my students is an infectious disease expert. I admire and respect her greatly. She had been very calm about the pandemic brewing until the day the WHO declared Covid-19 a Pandemic. “Healthy people stay home.” was her post. I had been very aware of the situation because my international piano pedegogy group was ablaze with concern from teachers around the world. Many were terrified not only of contracting the virus, but of passing it on to students. Immediately after that post, I cancelled lessons for the remainder of the week and prepared to move online. Two days later, schools closed down and the quarantine began.

I expected online lessons to be a substitute for “real” learning. But I wanted to keep my students active as taking a break from piano usually has poor results for children. Students need consistent interaction with an instructor to feel encouraged and motivated. All of my parents were grateful to me as well for contributing to some amount of normalcy for their children.

The first few weeks were challenging as I adjusted to the changes. It was necessary to use verbal cues and explain concepts more than usual. As the months passed, I began to notice something. My students were improving very quickly! I was finding very interesting ways to capture their attention and explain concepts even through my camera. I realized how asking more questions, engaging my students to think more and reviewing the lesson would have a greater impact. I was encouraging more personal accountability. The most exciting to me was I could feel myself becoming a better teacher! I had new and fresh ideas for instruction. My students were tearing through their books so quickly I had to send links for books to parents quite often.

This is very exciting to me. I am seeing the chance to offer online lessons as an option to my students and their families even after I feel comfortable to return to in person lessons. I am choosing to remain online for now because in addition to the improvements I see, the distancing guidelines recommended for enclosed space instruction feel stressful for both myself and the children. One of my colleagues in town has plexiglass in his studio. Another is standing in a separate room to instruct. Some are requiring masks and 6 feet of space. I personally feel the online option is much more organic and relaxing for children. So today I celebrate how a difficult situation resulted in growth for myself and the budding musicians I feel privileged to teach.