How to Effectively Engage Students During Online Lessons
If you’re wondering how you’re going to engage students during online lessons then you’re not alone! Every teacher who begins teaching online wonders how they’re going to keep young students engaged or how their going to continue have meaningful interactions with students during an online lesson.
While teaching music online has its challenges there are absolutely ways to be creative and engaging with students online! With some planning and extra effort you can have highly engaging and effective lessons with your students online. Use this list to get your wheels turning as you start planning online lessons for some of your specific students.
1. Use an app to reinforce learning or break up the lesson
Apps are an amazing way to reinforce a concept or allow the student to focus on something else during a lesson. Here are a few apps that work well; Music Flash Class, Note Rush, Tenuto, and Tuned Train (beginners) are all great apps! The student can do the app on their own iPad during the lesson and then come back to the video call or you can hold up an ipad to your camera and have the student tell you what to select.
2. Review a piece
Reviewing a piece is a great chance for the student to “show off” and also keep pieces fresh in their mind. Consider reviewing a piece from each method book after they’ve “passed off” a song. You can also have them memorize a line of the piece or play the piece a bit differently turning the review time into a game.
3. Invite them to write questions in their music
Ask your student to write down questions about a piece. They can ask about a musical concept or a musical term they are unfamiliar with. This forces them to study their music in a different way! This is best with a new song that they haven’t learned yet as it allows them time to study the music and lesson time to ask you questions about the piece.
4. Share a video from YouTube
This is a quick way to demonstrate a piece and they get to watch it performed by yourself or another musician! Students love to hear their songs played, it motivates them to work harder and finish songs quicker. Don’t be shy about using YouTube, it’s an amazing tool that can really motivate and encourage students to learn their instrument!
5. 1 Minute flashcard speed test
Keep a set of flashcards nearby during online piano lessons (or any other instrument) for a speed reading test! I do this with all of my students almost every single lesson until they don’t have to think about the notes they’re reading anymore.
6. Use a printable worksheet for theory or rhythm
Send the student activities ahead of time that you can pull out midway through a lesson. Students love games and activities during their lesson, you just need to plan them in advance. Another tip is to organize all of your online teaching materials inside Google Drive so you can easily send them to your students when you need to.
7. Write and clap rhythms
Invite the student to clap and count a rhythm out loud. You can do this with a difficult section or with an entire song. If it’s hard for the student to count, have them write the counts in their music before clapping and counting. One huge benefit to online teaching is that you are not there to do everything for the student! This means that you’re really going to have to teach the student how to listen and do activities during the lesson. Many teachers write the counts in for the student but it is so much better when the student is capable of doing this on their own.
8. Use different colored pencils to circle musical topics
Colored pencils are great for marking music! For example: Have the student circle all of the sharped notes in green and all of the musical signs in blue. Simply using colors turns learning into an activity and is helps young music students stay engaged.
9. Switch roles - student critiques the teacher
Play one of your students songs for them. Intentionally mess up once or twice and see if they can find the error. This is a fun game and the students love watching you “mess up”.
10. Change up the piece
If you need the student to play a song again so you can check notes, instead of saying, “Can you play that song one more time for me?” Say something like, let’s play the song again two octaves lower, or change the style or dynamics of the song. You can also teach new skills to the student by having them transpose a piece, write a new melody, or play chords in the left hand.
It is amazing how many ways there are to be creative during online music lessons. Teaching music online does not have to be a handicap as far as being effective, instead it’s an opportunity to connect with students in a new way and help them develop important skills for their musical journey.
I promise that as you dive into teaching music online you’ll quickly see your specific creative skills as a teacher. You’ll be able to transfer your "in-person” activities to the online realm and you’ll see how effective and beneficial online lessons are. I can’t wait to hear your success stories as an online teacher!
If you’d like more specific steps for how to teach music online then you should check out my free mini-course by clicking here.
Happy Teaching!
Carly