Effective Teaching Piano Lessons to Kids and Teenagers Virtually During the Pandemic: A Reflection on Teaching and Learning Strategies

We are experiencing an unexpected pandemic in the globe in the past 2 years, education has been highly affected by the uncertainty. With the outstanding development of information technology, the world has moved a significant step in many different fields, especially education where as the mode of teaching is emerged. Virtual classrooms have been widely introduced as a mode of teaching in almost all areas of education. Researches have been performed focusing on classroom education, however, there are a few resources on the applied music lessons. Effective applied lessons are believed to be taught with in person interaction, however, it is quite challenging for both teacher and student to adapting to a new mode of teaching, especially to young kids and teenagers, as a result, solutions are needed to be developed to cater this situation. In this study, a self-reflective analysis of 8 students aged 7 to 14 who are taking virtual piano lessons for 6 months is used to explore the challenges and strategies from three aspects, 1) Teacher-student-parent relationship, 2) limitations and solutions of successful teaching, 3) instruction delivery. The study is an endeavor to explore the effective practices of teaching and learning from virtual applied lessons and its benefits for piano teachers and students and hope to expand the possibility of teaching without distance barriers. Some unique advantages that particularly reflect on virtual teaching are discussed. To conclude, virtual lessons can also be significant compared to in-person lessons. The possibility of virtual lessons and classrooms should not be underestimated, and this study will also serve as a reference for piano teachers who are planning to provide virtual piano lessons or seeking for improvement in their virtual teaching.