5 Benefits of Online Voice Lessons
It seems like everyone is offering some sort of online class. From rental property investors to personal trainers, virtual courses and training pervade the internet in 2019.
Voice lessons are somewhat of a latecomer to the world of online instruction. SAT prep, tutoring, counseling, and other services have been using online video chat for years, but online voice lessons have taken a little longer to catch on. That’s not to say voice lessons weren’t happening from a distance—you can listen to this phone call that Michael Jackson had with a voice teacher back in 1994:
Online lessons offer a unique blend of personalization and flexibility that in-person lessons just can’t offer. Here are 5 benefits to online lessons:
1. INDIVIDUALITY/PERSONALIZATION
Online lessons shouldn’t be confused with an online course, a set of pre-recorded instructional videos and assignments. Online lessons are still one-on-one lessons, individually crafted for each student’s learning.
2. FLEXIBILITY
Online lessons offer students an amazing amount of flexibility that traditional in-person lessons don’t. In a city like Boston, traveling from a suburb to a Boston neighborhood, or even from one neighborhood to another, can be time-consuming and stressful. Scheduling a lesson and a commute can monopolize several hours of time, rather than just the time required for the lesson. Online meetings allow students (who might be over-scheduled as it is) to manage their time more efficiently and get more accomplished in a single day.
Most in-person voice lessons require a complicated coordinating of schedules and availabilities including student, teacher, pianist, and space/location. By removing some of these variables, finding time for a lesson becomes infinitely easier. Moreover, cancelling and rescheduling lessons is a much more achievable task.
3. ACCESSIBILITY
One of the best aspects of online lessons is that they connect people who would otherwise not be able to meet in person. I have given online lessons to students who were in hotel rooms, cruise ship cabins, summer camps, and on family vacations.
Maybe you live somewhere where there aren’t a lot of opportunities for lessons, or your family is moving and you want to continue working with a particular teacher. Online lessons are an amazing solution to these situations, and the technology to stay connected is only getting better.
As a professional singer or actor, working and performing on the road is often a reality. For singers on national tours, cruise line contracts, regional opera or theatre contracts, or even on vacation, online lessons are the perfect way to stay connected to a teacher and stay consistent with training.
4. FREQUENCY AND CONTINUITY
In both private studios and academic settings, in-person voice lessons are typically scheduled once a week for 30-60 minutes. Consider this in contrast to school classes, music or drama rehearsals, and sports practices, all which meet several times per week. It would be unusual for a sports team to practice once a week and to expect the team to improve their skills, so why do we expect this from singers?
The flexibility and portability of online lessons allows students to check in with their teacher more easily. In my studio, each week of instruction consists of three parts:
Individual lesson
Individually crafted homework assignment the student submits as a video
Video response or a brief video-chat session to review the homework
Just as importantly, the inherent flexibility of online lessons allows students to be more consistent with their training. Any voice student knows that if they miss a week or two of lessons, it can be difficult to get started again and get back to the technical level they had achieved. Since online lessons are more flexible, the probability that a student will miss a week or two of lessons is greatly decreased. If a student has to miss a lesson, they can reschedule and make it up from any location—school, home, on vacation, etc.
5. INDEPENDENCE
One of the major drawbacks to in-person lessons is the risk that students can become dependent on teacher feedback and assistance with piano accompaniment. While video-chat technology has come a long way in the past decade, in most instances it is not possible for a teacher to accompany a student on the piano while video chatting.
While this may seem like a big negative, it’s actually a big positive in the long-run. Students can get lulled into a false sense of security if their teacher is always accompanying them on the piano, or even worse, always including the melody line in the accompaniment. This becomes problematic when students work with different accompanists, learn harmonies, take musical adjustments, or make musical changes. Audition settings can be particularly jarring if students have never worked without their teacher’s piano assistance.
Online singing has a greater focus on a cappella singing than traditional in-person lessons. If you know me, you know I was an a cappella nerd in college, so I’m always happy to incorporate some a cappella singing into my day. Learning to sing a cappella stretches students musical skills, especially with music that is complicated rhythmically or harmonically. Being comfortable singing a capella makes singers more flexible, and more ready to adapt to a world without their teacher.
Online lessons are a game changer for growing singers who want to make faster and consistent progress in their vocal technique as well as for seasoned pros who are looking for a way to stay vocally healthy while on the road. I’m happy to answer any questions you might have about getting started with online lessons. Fill out my contact form and I’ll be in touch soon.
