Online learning in higher music education: Benefits, challenges and drawbacks of one-to-one videoconference instrumental lessons

Abstract

Online music courses are becoming more common in higher education thanks to the always increasing technological advances. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic many universities around the world have been forced to turn to online learning. There are currently several options to deliver online musical tuition, but most of them offer limited results. Online learning provides many advantages related to time and money saving, as well as ecological-related matters, access from remote areas and interaction between students and teachers around the world. However, most often communication will take place using platforms tailored for speech, which will have a significant impact on the lesson quality. Although face-to-face lessons cannot be completely replaced to guarantee quality tuition, online lessons can be a helpful complement in certain situations. This article aims to identify the most common limitations of the platforms available at the moment, suggesting different approaches to lessen the weaknesses of online instrumental one-to-one teaching.