Online Piano Lessons: Your Quickstart Guide (updated for 2023)
If you’re part of online music teacher groups, you’re seeing two huge trends in piano teaching right now:
Group piano lessons
Online piano lessons
Both are exciting trends, and both are changing the world of piano pedagogy.
I am a big fan of group piano lessons; I converted my entire studio several years ago from private lessons to group lessons. I had five pianos in my studio and worked with 75 students in the first year of being a group studio.
Fast-forward through several years, a cross-country move, and changing priorities, and I find myself embracing the second huge trend in teaching: online piano lessons.
Online piano lessons are a great fit for my life right now. I get to work one-on-one with fantastic students, I have flexibility in my teaching location, and I’m learning like crazy (use fewer words, listen thoroughly, remain flexible, encourage more independence...good life lessons!).
There are tremendous benefits to both of these trends, and I’m waiting for the day that technology allows me to combine them and teach piano groups online.
Meantime, I’ve found some huge perks to having an online piano studio:
→ If the student or I have a cold (i.e. contagious but not miserably sick), we’re still able to have our lesson.
→ If a student is unable to attend their online lesson at our appointed time, I simply record a lesson video and share it with them.
→ If I want to travel, I just need a quiet spot with a keyboard, my laptop, and a good wifi connection to hold lessons as usual. This idea is still blowing my mind.
Are you thinking about trying online piano lessons? What’s holding you back?
Anything new can be nerve-wracking, but there are some common fears and questions specifically related to teaching online lessons. Do they resonate?
→ Where do I start?
→ What tech do I need?
→ How do I convince parents to try online lessons?
→ What if something goes wrong during the lesson?
→ How do I find online students?
Because these questions have been circulating for a while, you’re in luck: your favorite, trusted teachers have answered them. Here’s a list of fantastic resources to fast-forward your journey to a successful online piano studio.
Your Quickstart Guide to Teaching Online Piano Lessons
→ Where do I start?
Are you feeling nervous about the risk of online lessons? Not sure what step to take first?
Jennifer Foxx of Music Educator Resources has written a brief post on 5 Benefits for Teaching Online - it’s a great list of the perks of teaching online.
→ What should my setup look like?
Sarah Lyngra has created a video called Setting Up Your Room; she offers an excellent overview of how to set up your space. I’ve referred back to her video a number of times (why is it so easy to forget that I should have a pencil and a glass of water nearby?).
To help your studio families, Sarah has made this helpful video on 3 Tech Setups for Online Students. I made it mandatory watching for my studio families who enrolled in online lessons!
→ How do I convince parents to try online piano lessons?
Nicola Cantan of Vibrant Music Teaching has written an absolutely brilliant article called How to Make Any Change in Your Piano Teaching Business. Nicola helps you think through, implement, and enforce your desired change - one step at a time, in a way that is respectful to your studio parents.
In fact, regardless of whether or not you’re moving to online lessons in the near future, Nicola’s article will likely change your life as a teacher.
→ What if something goes wrong during the lesson?
Here’s what I’ve learned: things are more likely to go wrong in online lessons.
When my wifi (or my student’s wifi) glitches momentarily, we hang out for a second until it returns. Not usually a big deal.
When Zoom goes down (it’s only done this to me once so far), we have a backup plan. My students know to jump on FaceTime, and my students without Apple products know that we’ll use Skype.
When my voice failed on me due to illness, I canceled lessons and sent lesson assignments via email. For all other insurmountable lesson issues, I record and share a video lesson instead.
→ How do I find online students?
Sara Campbell, music teacher business coach, tech expert, and all-around electric personality, offers a Biz Branding Bootcamp.
I’d highly recommend jumping on her course when it opens; Sara KNOWS how to connect with people and I can only imagine how helpful her Bootcamp is.
→ Bonus resources
Two additional resources that are worth checking out:
Tim Topham offers a wealth of resources to teachers on every conceivable teaching or studio business topic in his international teaching community, TopMusicPro.
There’s also a forum in TopMusicPro where teachers have asked a number of questions regarding online teaching - and if you can’t find an answer already there, you can post your own question and will quickly receive helpful tips and feedback from other teachers.
Carly Walton has created a Facebook group to support teachers who want to teach online called Teach Music Online. The group is growing rapidly and it looks like another great place to find answers to your questions.
Your Turn:
Do you already teach online lessons? Do you have any favorite resources that I didn’t mention? Any getting-started questions I didn’t address?
I’d love to hear from you.
Thanks for reading!
Note: Studio Rocket Web Design has no affiliation with, and receives no compensation from, any of the resources or websites listed in this article.
