With the positive response I’ve had from online lessons during lockdown, I am keeping online lessons as the primary service I offer. Students now have more time in a lesson from not having to set up / pack down, and less travel time means more time for practice. I am encouraging students & parents to choose online learning moving forward.

We’ll still be making progress. We’ll still be having fun playing music. You just won’t need to travel to me for the lesson.

I realise that this may not be your preferred method of learning, but during lockdown my online lessons have been proven to be just as effective – if not more effective – than in person lessons. I’m consistently told by students & parents that my online lessons are better than expected (see survey results below).

You might think that physical contact is needed to learn guitar. Since teaching online, I’ve found that physical contact simply isn’t necessary for my teaching methods to be effective. In fact, manual hand manipulation could actually get in the way of proper learning. I rarely used physical contact when teaching in-person, as I find that students generally prefer to “do it themselves” and if they are struggling to perform a movement or hand position, it’s best not to intervene with manual hand manipulation. By using close-up cameras from multiple angles, students get a view of my guitar and hands that they wouldn’t otherwise get at an in-person lesson sitting 2m apart. I give clear, step-by-step instructions for how to play with proper technique.

You might be worried that the quality won’t be good enough, or that the sound quality will make it difficult to hear each other. Please be reassured that I use two HD webcams, and a broadcast quality microphone. I can tell if something is wrong with your hand position, even if you have a pixellated webcam. There are sound settings in Zoom that work best for guitars, and I use an interactive player which means sound delays are not an issue. I’ll walk you through all of the setup!

If you are a parent, you might be concerned about your child’s engagement or attention while using Zoom. Since my students are using an interactive, animated song player with colour coded notes, engagement has not been an issue for me. If you are still concerned, there are shorter 20 minute lesson slots available online. You could even schedule two of these through the week, giving them more motivation to practise. Please also consider that there are potential distractions at my home studio (being in a new & unfamiliar place, my two cats, noisy neighbour).