Online music homeschooling is a hit during the lockdown

During the COVID-19 lockdown, parents have been looking desperately for meaningful activities for their bored children, and for many, the choice has landed on music homeschooling. One North Carolina mother has signed up four of her five children for online guitar lessons: “You can’t beat the convenience,” she says

Finding ways to entertain stuck-at-home children is an ongoing challenge, but the lockdown has also made many of us realize that we can do most things from home. This includes teaching the children guitar play and classical music. Online music lessons are on the rise as institutions have been shut down. Mother of five Nicole Swanneck is one of the parents who found the online lessons to be a perfect match for her busy family.

“We spent a while searching for someone, who could teach classical music, but there wasn’t anyone in our area that could teach the traditional, classical guitar method. So after a bunch of research, we found the Gentle Guitar School and it just seemed to be the best way to introduce our children to the guitar. Others also offered those kinds of lessons, but they all seemed to be targeting an older audience like teenagers and adults,” she explains and carries on: “You can’t beat the convenience. I have five children and just not having to go back and forth to a studio is phenomenal for a sometimes busy family.”

A whole new experience
It wasn’t without skepticism Nicole Swanneck signed up her children for online music lessons as she had a hard time believing it could work in practice: “We started with a trial lesson because none of us had ever tried online music lessons before and I wasn’t quite sure how that was going to work. I was really wondering how it was going to go. Like how are the teacher and my children going to form a connection now that it’s online, which I think is really important to have with your music teacher, but that was all really effortless. They see the teacher’s face, they get her feedback and they interact with her, and that goes for all my children even though they are in different age groups. The kids really don’t seem to mind that it's all online.”

Inga Hope, the founder of Gentle Guitar School, isn’t surprised to hear that parents and children find the online lessons effortless as we live in a digital age:
“Our children have grown up with a device in their hands, so even though the concept of online lessons might seem new and strange to us as parents, it’s as normal as any other task or experience on the computer for the kids,” Inga explains and continues: “We can really learn to embrace technology from our digital children as it opens up to many new and more convenient ways of doing things.”

Normally you have to start a car to go to the music studio, but with the online lessons you only have to start the computer and be a silent supporter for your children Nicole Swanneck explains:

“The teacher gives us a call on the prescribed lesson time and the kids go on video with her and I just sit by them. For my youngest children I help with the things that have to be manually adjusted. But the video works surprisingly well as the teacher is able to zoom in on her hands and show what she’s trying to teach them. It has been absolutely seamless for all of us”.

And according to Inga Hope, the online lessons are just as personalized as it would be with a physical meeting:“We never do pre-recorded videos, so every lesson is adapted to each child. And you know what - every child is different. That’s also what we love at Gentle Guitar School - finding a way to reach each child and make them flourish with the talent they all possess.”
Gentle Guitar School teaches children from the age of five and up.

A musical upbringing
Nicole Swanneck grew up in a musically interested family, so it isn’t a coincidence that her children started exploring music, however it wasn’t set in stone, that the instrument would be a guitar.
“Growing up I learned to play the violin and my parents exposed me to opera, broadway and classical music, so from a young age I fell in love with music and I really wanted to give my children that same experience and pass it on. I’ve tried getting my children to play the piano, but they just didn’t want to do it. They were able to, but they didn’t want to. But they all fell for the guitar. I once asked my kids why they like playing the guitar and they just said: “Because it’s fun”. At the same time, it truly is a serious curriculum, which has given them a solid foundation in music theory.”

Inga Hope isn’t surprised that the children find the lessons amusing, as children like to learn, she says:“Kids love being stimulated and they love learning new things. They really enjoy the process of improving their skills, so the lessons truly give them confidence and satisfaction. It’s not a coincidence that we have the word “gentle” in our name - that’s our approach, but we are serious about our curriculum, and that’s why the kids experience the progress they do.”

Nicole Swanneck has been happy with the alternative teaching method during the lockdown, but it has also been an eye-opening experience for herself:
“It’s a wonderful thing to do with many of us families being cooped up at home looking for something to do right now. I love the time I spend with my children during the lessons and actually I’ve decided to start playing myself. But I must admit that their skills exceed mine right now, and I’m pretty sure they won’t let me in their band,” she says laughing.