Hello Readers,
We are in the process of building website were musicians can give online music lessons via webcam. We want to know if you could give lessons online what are something’s that you would like to have on the site. What would make you want to join?


Thanks,
Music ED team
http://www.musiceddonate.com/

Reading music should be a FIRST priority for your lesson program.The better a student can read,the more easily they can teach themselves (and in reality,we're all self taught;the teacher is just the "coach").JF

It's being done pretty effectively for guitar already.

Jimmy Bruno's site (Of which I've been a member for almost 3 years)

http://www.jimmybrunoguitarinstitute.com/public/main.cfm

Andreas Oberg's site, which my son is a member of

http://www.andreasguitaruniverse.com/

Several others offer similar sites and from what I've heard are great, such as Mark Elf, Joey Goldstien, etc..

The practicality of learning to read music seems self-evident. However, notation is a means to an end. The most important thing is learning what that end is. That can only be learned through experience. I believe much damage has been done to music education in this country by focusing both in elementary music education and in early piano lessons on reading music. New students find it difficult, because they have no idea what experience the notation is directing them to have or to create. The difficulty is discouraging, they tend to resist, the teacher becomes frustrated and crazy ideas like "don't look at your hands!" can become widely accepted rules. And worse, those who don't go on to fully develop themselves as musicians get the idea that this is what playing music is. A very solid pedagogical principle is first the experience, then the concept. Thus, reading should come after experience. Everyone learns to speak their native language before learning to read it. The most effective programs for learning foreign language immerse the student in the sounds of language in conversation, the context in which the language is used. We've probably all heard that if you want to learn French quickly, go live in France. With music, the problem of learning to read first or learning to play by ear first is that one adapts to ones modus operandi. Students who learn exclusively by reading often have difficulty later learning by ear. Learning by reading becomes familiar and normal to them. Learning by ear is then alien and mysterious; and often intimidating. It's not an insurmountable problem, but it's an unnecessary one. The same thing often happens when the situation is reversed. But the reading first approach has a related problem that the learning by ear first approach does not have. When one is involved in reading, one has less attention to give to listening. Playing music then is much like typing. I see "A" on the page, I play "A" on my instrument. That's not playing music. That's being a mindless interface (and one of it's biggest problems is interference with developing rhythmic fluidity due to students pausing every time they're not sure what the next note is). I sight-read very well and that's never what I'm doing. But I couldn't do anything more if I didn't already know the musical experiences the notation represents. Ideally, immersion is the way to go, with experience leading reading, but with playing by ear and playing by reading engaged in concurrently. With all the music on the web, an online course could utilize both audio and video sources for giving students experience. So to me, the advantage of a website devoted to online lessons would be in having quick access to the web's resources, such as youtube videos, organized in a way that's relevant to the subject at hand. In addition to experience preceding concept, fostering interest is an important element in teaching. If self-directed, most people are going to learn by going from one thing of intrinsic interest to another. I know that's how my interest in music grew. I started with John Denver (hey, I was only 10!), went through Kiss and Alice Cooper, to Yes, ELP, Pink Floyd, then to Bartok, Stravinsky, Beethoven, and on to all periods of classical music and now I'm pursuing jazz. We only know our own perception of things, so it doesn't matter, in terms of a student's interest, if a given piece is a great piece, it only matter's how the student perceives it, which depends on a variety of factors. In my private piano teaching, one of the most frustrating aspects is that even though there is tons of great music for students to learn, regardless of their level, there are few resources enabling one to filter that music on the basis of skill/knowledge levels. So the great potential for tailoring choices of music to a student's interests and personality has not been realized. Yet, fostering interest, I think, is the most important goal. Ironically, this is probably best facilitated by having ample opportunities for self-directed exploration. Listening services like last.fm are facilitating this. So, to me, a resource center would be the best thing you could do. If you created that, I would be willing to pay a subscription fee to use it in my studio and I bet other teachers would, too. And if it had the added bonus of connecting with students around the country or around the world...