Faculty and alumni from the Music Education program recently talked the National Association for Music Education about how they came together to create an entirely virtual ensemble. Below are highlights from their experience, as well as advice for how to overcome some of the challenges presented by teaching music online.

 

Jeanne Goffi-Flynn on Preparing to Adopt Your Pedagogy 

“When looking at material versus pedagogy and comparing online to in-person classes, the pedagogy is truly what’s changing. We can’t have 25 people singing at the same time. But the content is still the same. We can still do warm-ups, we still want to understand how the voice works, and we still want to have good teaching strategies that promote engagement and a community mindset.”

Drew Coles on Trying Your Own Lessons First

  “Anything that you make your students do, you should do first. Get a group of friends together and walk through the process. By bringing the project from beginning to end, you’ll learn a lot about how to run it in the classroom. If you don’t work through things on your own, you’ll have no idea what hurdles your students face or how to address them.”

Natalie Fabian on Using Music to Connect with Each Other

“Music is a great way for people to heal, especially in challenging times. In this respect, the rehearsals became very grounding. For myself and for others who I’ve spoken with, the rehearsals were often a highlight of the week. And then, at the end of the semester, we were presented with beautiful videos of everyone singing simultaneously, a symbol of the hard work coming to fruition.” 

 

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