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A New Wave for Music Education?

2 August 2020

Image by Paige Cody via Unsplash
Image by Paige Cody via Unsplash

Yes, I’m probably wearing rose-tinted glasses… but as old ways recede, something new always appears.

New creative potential is springing up out of the constraints of COVID because life does that. I am not suggesting that every family is looking for a music teacher right now, but given that we may face a second wave of the virus in the autumn, many parents will be giving thought to how they might structure their child’s home life. This is an opportunity to strengthen musical engagement from the roots up.

Here are ten reasons why a new wave for music education and a new concert-going audience is likely to appear.

1. Children and young people have not taken part in their usual clubs and activities for a long while and need a challenge this autumn.

2. Parents have not spent money on the usual wide range of activities for their children and some are looking for life-affirming, structured activities that can enrich their children’s lives.

3. Parents and children have spent more time together, staving off boredom and frustration. In September, it will be time to start something new.

4. Instrumental music lessons establish weekly goals, a step-by-step approach and a learning gradient that is tailored to each individual child.

5. Instrumental music teachers guide parents by explaining how best to support their child’s daily music practice.

6. There’s more time to practise musical instruments and many music teachers have seen accelerated progress in recent months.

7. Remote teaching can be a little challenging, but it does work well and it’s more convenient in many ways as parents save time and money in terms of travel; remote teaching also helps to keep the air cleaner for this reason.

8. There are exciting, new opportunities to take up a musical instrument, as many brilliant professional performing musicians are now beginning to teach online.

9. We don’t know what will happen to the world of live music in the next few months, so a real shift towards teaching rather than performing is currently taking place.

10. This period of uncertainty might be exactly what is needed to spark an enormous new wave for music education.

If you are a music teacher and this resonates with you, let me support you further. Click here to sign up for my free video series on improving students’ focus in under five minutes, or here to leave a message.

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