Preparations for Online Lessons – What You Need to Know

04.04.20 – Darrell Priestley

Music lessons online – what a wonderful thing, at times like now. But lessons online are different in a number of ways to lessons in person; to make the most of them, we all need to tweak our approach. Hence, we have produced a guide here that will help you approach your lessons and preparation. With a smart approach, you will maximise both the fun you have and the progress you make as together we go through this most unusual of times.

Since the doors of the Academy have been closed, Darrell and Eileen have been working on ways to bring this new format to life. In many ways, the lessons themselves are the easy part. More challenging has been the creation of a system to support moving lessons online, involving communication, booking and overseeing the whole endeavour. Though we have really tried, issues with our existing G Suite, which has hitherto served us admirably, have made it difficult to transition to the new system we have in mind. We are therefore turning to a new Microsoft system to support the business, which will require additional days to set up and then to learn, after which we expect to have it running well enough to start making lessons happen. Prior to this, we must prioritise students are who already paying for their lessons by standing order, but we expect soon to be in a position to start lessons for you all.

We have trialled sessions to determine what problems there might be. Generally the trial sessions have worked very well indeed, but you may want to spend a little time beforehand checking the settings on your device, especially microphone and sound settings, as it is improtant that student and teacher can both hear one another clearly. Consider using headphones if the built in speakers are not so good, but you should use the computer or smart phone’s own speakers, or better still attach seperate speakers if you want others in your home to hear the teacher’s contribution and performance examples.

For practical reasons, online lessons will observe a temporary timetable which may differ from your regular day and time. On lesson day, invites will be sent as an email request, asking you to join a meeting. Please be sure to respond at the appropriate time, and bear in mind that you may have to wait until your teacher has concluded the previous lesson before they can join you. If using a computer or laptop, the app should generally open in a browser, but if you plan to use a smart phone or tablet it may be necessary first to download the relevant app.

Until the new system is fully set up and working, we will generally be using Zoom software for online lessons. In the near future, we expect to transition to using Microsoft Teams for this purpose. This software will allow us to develop, adapt and personalise lessons over time, and may even have an added benefit in being useful for practice and lesson preparation after lessons in person resume again, depending on the working methods developed by each individual teacher.

Don’t forget, Darrell is working hard to keep everyone feeling informed and involved, and putting in special effort at this time to offer support by updating this page daily and making it helpful and relevent to you, our students and their loved ones. We suggest you visit often, not just for news and tips, but simply to remind yourself that you too are a part of this beautiful music community, all of us looking forward to when life outside the home opens up to us again.

Further tips ”Making the Most of Lessons in Lockdown” will be published soon – bookmark this page and check back here regularly.

Not got an email lately?

04.04.20 – Darrell Priestley

We have been busy emailing all students with updates and news about online lessons. No existing student should feel left out, regardless of their current circumstances. If you have not been receiving emails from [email protected], then please check all your email addresses for spam, or contact us from your preferred email address, making sure you mention both the student(s) and teacher’s name, and we will amend our records and bring you up to date.

Yeay! It’s Delivery Day!

03.04.20 – Darrell Priestley

Hunkered down at the homestead, happily honing this hopeful homily to hubris. And with luck, that’s got the need to aliterate out of my system for the remainder of this blog. This is the day we have been waiting for, and simultaneously the day we have been dreading. Not wishing to blow my own trumpet, but one day early last week I succeeded against all odds in claiming an elusive delivery slot with Asda. Not much will get you one; they laughed when I told them my dad was friends with one of the founder’s, Peter Asquith (true, but irrelevent). Only a quirk of fate, a happy accident, put me at the front of the queue just as a couple of delivery slots were released. You have never seen me move so fast!

And it’s not just Asda. Hours each week go into a black hole, staring at the little man sauntering across the screen (come on little guy, pick up the pace, why don’t you?) This morning, I zoomed in to watch his legs moving, like he had all the time in the world; which I suppose now he does. It’s just that, in the middle of pandemic, that kind of nonchallance just winds me up. Asda, Morrisons, Ocado, Tesco, you can’t even snag a click-and-collect slot. And then, when you see a grocery delivery van driving down the road you find yourself rushing to the window, wondering who was that lucky customer, who do they know in high places, where do they live and how on earth did they ever get so lucky?

Chatting with one of our student’s mums yesterday, she confirmed what I had long suspected; they have regular weekly deliveries. While I feel a reassuring satisfaction that someone at least got their ducks in a row before the world veered off it’s axis, there is much consternation that we didn’t put something like that in place back when we had the chance. My wife Eileen likes her routine, which is not the same as saying she enjoys supermarket shopping, but she was always resistant to disrupting a weekly routine by which we have lived for so long. I suspect grocery shopping will reshape itself for many of us after lockdown, with a regular small scheduled delivery, if only to preserve a place in line against any future need.

So today, between 7.00 and 9.00, the delivery van will pull up and disgorge everything we could have two of (let’s hope that doesn’t also include brussels sprouts?), which sounds like cause for happiness and revelry, but amidst the triumph there is also angst, because since that fateful day when we secured this slot, we’ve seen neither hide nor hair of another, despite checking in the wee small hours almost every night.

But at least the supermarkets will have a very good year, (unlike the travel industry or the garden centres). Earlier this week I was delighted to hear that Morrisons, a very ethical business whose policy is to quietly support foodbanks year round, has commited to produce an additional £10,000,000 worth of it’s own brand foods to further help them at this time. This news made me glow. Then yesterday Morrisons announced it is to treble it’s annual bonus this year to all it’s 43,000 hardworking staff. They deserve it. I have never appreciated them so much.

Bang a Gong – It’s Thursday

02.04.20 – Darrell Priestley

The Netflix fantasy has yet to happen at our house. You may be more fortunate. Incarcerated chez nous ten days and counting, we have so far seen less than five hours of non Covid-19 TV. By the time I sit in a chair to wind down after a long day at the computer, I am already nodding off to sleep. The TV goes on mostly at meal times, when we catch up on news develpoments from around the world, though under current circumstances I think it’s good to limit that kind of thing; then it’s back to work, which is somewhat better.

Eileen and I are missing our grandchildren, of course. While isolation feels safe, we are all missing out on family, and get-togethers that would recently have seemed routine are just not happening. Fortunately, this is the age of the videolink, and our three year old grandson is far from camera shy, while his six month old sister has a winning smile that lights up the small screen. They are totally isolating at present, but can come out to shop again in less than a week, perhaps something of a mixed blessing since lately every shopping expedition feels like running the gauntlet. Meanwhile, we make goo goo eyes at the children and do funny poses (at least, they think they are funny) through the window when we drop off the shopping at their front door.

Today being Thursday, there is an 8.00pm call to assemble at the front of the house with pots and pans, wooden spoons, and anything else that can make a din, and applaud our wonderful NHS and care staff, who bravely put in long shifts on the front line. But it’s a long front line, and it extends into the food shops and pharmacies, care homes and social care, and to the people who keep our public trasnsport moving. So when you cheer tonight and bang that gong, shout loud and shout wide, because as we are starting to realise, there are a lot of brave and selfless people helping to hold our world together right now.