Pros & Cons of Youtube Lessons

• Students use the wrong fingers for certain notes.
• Hands are too tense.
• No practical knowledge about how to set properly your instrument, hold it and blow air into it (embouchure, reed, blowing air etc).

Specifically at the piano:

• Fingers are positioned flat on the black keys, when it is important that they should be rounded.
• Shoulders are hunched.
• Students are sat and positioned incorrectly on the chair.

• Make sure you are always positioned correctly so you won’t develop bad habits.
• Help you to break any positioning bad habits you may have developed.
• Make sure you are comfortable and avoid physical trauma.

• Poor rhythmic skills when learning new pieces.
• Difficulty in learning new pieces from scores.
• Missing the basics (proper foundations are essential for mastering your instrument).
• A reliance on learning by ear rather than from scores.

• Develop your rhythmic skills.
• Help you to learn new pieces properly from scores through many techniques.
• Help you build the proper foundations by teaching you the basics.
• Teach you how to read scores fluently and with ease.

• Poor articulations especially in legato/staccato.
• Poor dynamics and phrasing, which are often not indicated in the score.
• Dynamics being followed only generally.
• A lack of understanding of a musical score.
• A lack of emotional depth.

• There is never a connection with a live audience (be it one person or many).
• Audience feedback or reaction is never experienced.
• Stage fright is never overcome.
• Learners can become musically isolated and musically unsocial.
• Various difficulties may be experienced when playing publicly.
• Many learners never play with other musicians.

• Feedback as an audience to your playing.
• A live presence and listener to your playing so you become used to playing to a live audience.
• The opportunity to meet with other online students so you can play to each other.

• Gaps in theory knowledge.
• Gaps in technique.
• Difficulty in keeping on track.
• Lack of motivation as no realistic goals are set or reached.
• No proper learning curve is maintained.

• Provide up to date feedback on the progress you are making.
• Tell you where you need to focus your practise.
• Identify your strengths so you can apply these to areas of weakness.
• Set achievable goals, tailored to your ability.

To supplement our live online tuition, after every lesson, we send lesson notes about what was covered in the lesson (see example below):
 
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• Shortening of attention spans.
• Distraction which wastes time allotted to learning.
• A sense of underachievement when seeing professionals or peers performing.
• Lack of self discipline which means you will never excel in your instrument.

• Keep you stimulated and thus motivated.
• Provide you with engaging exercises to keep you focused.
• Provide balanced positive feedback and encouragement so you know you are making progress.
• Set achievable goals and structured practise schedules to develop your self discipline.

• You will never be able to know what is good or bad teaching.
• You may not be able to distinguish a good performance from a bad one.
• You might learn to play a piece wrongly.

• You can choose a good and accomplished teacher.
• You can try some lessons with that teacher to find out if they are suitable for you.
• A good online teacher will be able to explain what is good and bad in music.
• You will be able to develop a deep understanding of music.