Music, Wherever You Are

New Zealand's leading music school, Lewis Eady, provides individual and group lessons in instrumental music to 1,300 students across Auckland and Wellington. Lewis Eady’s Live Online Music Lessons enable students to continue making music from the safety of their bubbles while keeping local musicians employed.

Due to strict physical distancing rules, in-person lessons were no longer an option in Alert Levels 3 and 4. In an effort to continue providing high-quality music tuition even during this unprecedented time, the Lewis Eady team swiftly and successfully transitioned all 1,300 lessons to be delivered online via Skype. This open approach to change and technology ensured that students could continue with their usual lesson schedules and not lose any momentum in their musical progress.

All online lessons at Lewis Eady are delivered live. Unlike pre-recorded videos, students and tutors connect on Skype and interact directly with each other, making every online lesson a personalised experience. "These music lessons are more than just learning new songs and technical progress," says Bianca Rocca, who teaches piano, keyboard, ukulele and Musical Jam at the School. "Music is a social asset, and group lessons nurture that, especially in quarantine!"

These online lessons provide a source of income for local musicians, who are particularly affected by this global pandemic. All 40 musicians on Lewis Eady’s tutor register, covering 14 instruments (guitar, ukulele and piano being the popular choices) and classical, jazz and contemporary genres are now delivering lessons from their homes. "It's fun to see the students in a different environment and to work out new ways of learning together," says Jamie de Jong, a piano teacher at the School since 2016.

Finally, these online lessons enable parents to take a more involved approach with their children's learning. "Working from home is giving me an opportunity to look at my son's learning needs firsthand and help him as I can," says a happy parent. "I have not learnt music, so it's always a challenge to get him to practice, but the Skype session was great for us to follow up on what is expected of him."

Lewis Eady’s live online music lessons have been a welcome respite from the temporary new reality of working, learning and socialising from home. What began in response to COVID-19 will continue so anyone who wishes to experience the joy of learning a musical instrument can do so whenever and wherever they are.

For more information or to register your interest, visit www.lewiseady.co.nz/skype-lessons

© Scoop Media