I recently enjoyed this read: I Tried to Become a Musician Using Apps and a Light-Up Piano. A ‘musically challenged’ tech writer for Wired describes his experience trying to learn piano and recording skills entirely from apps.
A teenage pianist whose opinion the writer asked was skeptical from the start. I shared his skepticism, but it’s hard to explain it to someone with no musical background. In fact, I remember thinking to myself as I was starting that playing guitar was mostly about learning to move my fingers. Looking back on that impression fifteen years later, the flaws of that thought are obvious. Despite having played saxophone in high school band and knowing how to read music on piano, my first attempts at self-teaching on the guitar were very misguided. I learned to muscle through some chord changes, and got frustrated pretty quickly by how little what I was playing resembled ‘real’ music. Luckily I started taking lessons pretty early on, so I didn’t waste too much time.
Obviously, as an online lesson teacher, I’m all about using technology to teach music. I love being able to reach students in all corners of the world, and enjoy learning new skills to better illustrate concepts online. I may use the Loog guitar app to teach young beginners if it seems appropriate, and recording practice videos are a huge asset. But the core of my teaching approach remains pretty fundamental. I teach from written music and live demonstrations and explanations, the way music has been taught for centuries.
Ultimately, after about a month of experimenting, the writer of the article had learned to play the first 20 seconds of Für Elise and had recorded an electronic track. Neither effort was well-received by the experts he talked to, and the electronic track (shared in the article) was not a pleasant lesson.
The conclusions of the article are that apps and online courses can be a great resource to making practice fun. They can even be helpful as supplements to private lessons. For example, if you’re having a hard time with some concept (for example, playing with a metronome, or right-hand arpeggios on guitar), a video or series that breaks down the subject even further can be really useful. Doing research on any subject between lessons will only enhance your understanding and help you make the most of your lessons. Teachers love students like those, and we’re happy to check out resources you find and let you know if they seem worth your time. However, apps and recorded video courses are no substitute for private lessons with a professional teacher. Interestingly, Lessonface’s Daniela Busciglio, an Italian language teacher, drew similar conclusions on learning languages via apps in this article.
The most important parts of music cannot be taught by an app or even by a recorded video series. The details of technique need careful instruction, demonstration, and - most importantly, and what’s missing if you don’t have have a teacher - further explanations and modification of the student’s initial attempts. Every student encounters different challenges when learning music. There are some common challenges that nearly everyone runs into, but even those have individual solutions that work for each student. By-the-book solutions that apply to every situation are rare. Beyond technique, there are the even bigger subjects of musicality and interpretation. Students differ widely in when you can begin to introduce these themes. Some can be taught that from day one, others need persistent coaching to help them express themselves in their playing. Furthermore, there are subtle ways that music theory knowledge and guided listening can elevate one’s playing, and only a human teacher can fit that into the context of a student’s repertoire.
How do you feel about using music apps to learn an instrument? Have any students tried learning through an app before signing up for Lessonface lessons? Have teachers had students begin lessons after learning some introductory skills from apps? What useful resources have other teachers and students discovered? Are there apps or recorded series that you find value in and often recommend as supplements?
