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Distance music learning

4 min read

My mom was facing an end-of-summer dilemma.

How would she continue giving piano lessons to the young man who was about to return to his home 1,400 miles away?

Those who know the teacher know she is not the type to give up on this. Here is a person who has taught piano lessons for 50 years. Fifty years and hundreds of students. Almost every one of my childhood memories has the sound of “Fur Elise” in it, the background music played (or sometimes vandalized) by one of her students. On weeknights after school, our family room was likely to be occupied by other mothers’ children. Sometimes they sat quietly as they waited their turn, doing homework or reading. Others became our friends. All started with the red book and the woodchuck song. Many progressed to proficiency. All were expected to practice.

Her student this summer was Patrick, the farmer’s son who was spending the season with us, helping to paint our house. At 26, he still remembered most of the basics of reading music from school, and besides, he’d just purchased an old piano back home in Colorado; he planned to teach himself to play.

“Grammy could give you lessons,” I said. And so starting in June, once a week Dad would drive Mom to our house, we’d feed them dinner (or we’d reverse it and go to them), and then the lesson would begin. With Grammy sitting at his side – and with daily practice – Patrick progressed through that red book with a seeming ease my Steinway upright has never seen. He has a natural talent, and he and Grammy had a natural rapport.

And then came that third week of August. It was time for Patrick to fly home.

At dinner before that last lesson, Grammy was explaining how Patrick could continue his progress on his own without her. And that’s when the idea came to me.

“You could do lessons over Skype.”

Skype is the internet app that allows two people with computer cameras to see and hear each other in real time. When the farmer was living in Argentina, he and I would have Skype movie nights: we’d order a film from Netflix, hit play at the same time, and watch while we talked. Why not piano?

After a few technical set-ups and a training session, Grammy was ready. This week, she and Patrick met each other in cyberspace. As with any technology, there can be glitches.

Halfway through the lesson, Patrick called for an adjustment.

“Grammy, I can only see the top of your head,” he said.

Her camera moved down a bit, Grammy continued with the lesson. The 1,400 miles dissolved as Patrick progressed to the Blue book and even played a more challenging piece he’d learned by himself.

“He memorized that whole thing,” Grammy said, amazed.

Grammy said it’s not exactly the same as being there in person. For example, Patrick’s phone camera position makes it a little hard for her to see both his hands. But it’s good enough to call it a real piano lesson.

Just now, I did some research and it turns out Skype piano lessons have been around for a while. My idea was not so special after all.

But what is remarkable is the stamina and enthusiasm my mom still brings to teaching music. It’s also remarkable that Patrick is so dedicated in his effort to learn, despite his busy life and the miles between him and his teacher. I look forward to hearing his excellent “Fur Elise” someday soon.

He was Grammy’s star pupil all summer. It turns out he still is.

Beth Dolinar can be reached at cootiej@aol.com.

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