Illustration of a piano.
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Pixabay
Spending your evenings improvising on the piano, singing in video, playing a song thanks to a tutorial is one of the winning strategies to fight against the depression and boredom of confinement.
For some, this period has been synonymous with progress thanks to the many tutorials, the efforts of teachers, and greater availability.
As long as you are a little autonomous ... Because if the individual lessons seem possible on the condition of having a little material and a good connection, the rehearsals of choir or orchestra remain a challenge at the time of all distance.
What if we took advantage of confinement to learn an instrument or polish our singing skills?
Some French people took advantage of this suspended period to challenge themselves, especially musical ones.
But it is not necessarily easy to reinvent a whole pedagogy to imagine a distance piano lesson.
And to progress when you don't have a teacher nearby to correct, encourage, replay the song and play together ...
"This makes it possible to fill the long days locked up at home"
For some, learning to scale, even in front of a screen, has added a pinch of fun and creativity to long, confined days.
Romain, 35, drummer in a group, could not find his companions in real life.
But took revenge by embarking on online guitar lessons.
"I started a month ago, it's done pretty well and I've made real progress," says this user who responded to our call for testimonials.
It will never replace a physical teacher, but it helps fill the long days locked up at home.
"
For Bruno, 59, the strategy has proven to be successful.
“There are plenty of tutorials and methods for learning guitar on the web, hard to find the right one.
After some research, he found the Grail.
“Three months of lessons for the price of three hours in real life, I told myself that stuck at home, that would be a low investment at worst.
Result of the races (or courses), the method is very well built, the teacher extremely pedagogue, one can count on a benevolent community which gives advice.
"
Bruno even embarked on a method for the accompaniment piano… “I had never played any instrument and now I have four guitars and a piano, and I manage to have fun playing real pieces. with.
"
"Video systems remain a way to advance in degraded mode"
However, for others, the experience was less conclusive.
Especially for a material question.
The teachers had to make their ranges on hitherto unknown software.
“At the beginning, Zoom considered singing as noise, so he automatically cut the microphone!” Recalls Saskia, professor of lyrical and baroque singing at the Nanterre Conservatory.
I discovered that the settings had to be changed.
It's like everything, we experiment with the tools.
"
"When the WiFi is bad, we hang up, we call back, we repeat the same thing three times, it generates a lot of stress," admits Franck, guitar teacher.
Mickaël, 40 years old, student, does not keep the few technical difficulties.
“After spending two classes trying out Skype, Teams and WhatsApp applications between computers and smartphones and finally coming back to Skype, we were able to continue.
There are still the sound shifts, so no play with the teacher, it's everyone's turn.
To see the positions of the hands, fingers and be corrected, it is also complicated.
Learning the theory remains possible.
But video is still a way to move forward in degraded mode, no more.
"
"It's a bit one-sided"
This is confirmed by Franck, who welcomed three new guitar students during confinement.
“The main problem is everything that is posture, learning to round the fingers, the position of the wrist.
When I am in person, I see in 3D and I can correct by touching.
From a distance, I try to be very precise in the instructions.
And to give tips: you must be able to pass a pen between the neck of the guitar and your hand.
No doubt, for some courses, the distance weighs more.
"It's a little one-sided, I give instructions, I watch the note readings, the rhythm", regrets the teacher.
Difficult, therefore, to work on improvisation.
By adapting her singing lessons, Saskia had some surprises.
“I was quite pessimistic at the start, but all is not negative.
The first half of each class is generally oriented towards vocal technique.
Despite the vagaries, the discussions remain constructive, in particular for bodywork.
For musical work, it's more problematic, of course impossible to sing together… ”So she asks her students to record themselves on accompaniments.
“It's a rigid tempo, a frozen interpretation, but they are thus obliged to produce a finished product, at home, without pressure, then to listen to themselves, which generates progress.
“To the point that she plans to keep this method the day when classes can resume at the conservatory.
Unsurprisingly, the teachers (of music but also of dance…) are eager for this parenthesis to find its final agreement.
"It's still difficult to be all day in front of a screen with technical uncertainties and sound preventing real work on the timbre," admits Saskia.
"For children, it's complicated"
While learning or perfecting your mastery of an instrument is therefore not impossible, some audiences struggle more.
Indeed, when we talk about young children who are new to music theory and the violin, they risk getting excited quickly in front of a screen or asking parents for a helping hand ... Sandrine's son, 44, took his music lessons. guitar through a video application.
“He's having a hard time following.
His teacher really did everything to ensure that there is no dropout, but we must admit that for children, it is complicated.
“Same nuance on the side of Gaëlle, 43 years old.
If she continued with her piano lessons with pleasure, it was another kettle of fish for her son.
“I have improved a lot during this period.
On the other hand, my 9 year old son did not hook at all from a distance.
"
"The age of the student is important for the distance music course to work," confirms Franck.
Because it requires a lot of autonomy.
Normally, with children, I work on methods, I circle an important note.
There, I ask them to do that.
Finding the 2nd eighth note in the 3rd measure takes a lot of time, it's less fluid… and I'm not sure of the result.
"
Nothing to see for experienced instrumentalists.
Thus, Nicolas, 46, guitarist in a big jazz band, continued his bass lessons.
“My teacher offers a very complete platform that combines recorded lessons, community (forum style), live question-and-answer sessions for all participants, seminars, and a whole bunch of online tools to progress according to their desires.
Since I discovered this course, I'm having a blast.
Maybe if I had to start from scratch it would have been more complicated.
"
"It's no longer the choir!"
"
It is not only the age and experience of the students that play a role, their number as well.
An individual course via a video platform can be organized without too much difficulty.
On the other hand, when we talk about rehearsal to more than ten instrumentalists or singers, it gets complicated ... Franck canceled a guitar and singing course which was to bring together several people.
The same for Saskia: the opera project is suspended for the moment.
“It is unthinkable to work on this type of project on Zoom.
However, when you learn a discipline, it is the projects that give a deadline, a horizon, a motivation.
"
Laure, 48, is part of a choir.
Rehearsals continued during the first lockdown on Zoom.
“But it turned into singing lessons, because we had to take turns singing, the others had the microphone cut off.
It was very nice to keep the bond and the pleasure of singing, but at the price paid, we did not renew this year.
It is no longer the choir!
"
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