Back in 2020, the emergence of COVID-19 ushered in enormous uncertainty for many businesses, including A Kopp Music. We knew if our business was going to survive, we’d have to execute a considerable pivot to online music lessons.
Like so many others, we were navigating uncharted waters with more questions than answers. The one thing we knew with certainty was that we didn’t want to transition into something haphazardly.
For us, the process of moving to online learning was done decisively, with intention, and with a focus on social connection, the key factor in determining how our business would run virtually.
The Transition to Online Learning
In the “before times” (aka, pre-COVID), providing music lessons to our students was easy. We really only needed four things to teach lessons…a student, an instrument, sheet music, and a pencil. Times had indeed changed.
Very quickly the phrase “online learning” entered the lexicon, and while we weren’t pioneers in virtual instruction, we were part of a large group of educators and students who had to suddenly adapt to it.
Prior to the pandemic, we were skeptical of the benefits of online learning. It’s not that we were anti-tech by any means. In fact, we fully appreciated the value of technology in other areas and utilized it in the backend of our business for over 20 years.
But now, we were faced with quickly shifting to online learning, and so we outlined our goals and what we needed to accomplish:
- Maintain the important connections we had already established and built in person.
- Build connections with new people in a way that was just as deep and meaningful.
- Teach what we cannot see by making the most of our experience and knowledge to diagnose problems or trouble spots when our visual input is reduced due to the limitations of technology.
- Make what we need our students to see as visible as possible by investing in technologies and music training aids that allow instructors to help students overcome challenges in the virtual environment.
- Make certain the online learning platform did not compromise our commitment to age and developmentally appropriate music lessons.
- Have the ability to troubleshoot network connections, video, and sound issues and effectively communicate these solutions to our students and their families.
During that first year of online music instruction, we made investments in tools and technology. We kept an open and ongoing dialogue with our instructors on what was working and what was not, while continually brainstorming solutions. This collaboration gave us an edge on how to quickly improve while providing our students with the best experience possible.
And the results were amazing. Not only were our students learning at the same rate that they had during their previous in-person lessons, some students and their families found they actually preferred online learning.
Online Music Lessons Are a Hit
Since those early days our business has changed dramatically. We no longer employ 20 instructors and have downsized back to the husband and wife team we were originally from 2004 to 2017.
Even after making in-person lessons an available option in October 2023, nearly half of our students have chosen to remain online for a variety of reasons. Some live far away from our studio. Some have busy schedules with other activities and online music lessons are just easier and less stressful. Some students or family members are immunocompromised and so online learning is the safest choice for them. And some just do really well online and prefer to attend in person lessons only on occasion.
Whatever the case may be, online music lessons are a hit. And that gives us confidence that online learning is highly effective for our students. Should you decide to take online music lessons from A Kopp Music, we know you’ll discover a fun, social music lesson with top notch communication from instructors that feels both natural and normal.
Writing on Sheet Music