Dr. Ian Howell

In response to the current limitations placed on musicians for performing and teaching by the Covid19 restrictions, Vocal Pedagogy Director Prof. Ian Howell and his team at the Voice and Sound Analysis Lab of the New England Conservatory has prepared a report aimed at teachers who need to prepare technology supported applied music lessons. This report, dated June 28, 2020, which can be accessed from the link below, is entitled:

Best Practices for High Quality, Technology-Enabled, Applied Music Teaching

Abstract

As the music education community looks toward and beyond the fall of 2020, at best we can attempt to mitigate the uncertain safety of making music with others in real spaces. This requires a multi solution approach—including asynchronous, laggy, and lagless audio and video—even within a single institution, studio, or classroom. Demands will certainly change in reaction to unfolding circumstances beyond the control of any one student, teacher, administrator, or institution; however, the basic principle of providing an excellent quality of education must be upheld. Now is the time to study emerging options, learn how to optimize them, and disseminate this information in a manner that allows for both easy application and rapid pivots. This essay lays out a broad context for considering technology enabled solutions to the challenges of applied music lessons within academia, but many of the solutions explored will be useful in other contexts. Specific use cases and apps are suggested to cover a wide variety of situations and needs.