Practice, Practice, Practice!

Building on the previous unit, Clive discusses the importance of practice in learning to communicate online. Even simple skills like learning to look into the ‘void’ of the laptop will make a big difference to the experience had by your viewers. However, it is presumptuous to think that these skills will develop by accident. Effective and regular practice is key.

As we considered in the previous unit, loving what you do is a vital part of developing a charismatic and engaging online presence. In this unit we are going to consider something a little more mundane, perhaps, but equally important. As musicians, we know that effective practice strategies are vital in improving our musical performance. In exactly the same way, developing an online presence takes practice.

What the following video and reflect on these questions:

• What are the key skills that I need to practice to develop my online communication?
• How can I use my knowledge about how to practice and apply this to this new context of learning to communicate effectively online?

Learning to communicate effectively online is different from learning to communicate in a face-to-face environment. There are loads of things within this new ‘space’ that are missing. Even something as simple as having to stare into a computer screen to ‘engage’ with a viewer who you often can’t see is initially going to feel strange.

But as with anything in life, recognising these differences and being committed to practising this new activity will result in improvements. As musicians, we have a big advantage here. We are skillful at pracitising! We have been taught how to do that from a young age. Think about the approach that you might take to practising in a familiar context and apply these lessons to this new activity of communication online. Don’t expect great results immediately, but you will get better at this as you actively reflect on your early experiments and become more experienced. Practice, practice, practice!

In the next part of this series of six units, we are going to turn to the importance of working online with others.