During the Covid-19 Pandemic and national lockdown, online learning became the default solution, protecting the nation’s health by preventing infection – but also promoting good mental health by sustaining vital social relationships and interactions with teachers.

Beyond the pandemic, online music education and online musical communities can have significant health promotion benefits:

  • Enables those shielding and/or with ongoing concerns about the safety of playing together face to face to continue to participate in music making activity – including music teachers and leaders as well as participants.
  • Musical communities can be built beyond geographical boundaries – overcoming isolation and widening access to music.
  • Enables those who prefer to engage with group music making online because of social anxiety, autism or personal preference to take part and become part of a musical community on their own terms.
  • Provides a number of ways to engage in a musical activity, and options to catch up later if health or other issues prevent participants from joining a particular session.
  • Music leaders and teachers can spend less time travelling and more time making music.
  • Pastoral care as well as music leadership can also be built into online projects
  • Online music activities can develop digital literacy and model healthy online interactions for young people

Be aware that there can be a flip side to these benefits and plan for them:

  • Digital burnout can be an issue for participants and music leaders alike – build in screen breaks and offline activities to your schedule and projects
  • Be aware of safeguarding and do not allow private messaging between participants, sharing of personal or contact information.
  • Maintain a professional online relationship with participants and ensure all communications are through formal and recordable channels
  • Think about the platforms you use to run your online projects on and the safeguarding considerations and settings you need to have in place – read more about online safeguarding in music projects in the links below
  • If you are using a platform with live chat, consider how this will be moderated to ensure the content is appropriate. Will you have time to lead a session and keep an eye on the comments?

Related resources

Safeguarding and synchronous online music learning

Exploring Online Music Making in Challenging Circumstances