Developing distance music education in Arctic Scandinavia: electric guitar teaching and master classes

Abstract

The purpose of this article was to present the project Vi r Music, with a focus on electric guitar teaching (Case 1) and master classes (Case 2). What were the benefits and shortcomings in the two cases and how did online teaching differ from face-to-face teaching? A guitar teacher with a specialisation in jazz music introduced distance teaching to three of his students. Under supervision the students taught upper-secondary students living 290 km from the university. The guitar lessons were held with the use of Skype. In the project, 11 distance master classes were also studied. The devices used were a video-conference system, external microphones and speakers, and 50–52′′ TV screens. The methods for data collection in both cases were above all qualitative interviews with teachers and students and to some degree observation of the teaching sessions. The overall impression from the study was that teachers and students seemed to consider the online teaching in the project a positive experience. The informants looked upon the distance-learning situation as a fruitful complement to face-to-face teaching. Because of the time delay, the most difficult part of the online teaching was playing together or marking the rhythm. The results suggested that video-conference teaching is more intensive than face-to-face teaching and requires both thorough planning and readiness to improvise during the lesson.