Melbourne School of Music was established in Parkville in 1983 by Don Kiritsopoulos and Jenny Ford. In 1985 we moved to Mitcham and established our second studio and the Head Office.From 1983 until 2020 all lessons were conducted either at the Parkville studio or the Mitcham studio, but in 2020 when COVID hit we went exclusively online from March of that year. Initially, we were quite apprehensive about doing so, but we were pleasantly surprised when we quickly realised that lessons via Zoom were not only possible, but had many advantages, without compromising our standard of teaching. Twenty years ago the technology was not there and this option would not have been possible. Today however, technology is advancing so rapidly that what we are able to do in 2022 is quite amazing.
The advantages of online lessons are many….
* You don’t have to live near one of our studios. We have many long-term students and some of them have moved out of the local area. One of Don’s students, who originally lived in Bayswater and attended the Mitcham studio, now lives in Castlemaine. One of Jenny’s students has relocated to Cairns. Another one of Don’s students who lived in Kew is relocating to Kansas in the USA. Continuity of lessons is assured via Zoom. Some students have even kept lessons going when they have been away on holidays, or away for work.
* Students who are in isolation (from COVID) can still have lessons as usual and we don’t have to worry about cancelling lessons because someone has been in attendance who has tested positive.
* You don’t have to get in your car when it’s 5 degrees outside and pouring rain to come to your lesson…. or when it’s 38 degrees in the shade!
* Piano students can play for their lesson on the instrument they have been practising on.
* It’s a lot easier to reschedule lessons to different times, for both ourselves and for our students.
* Many parents think that Zoom lessons are not suitable for younger students, but the process forces the student to be more proactive in the lesson – annotating the music and planning and tracking their practise routines.
It has been our policy in the past that all our lessons are conducted on a private, one to one basis, enabling us to focus our attention on each individual student and their particular requirements. Zoom has not changed this. We don’t offer group classes because we know that some students have more free time to devote to practice than others, some are more disciplined and diligent than others and other students are simply more talented. Consequently, students invariably progress at very different rates. Private one on one lessons allow us to progress students at a pace that is suited to the individual.
We teach 50 weeks of the year and we don’t cancel lessons.
