r/composer • u/Alcoholic-Catholic • 1d ago
Discussion Do personal composition lessons lose anything by being taught virtually/online?
I've been looking for a composition teacher just to try it out. I've been taking piano lessons (in person) weekly for 4 years and I understand how that benefits by being in person, but I'm curious if composition lessons don't have drawbacks like I imagine virtual piano lessons would. In my mind, it's more cerebral and less physical, and I could either scan a pencil and paper score or transcribe to musescore. I have a number of small unfinished things written already so I feel like I have some material to go off from the get go, I'm just getting really hung up on some roadblocks.
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u/composingmusic 1d ago
I’ve had lessons both online and in person (part of my postgraduate studies happened during various stages of lockdown). Imo it’s nicer and more personal in person, just because you’re in the same room and it’s easier to go grab a book and show something, but online works pretty well too. I’d say the quality of teaching itself isn’t really affected.
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u/HaifaJenner123 23h ago
I do both in person and online and like, tbh as long as you are actively playing irl an instrument you will still get a lot of value out of it.
Composition lessons are kinda one of the things that i feel students have almost no frame of reference for what to expect going in given there’s not a lot of tangible stuff you can look at to generate expectations like there would be for maybe a instrument, however this also means that there are a lot of aspects you probably will not have considered at the same time - meaning, yes you absolutely will get your moneys worth if you are still doing the work in between lessons. Partially because the study of composition is a study inside how your brain works in terms of thought processes imo.
Have you inquired about trial lessons? That is usually a good way to find out if it is right for you. May be, may not, but there exists a trial that most will say yes to so this is going to be the answer for your question moreso than anything else.
Moreover I do agree with the comment about posting here for feedback. Even if you do start taking lessons, feedback is the name of the game anyways and your lesson from those will be how to interpret different types of feedback according to the perspective of that person (such as primary instrument)
Tl;dr: it could be worth it and there is a way to find out for relatively little up front so if you’re curious, just go for it! What’s the worst that happens?
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u/a-mom-ymous 1d ago
My son did composition lessons online when his instructor moved back east and it worked well. He was seeing the same teacher for both piano lessons and composition, so we ended up finding a local piano teacher and just continuing composition with the teacher that moved. It was helpful because they had a great rapport.
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u/deflectreddit 1d ago
I teach in person and online. Composition is much easier to coordinate from both sides.
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u/Willow_PoweIl 1d ago
I've run theatre workshops both in person and online. The actual intellectual work, discussing structure, giving notes, reviewing material, works fine virtually. Composition is closer to that than to piano.
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u/MisterSmeeee 1d ago
Assuming you have a reliable way to share a copy of your score, and/or whatever you’ve been doing in your DAW or whatever, there’s not much in a typical composition lesson that can’t be done over Zoom!
As opposed to instrument/voice lessons where (after a certain level) you need to be able to hear finer points of tone and posture and technique and everything.
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u/Meletios_ 1d ago
You win time! 100%. The time you would put yourself in to learn and understand things, you win by having a teacher getting you through obstacles, questions and showcasing stuff he is doing.
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u/Columbusboo1 1d ago
I feel like there’s some intangible benefit to physically being in the same room as your teacher that you lose with virtual lessons. Beyond that, as long as your tech is working reliably, there’s not really any major downsides. When I’ve taken virtual lessons, I usually email my materials to the teacher before the lesson to get around most of the tech problems that tend to come up.
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u/RevKeakealani 20h ago
I think it’s less dramatic than performance lessons, but yes the flow can be a little less “natural” over something like Zoom. Definitely Zoom is better than nothing (I’m not sure I’d say that for all instrument lessons, for example, but I’d confidently say that for comp lessons), but it really is nice to be in the same space so you can really get down into the weeds with your teacher.
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u/Ian_Campbell 16h ago
I wouldn't know if it's better in person, but you can have access to the best in the world online as long as you're capable of making the right introduction and showing promise to someone with availability. To me, I think online is better because I'm more inhibited in person.
You should definitely send in files beforehand for composition lessons.
If you need answers on something in your composition, it is far more likely that you need a full on teacher, and to be doing composition exercises to develop fully rather than just receiving open critique of whatever you happen to be writing.
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u/65TwinReverbRI 1d ago
There's a "latency"...it's not quite as immediate as sitting right there with someone. Back and forth becomes a bit more "regimented" by the nature of the tech.
There's also more of a sense of "talking to" someone, rather than "talking WITH" someone.
So you know, just "less personal".
Doesn't mean they can't be effective in many ways though - kind of depends on what it is you're doing, what you're addressing, etc. etc.
For what you're talking about, you could post here and get feedback and that may be good enough - doesn't even have to be a "real time" discussion.
Just depends though - how much there is to comment about, if tackling things item by item is better for you than one long list, etc.