Dissertation Defense Announcement

Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music announces the Final Dissertation Defense

Nancy Ditto

for the Degree of  Doctor of Musical Arts 

March 22, 2022 at 1:30 PM in Zoom

Advisor: Dr. Shaun Gallagher

Rising from the Ashes: Sowing a New Generation of Post-pandemic Violin Students

ABSTRACT: "Sowing a New Generation of Post-pandemic Violin Students. Major Professor: Dr. Janet K. Page. During the global pandemic, remote violin lessons became much more widely available. Online learning was widely viewed as suboptimal at that time, but many parents preferred the online platform to in-person learning because they felt their children were safer at home. Teaching violin virtually can be challenging for teachers because they cannot provide essential hands-on instruction. There are difficulties like tuning the instrument, assessing tone quality, etc., and the inability of students to play in ensembles may handicap their motivation to practice. Some aspects of online teaching may be advantageous, such as teachers being able to reach almost all students regardless of their location, and students learning remotely are less likely to be judged or bullied by other students as some might have been in a classroom. The cost of virtual music lessons could prove to be more affordable than in-person lessons because of the availability of many more teachers who can teach from home, and because teachers do not have to pay overhead costs. Very young beginning strings students who study remotely may benefit from more preparation before starting music lessons because of the difficulties they experience when learning online. Improvements in technology will likely accelerate into the future and there will be new solutions available for the technological issues that existed for strings teachers during the pandemic."