The position of the hands, the body posture, the technique, the mood, the disposition. So much can influence when playing a musical instrument and to know what to correct that, in March 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic knocked on everyone’s door and struck a direct blow to the face that forced confinement and continue to function from a distance, “How are we going to do classes online? If the teaching of the instruments is such a face-to-face observation ”, he asked himself Carolina Pizarro, Bachelor of Music mention Piano, linked and in love with him since she was a child, and Professor in charge of the Piano area since 1992 in the Music Department of the Faculty of Humanities and Art of the University of Concepción.
Fear, reluctance, or denial Given the effectiveness of an unknown format, they were part of the sensations that he confesses that he experienced at the beginning, after adding 34 years dedicated and delighted to teach the piano, and thus also many teachers who thought like her in her area and in others different from music. “It turns out that, once again, we had to rethink our life and know that it continues. As a teaching body we began to support each other, to convince ourselves that it was possible to use different platforms where it was not so difficult to do this type of class “, remember.
“You learn from everything”
Empowering oneself by overcoming the great challenges and difficulties that the academic year would entail, surrendering to the new, becoming interested in the unknown and openness to continue learning were the combination of musical notes in a score that, despite being complex to interpret, gives a melody that sounds like “was achieved”. The audience applauds the result that at times seemed impossible and whoever performs feels gratitude, because “You learn from everything and in this pandemic, from the circumstances, we have learned a lot”, Carolina Pizarro maintains with force. He acknowledges that it was not easy, more than one tear shed and a few times he believed that he could not end successfully, but now he knows that the greatest challenges and what seems unlikely, how to teach and learn piano in a online, it can be done. And do well.
But, the piano teacher may have had an advantage when exploring a new technological world to adapt to doing online teaching with the consequent need to learn things that would not have required before, develop or prioritize other skills and rethink the methods to make changes, since one of the convictions that has characterized his teaching work in an area that he defines as personalized is that “you have to rediscover yourself with each student, because each one is unique and the strategy that works for one student does not work for another ”, he reflects. Having lived through it like this during the course of his career fueled his greater willingness to face the new, to try and try until everything turned out in the best possible way.
The empathy with young people to those he teaches, especially in the first year of the degree, he considers it as a marker of difference in their student-teacher bond, especially during a year as complex as 2020, when they faced a new university stage in all conditions less ideal or desired. “I was also a student, I suffered, I cried, it made me angry because things didn’t work out for me”Carolina Pizarro mentions as something that she does not forget when doing her classes – and that teachers should not forget – for this reason she has focused on getting to know the students and show concern and understanding for their personal or family situations.
By the way, she also learns and strengthens skills: “Patience and communication with students, which were determining factors in an impersonal (virtual) relationship”She says, but above all she receives the retribution of being valued by them, because she says that “I have received so much gratitude from her.” And, finally, it is knowing that the most significant and satisfactory thing was left a mark on the students in a teaching work that they do with their passion for the piano and the vocation to teach it as inspiring muses, because it motivates them “The desire of those who want to learn. I feel that what one has and knows should be given without selfishness “, ends.
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