Soaring voices an upside to lockdown for Hastings singing teacher Jill Tobin

Singing teacher Jill Tobin says her students' rehearsing had definitely improved during lockdown.

The upside to lockdown for Hastings singing teacher Jill Tobin is that her students' rehearsing has definitely improved.

Tobin, who has been teaching for 45 years and is a long-time NZ Singing School teacher, said her students had all been keen for the online classes.

The lockdown has pushed many music teachers to online teaching.

"However it's not as easy to teach singing online as it is to teach an instrument.

"We need to be in the same room to hear what's really going on with the student's voice, so online teaching is only as good as it can be depending on the computer equipment people can use," Tobin said.

She has always provided her students with piano accompaniments on CDs or data sticks for practising at home. During lockdown her students have been keen to get back into their music, so she delivered more sheet music, CDs and data sticks to students.

"The online sessions have been good for getting my students focused again. They now use the accompaniments because they have to, because they've got no one to play the piano for them - they have been spoiled," she said.

"I can't push them as I can in a live class and stopping and correcting isn't as easy, so instead we've been focusing on basics, diction connecting the voice, the legato line and getting their support working. That's worked well."

Tobin said she thinks there will be opportunities for her to teach online in the future.

"Lockdown has been a good lesson in that it is up to the student to do the work."

Singing School New Zealand
Te Wānanga Toi Waiata O Aotearoa
Where: Hawke's Bay, New Zealand
When: 2021, delayed date to be confirmed
What: Intensive residential school held in Hawke's Bay New Zealand every two years offering high quality tutoring for emerging talent classical and musical theatre students from New Zealand and Australia. It is the only cross-genre school of its kind in the southern hemisphere.