One of the few “silver linings” of the pandemic was that I (and many of my music teacher colleagues), were forced to immediately switch to online teaching. I was determined to make the best of teaching on Zoom and have found that although it cannot replace “in person” learning, it provides a very useful way of teaching the incredible compositions of Ustad Ali Akbar Khan. By providing students with a high quality, latency-free recording of each lesson, the students have been able to continue learning these essential compositions at home, at their own pace and completely in accordance with the age old practice of non-written tradition, the way that Indian classical music has been passed on for thousands of years! This is a huge advantage and a very important supplement to in-person, individual instruction. Therefore as we try to transition back into live classroom learning, I will continue to record all of the lessons so that each student can review the material at home, with their full attention on the teacher presenting the composition and no distraction from the other students in the group trying to simultaneously figure out the material. In addition, there is no tendency to feel shy about making mistakes and distracting the other students, as well as the teacher. In short, these recordings provide a win – win situation! And if these weren’t already enough reasons to embrace this new form of learning, an added benefit is that it isn’t even necessary to attend the live class, because the recording links are sent to everyone, those who live in Basel, other parts of Switzerland or as we have seen, anywhere in the world!
Here are a few brief video clips of the lesson recordings: