In my presentation (view below), I discuss not only some of the challenges I encountered in delivering a wide range of online music theory courses at two conservatoires in Germany, but also outline the tremendous opportunities. By requiring us to become inventive, restrictions on face-to-face meetings have indirectly facilitated collaboration with scholars from around the globe, for the purposes of both research and teaching. Moreover, delivering music theory teaching online has the potential of widening access to music education around the world (provided internet access is available). For many lecturers, teaching students located in, for example, South Korea, Turkey and the US has become the norm rather than the exception.

We should see the restrictions as an opportunity to adapt and innovate by exploring alternatives that would otherwise not have been considered. Even if personal, face-to-face interactions cannot be replaced in a course run entirely online, we should nevertheless consider retaining some of these alternative teaching methods in the post-Corona age.

You can also view my video essay, alongside videos by some of my international colleagues on the website of the Society for Music Analysis.

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