Online lessons are coming into their own in the age of Corona virus

For years I felt like a duck out of water, barely floating outside the mainstream as an Online piano teacher. My isolation was intensified by boomer generation colleagues who insisted on face-to-face mentoring as the gold pedagogical standard.

I could empathize before 2010, when I’d journeyed for years through traditional teaching circles without a second thought. At our local Music Teacher Association meetings, not one member would dare to conjure up a fantasy of staring at piano students on a computer screen. It was the antithesis of our time-honored tradition.

Yet my conservative world of musical values was uprooted by a 2010 inquiry from an Australian via You Tube. He’d proposed what appeared to be an insane request to teach him on the Internet. ?????? I experienced choking resistance to it, bolstered by the spirits of deceased mentors in my Collective Unconscious.

In the face of my expressed reluctance, the Aussie, with a 19 hour time difference, persisted, claiming that lessons could easily work Online. As enticement, he would send a fully packaged Logitech webcam to my door. (Gratis!)

The rest is history as my cautious Online baby steps eventually blossomed into a confident lift-off to Scotland, Israel (for a time), as well as Switzerland, and across the US map.

Over years, one Logitech multiplied to 3, with a Multi-cam application affording various keyboard views that had increasing pedagogical value. With Quick time on my Mac, I could record supplements for students to aid their practicing between lessons while Face Time and Skype Call Recorder provided similar opportunities to record segments of calls. (choosing from 3 playback view options: Local, Remote, and Split Screen.)

***

Where initial interest in distance learning had been limited to tech savvy individuals in the 30 to 50 year old range, (many coming from the tech sector), over time, the retired community began drifting Online, needing a bit of desensitizing in order to allay fears of the unknown.

***

The Prep for students

Providing nuts and bolts information about webcams, keyboard directed views, sound and video preferences therefore becomes essential in a pre-Online lesson consultation. The pivotal requirement of internet speed is in the 150 to 175 mbps range for Face Time and Skype. (There are other platforms such as Zoom, and Google Hangout, etc.)

Alternative modes of transmissions, if there are crashes, (hopefully few and far between) should be considered. On rare occasions, I’ve done cell phone to cell phone mentoring, which requires a preset tripod view of my keyboard. (It preserves lesson flow without serious interruption)

Only yesterday, in the face of the Corona environment, I learned that a former in-studio pupil who prefers her cell phone mount to the Mac Book shuffle, showed me a way to preserve my iMac transmission while she keeps her iPhone preference intact. She registers my email address in the Face Time Contact box, and clicks it to initialize a call. We tested it, and the sound from her phone was clearer than I’d expected. (not thin or tinny)

In the Sound cosmos, I use a Yeti Mic connected to my Mac by USB, though many desk tops and portables have decent internal mics.

With the Logitech web mic, I’ve experienced sound distortion due to hot zone sensitivity, so I utilize Logitech cams for VIDEO only. Macs have their own internal cam that can be directed toward the keyboard, more easily facilitated with Mac Book and Mac Airs. With heavy duty iMacs that are not near the piano, a web cam, with a cable extender can work wonders. For PC’s (non Macs), webcams are usually a necessity.

Finally a few years ago, I put together a primer video for Online instruction.

This earlier Online teaching footage below demonstrates shifting keyboard views by way of Call Recorder during a lesson in progress:

To update, I now basically use side overhead Keyboard views as shown below in these two recorded performances.

The Overhead perspective, however, can be particularly valuable when examining fingering, though I find it cannot amply capture supple wrist or forward wrist roll movements.

In summary, there’s a good deal of experimentation bundled into the Online lesson universe, so both teacher and student must be open and willing to embark upon a collective adventure that’s worth the time and effort.

P.S. Above all stay well during the Corona Virus siege, and be assured that Online lessons can sustain your musical journey through this challenging time.