Online Lessons

When the pandemic started at the beginning of 2020 I had never done an online lesson before and was very skeptical of the format. I have been VERY pleasantly surprised with the format - I've found it to be extraordinarily versatile and we’re able to do almost everything that we would do in person. Online teaching is now a regular part of my day-to-day, so if you aren't close enough to make it to my studio in Courtice, Ontario, online lessons are an excellent way to do lessons.

If you’ve never done online lessons before and are curious about them, the above is a quick video tour to show you more or less what they are like!

IMPORTANT INFO - GETTING SET UP

Taking some time ahead of your lesson to set up for your online lesson is important! Sorting out the technology isn't super complicated but there are sometimes kinks to work out if it's your first time and it's always a good idea to try and sort this out before your lesson so that:

we don't lose time with technical glitches
I can see/hear everything I need to give appropriate feedback
you have some time to get comfortable with the interface

Below is all the information you'll need to set up for your lesson!

STREAMING PROGRAM AND DEVICE

I teach online lessons through Zoom. In order to download Zoom you will want to go to their website, and you can click the button below to go there. It is important that you download and install the program rather than using the 'in-browser' version. There are certain sound settings ('original sound') that we will need to tweak in order to hear each other properly which are not available in the browser version of Zoom. So download and install please!

ZOOM Website

In terms of a streaming device - it is BEST to stream from a computer (laptop or desktop) or a tablet. I don't recommend streaming from a smartphone. Some students are able to make it work, but phones have reduced audio capabilities and don't have access to the 'original sound' audio setting which means that if the background noise filters think that your piano is background noise, I won't be able to hear you play and there's nothing we'll be able to do to change that short of streaming from a different device. Some phones seem to work 'ok', but it's always a bit of a dice-roll depending on the make and model of the phone, so I always recommend computers or tablets. Plus it's nicer for you to not have to constantly be looking at a tiny screen!

SETTING UP YOUR CAMERA

When setting up your camera, place it on a table or stand beside you so that the video shows a side profile of you at the piano. If your shot looks roughly like this, that's perfect.

ZOOM AUDIO SETTINGS

Don't worry it you have trouble, we can always take a few minutes to fine tune placement together!

DISABLE 'CENTRE STAGE'

More modern Apple computers often have a video feature enabled called 'centre stage' which has the camera automatically detect your face and follow it around. Please DISABLE this feature as it often makes sub-optimal decisions during piano lessons. This is something that isn't in Zoom that you'll have to dig into your computers video settings yourself to find.

There are a couple of tweaks we need to make to Zoom just to make sure we can hear each other properly.

STEP 1

Find the Zoom 'audio settings' menu. This can be in different places depending on the device, but during a Zoom call I'm usually able to find the audio settings here:

STEP 2

Disable the setting 'Automatically adjust microphone volume'. Make sure that the 'Input volume' is high enough that your signal is clear without overloading.

STEP 3

Select the Audio Profile 'Original sound for musicians' and make sure that 'Echo cancellation' is selected

STEP 4

Back in the call screen, next to the green shield there should be a new button that has appeared that says 'Original sound for musicians: off'. Click it so that it says 'Original sound for musicians: on'. This step you'll need to do at the beginning of every lesson.

STEP 5

If you want to test and see what your sound is going to sound like on 'my' end, go back to the audio settings menu and click on the 'Test microphone' button. This records a few seconds of audio and plays it back to you and is a great way of soundchecking to make sure that levels are where they need to be.