It can be found at ejamming.com and promises great things.  I will discuss what this system can do for musicians, teacher, and students — but I have to point out first that for some, the technical setup of this program on the computer can be very difficult or even prohibitive.  Ejamming has staff members who will work with you one on one to help you set up; they can even take control of your desktop and walk you through everything.  However, ultimately this did not work for me, and I will discuss this below so you can be forewarned.  For some, clearly, it works fine, so let’s continue!

Allow me to explain how exciting this software can be, and is, for many who do use it.  If it won’t work for you now, it’s worth keeping an eye on for future improvements.

The amazing concept here is that you can jam with, or teach, up to four other musicians online in real time.  As I mentioned, this is purely an audio experience.  I can’t say there’s no delay, and it can vary depending on the distance between two computers, but in my trial session, the delay was about 30 milliseconds, or about the time it takes for one frame of a video to flash on a screen — not enough to even notice when playing with someone.

In fact, the live sound is so good that the program is set up to let you record any online session at CD quality.

Great possibilities come into view:  You can rehearse from a distance, audition a band member, record a track, or teach a student or a class.  Ejamming allows you to work with up to four others at a time.  This could work well coaching an ensemble, or teaching tunes to a class, or hosting a jam session.  You can also feed in a prerecorded track for yourself and others to jam with or develop.

The program is set up to allow up to four students set up a practice session at any time, to work together in real time.

Ejamming offers a 30-day free trial; after that the subscription is $9.95 a month.  You can have students subscribe or you might even choose to pay for student subscriptions and incorporate that cost into lesson fees.  For example, if  you had 4 students paying $60 each for four weekly classes, $2.50 of each student’s lesson cost would go to the subscription and you could come away with $50 for each class.  This way you wouldn’t require that students maintain a subscription — you could buy it for them, and then cancel it at the end of the month if the class is not continuing.

The primary function of the program is to allow to open up your own session or join an existing session.  You can reserve a seat for a specific person to join you, or you can open up a seat for the first person to come along and join you.  The program also allows text chats among session members or among strangers.

As I mentioned at the beginning, this program as set up currently may not work for everyone.  I spent a good bit of time with a tech person who got it pretty much working for me but later I discovered that my microphone wasn’t working and that the adjustments that might fix this problem were uncertain.  In addition, the ASIO sound program I had to download to get it working on Windows appeared to have an impact on sound functions for other software.  I’m told that fairly inexpensive hardware is available that is more reliable.  Also, although many Windows users are okay with it, the program may prove easier to set up on a Mac.

Personally, I’m going to keep an eye on ejamming and hope there are improvements which make it more accessible and less technically challenging to set up; it would also be nice if it could better coexist with other software.  Ports, inputs and outputs all have to be configured, and it cannot function if you have Skype or Google Hangout going.  But hopefully, as the creators are currently working on major educational grants to upgrade the system, Ejamming will become something more of us can tap into.  I hope so, and wish you luck if you give it a try!

The post Jamming and Teaching Online with Live Audio appeared first on Music Teacher's Helper Blog.

favorite living pianists. Despite having spent the last fourteen years of my life at the keyboard, learning to play the piano, I realized at that moment that I had very little experience with listening to other performers. I think I listed Glenn Gould and Van Cliburn. And that might have been it. I was embarrassed and determined to know more about my chosen craft and those who practice it at the highest levels from that moment on.

When I started teaching, I wanted to make sure my students had more exposure than I had had. I encouraged parents to attend concerts with their children, to buy recordings or check them out at the library and play them often for their families, but it wasn’t until I added a lab time to my private lessons that I really felt like I could help my students increase their listening. I began with videos and CDs of great artists, but with a limited budget, I couldn’t achieve any sort of enormous breadth.

Enter the internet and YouTube…hooray for YouTube! Yes, there are hundreds of terrible performances for every great performance, but the enormity of the offerings available to anyone with an internet connection and computer or iPad is thrilling. Youtube has definitely made listening lab time in my studio so much more successful.

Almost every week, my students begin their lab time with a listening assignment, either on the laptop or the iPad. While listening, they fill out a Listening Log kept in their piano binders. This log asks them to list the composer, the piece, the performer, a 1-5 star rating, and provides them with a space to list at least three words describing the performance. To make it easier for the younger students to figure out the information, I list the first three of these on a white board with the rest of their lab assignment.

Some months have a theme: Baroque, Classical, Romantic, Contemporary, concertos, chamber music, Christmas. Sometimes they will listen to two or three short pieces in a category during one week, or sometimes I will have them listen to the same piece performed by two or three different performers and ask them to try to note differences on their logs. At least once a month their listening assignment is something fun and more modern. Sometimes the performers are amateurs, sometimes they are internet sensations, and sometimes they are piano greats.

Not all of my students like all of the pieces they hear. I used to feel like I had to assign listening assignments that would appeal to every student, and then I decided that each of them could manage listening to pieces that didn’t draw them in immediately as long as I mixed it up with more exciting repertoire.

Just a note: I prefer using the iPad for listening because it’s easier to make sure they are just looking at the performance and not seeing the comments or the sidebar of suggested videos (some of these are completely inappropriate…a frustrating downside to using YouTube.)

I’ve found that in general, the most successful classical piano listening assignments at keeping younger and less experienced students’ attention are brief (not usually longer than 6 minutes) and showy (of course.) I love live performances because they are often fantastic, but usually not note-perfect.

Some of my favorite classical performers for student listening are:

Evgeny Kissin (we love his hair): Here is his live La Campanella.

Yuja Wang: Flight of the Bumblebee is often a favorite.

Krystian Zimerman: Gershwin Preludes (I love his Mozart and Chopin)

Martha Argerich: Chopin 6th Polonaise and always her Bach

Vladimir Ashkenazy: Chopin 24th Prelude

And of course there are so many clips available from Yundi Li, Lang Lang, and the YouTube-made phenomenon, Valentina Lisitsa. Our Utah local boy, Josh Wright, also has a fun YouTube channel.

On the other end of the piano spectrum are the prodigy-ish young pianists. Sometimes I’ll throw in one of these for fun:

Emily Bear: Here she is at six years old on Ellen.

A darling five-year old playing Bach.

Students love out of the ordinary performances and/or modern transcriptions. Here are a few:

Josh Wright: La Campanella on two pianos

Jarrod Radnich: Pirates of the Caribbean

Sinclair Eoin: Daft Punk’s Harder Better Faster Stronger

And last but not least, The Piano Guys. My students love love love The Piano Guys. When a Piano Guys song is the listening assignment, I have a bunch of happy kids. Here is one of their favorites: What Makes You Beautiful.

Depending on the month, I’ll sometimes include performances by other instruments or jazz performances (and I could use help and links from those of you who teach other instruments. What do your students love?)

Maybe the very most valuable YouTube channel for those of us who teach piano is this one: The University of Iowa Piano Pedagogy Project. Their goal? To put teaching repertoire on the internet. How much? All of it. Yes. All of it. They are adding videos at a rate of about 100 per week. This is a fantastic resource if you want students to hear their beginning or intermediate repertoire played well.

Another great listening lab resource is Anne Crosby Gaudet’s Look Listen Learn section of her Pianoanne blog. She has monthly themes and suggested listening links as well as a printable listening log.

What suggestions do you have for me? Any fantastic not-to-miss brilliant performances? Or any with just plain awesomeness that will magically make all my students want to practice three hours a day? Please share!

The post Labtime Listening Favorites appeared first on Music Teacher's Helper Blog.

Some of the most important instruments in the history of music have been stringed instruments, which range from early to modern forms of the violin and the guitar, through to contemporary experiments with amplification and electric or digital recording. Forerunners to current instruments have been found in ancient burial sites, and demonstrate a clear historical progression into the stringed instruments that we use today.

Some of the earliest stringed instruments have been identified in archaeological digs of Ancient Mesopotamian sites, which include artifacts over three thousand years old. Lyre instruments with wooden bodies, and strings used for plucking or playing with a bow represent key instruments that point towards later harps and violin type instruments; moreover, Indian instruments from 500 BC have been discovered with anything from 7 to 21 strings.

During the medieval era, the rate by which string instruments developed arguably varied from country to country – Middle Eastern rebecs represented breakthroughs in terms of shape and strings, with a half a pear shape using three strings. Early versions of the violin and fiddle, by comparison, emerged in Europe through instruments such as the gittern, a four stringed precursor to the guitar, and basic lutes. These instruments typically used catgut and other somewhat unpleasant materials for their strings, with higher end versions featuring silk.

String instrument design was refined during the Renaissance and into the Baroque period of musical history – violins and guitars became more stable in terms of their design changes, and were roughly similar to what we now use – the violins of the Renaissance featured intricate woodwork and stringing, while more elaborate bass instruments such as the bandora were produced alongside quill plucked citterns, and Spanish body guitars.

In the 19th century, string instruments were made more widely available through mass production, with woodwind string instruments a key part of orchestras – cellos, violas, and upright basses, for example, were now standard instruments for chamber and smaller orchestras. At the same time, the 19th century guitar became more typically associated with six string models, rather than traditional five string versions.

Major changes to string instruments in the 20th century primarily involved innovations in amplification and electronic music – electric violins were available by the 1920s, and were an important part of emerging jazz music trends in the United States. Breakthroughs in electric guitar and basses then saw major breakthroughs in pop and rock music through the middle of the 20th century. The ongoing connection of string instruments to electronic amplification added variety to classical performances, and enabled experimentation in the dynamic range of orchestras, bands, and solo performances.

Emily Steves is associated with Mann’s Music , which is a UK specialist musical instrument shop based in Colchester, Essex. She is a young girl, her passion is music, she writes articles on musics and musical instruments. In her free time she loves to do research with different musical instruments.

The post A Brief History of String Instruments appeared first on Music Teacher's Helper Blog.

• Group events to be reconciled will now use each student’s default lesson cost if the Cost field is left blank.
  
• You can now edit the time on Repertoire tracker.
• You can now edit a studio expense without having it affect any future recurring expenses.

The post New Features and Fixes This Week appeared first on Music Teacher's Helper Blog.

What Are Ordinal Numbers?

The ancient Romans and Greeks employed a method of counting we now call “Ordinal.” This means that they didn’t have a concept of zero in their maths and therefore they would start their counting from one. Think about Roman numerals around a clock face; where’s the numeral for zero? Do you know of the Roman numeral for zero? No? That’s because there is none! An ordinal number expresses it’s position in an order, for example first, second and third prize. That is why we can say that the Victorians lived in the nineteenth century, using the old ordinal counting method.

What Is Cardinal Counting?

If ordinal numerals is the “old” method of counting then cardinal is the “new” way. Following through our example of the 12 hour clock, the noticeable difference of the 24 hour clock is that the hours run from 0:00 to 23:59. A cardinal numeral expresses amount as supposed to ordinal which expresses order. Employing this modern cardinal method, zero is presumed and full numbers are counted when reached. For instance, when measuring a piece of wood our rule will show zero at the end and we count full inches or millimetres to determine the length. That is why we can say that we can say that the Victorians lived in the 1800s, using the new ordinal counting method.

So What? How Does This Affect Music?

We take for granted the use of both methods of counting in music but new students can find the differences a little bewildering at first and careful thought to our explanations can go a long way to avoid ambiguity.

We use ordinal (order) counting in music to describe intervals, degrees of the scale, bar (measure) numbers, finger numbers, frets etc. and yet use cardinal (amount) to count semitones (half-tones) and tones (whole-tones). For example, when a student is counting an interval they need to realise that they count the starting note (ordinal) but when they count three semitones (half-tones) lower than the keynote of a major key to find the keynote of the relative minor, that they should not count from the starting note but start counting from the next note on (cardinal).

Can you think of any other examples where understanding and explaining the difference between ordinal and cardinal counting can help music students?

See other posts by Reuben Vincent

The post Music’s Counting Mystery! appeared first on Music Teacher's Helper Blog.

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Review of Original Edition

To fill you in: here are observations I made about her book in my past blog:

“Elena is clearly a fan of jazz and the 12-bar blues (yes, this American form made its way overseas) and sees the importance of introducing this standard pattern to early level pianists. Higgledy Piggledy Jazz is packed full of pieces targeted for “inexperienced” pianists.  [The book] includes clever, original compositions that fall into the standard blues form. They could serve as supplementary repertoire or provide great material for a studio jazz–themed unit.

The Higgledy Piggledy Jazz book features…

1) Ten pieces with a CD of live jazz band recordings.

2) Four tracks of varying tempos of witty arrangements for play-along enjoyment. The CD is great training for building solid rhythmic skills and confidence for future gigs with a “real” band.

3) Color coding (in some pieces) of chord changes to enhance reading security.

4) Colorful, full-page illustrations.

5) A considerable amount of extra staff instructions including fingering, counting numbers, phrase markings and chord symbols.

6) Amusing lyrics to enhance rhythmic mastery.

7) Some helpful and pedagogically sound teaching tips.

8) A generous donation to Theo Lifeline Trust with the purchase of each book.

 A few things to consider…

1) The Higgledy Piggledy Jazz Book Grades 1-3 includes pieces in a wide range of levels that appear beyond the reach of those who are “inexperienced” as the cover suggests.

2) Most early readers are accustomed to reading from larger notation. The formatting–size of notes, grand staff, extra symbols and teaching hints–varies from piece to piece. Many selections seem “squished” onto a single page which results in a cluttered appearance. This may intimidate early readers.

3) The kid-friendly illustrations and cover description make the Higgledy Piggledy Jazz Book appear suitable for early-level pianists. However, it seems most pieces would be more appropriate for those at an intermediate or at least a more experienced reading level.

4) Tricky rhythms and quick shifts in hand positions may prove to be discouraging to those with limited reading and playing abilities but fun for pianists who need to stretch their rhythmic skills.

5) Although the blues and jazzy edge pervades both books, there seems to be little encouragement for pianists to go beyond the page (a standard jazz characteristic) and improvise original riffs, or patterns over the blues progression.”

Click here to view my first, complete review.

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Review of the New Edition

More staves and instructions on one page makes for a cluttered appearance and may be harder to read for early level pianists.

To catch you up: here’s a list of some changes in the latest Higgledy Piggledy Jazz. Congratulations to Elena for producing this revised edition in such a short time!

1) The table of contents is re-formatted for easier reference.

2) Most teaching tips can now be found online instead of at the front of the book.

3) Eliminating colorful illustrations provides more space for larger, more easy-to-read staff notation. This omission results in a much less cluttered appearance and keeps the book appropriate for any age.

4) Formatting the same piece over two pages with fewer finger and counting cues provides a cleaner look.

5) Improvising within the blues framework is a standard tradition. In this new edition room to create within scale patterns is included in one of the selections.  As Elena states, “spontaneity is in the heart of Jazz, is it not?”

Although the pictures were nice, the larger, expanded format is easier to read.

6) Less staff instructions–counting numbers and fingering–make staves cleaner and easier to read. I liked the color-coding of dominant chords but this does not appear consistently throughout the book.

7) The level-range indicated on the front cover has increased from levels 1-3 to levels 1-4. Leveling a book is subjective and completely up to the composer/publisher. I would hold off using this book with students until they are well-equipped with reading rhythms including 8th notes and strong hand independence. Teaching some selections by rote may be a possibility since a CD is available.

In case you need a visual/audio sample, here’s a delightful rendition of a Higgledy Piggledy Jazz selection. Enjoy.

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Good News!

Elena has offered two books to give away. In order to qualify for the drawing, leave a comment below about how you use jazz-inspired music with your students or how you are interested in doing so in the future.

In case you don’t win and want to purchase one, you can find Elena’s music books at Sheet Music Plus.

Winners will be announced one week from today, so hurry and enter soon!

The post Higgledy Piggledy Jazz Give-Away appeared first on Music Teacher's Helper Blog.

I am writing this letter to you because I am thinking about your upcoming piano competition. You have worked so hard for this and I want to let you know first and foremost how proud I am that you will be performing in this event. As your teacher, I am so happy you will have the opportunity to play in front of seasoned judges and other accomplished pianists.

Have you ever watched the Olympic Games on TV? The best athletes from all over the world get together to compete for the Gold Medal. Those athletes must have trained so hard, and they must have been the best from their country in order to be chosen to represent that country. Yet at the end of the game, there can only be one Gold Medalist.

Piano competitions are sort of like that. All the competitors are the best students from their teacher’s studio, but because it is a competition, the judges must select only one person to receive First Prize, Second Prize, and so on. It does not mean those not selected to win a prize are not good. Sometimes the person that gets First Prize is indeed the very best and really deserves it. Usually, however, it just means that particular person played that particular piece the best that particular day, on that particular piano, in that particular hall, for that particular judge. On another day, at a different venue, using a different piano, with a different judge, a different student may very well be selected as the First Prize winner instead. What matters the most is not who wins and who doesn’t. What matters is that you have graciously accepted the challenge, set a goal for yourself, worked hard to master a difficult piece of music, and improved so much from the experience.

Should you win a prize, I will be so happy for you. Should you not win a prize, I will still be happy and so proud of you! Competitions are not for everyone; some people excel in these conditions, some don’t. I know that you will learn to perform your best under pressure, accept criticisms from judges, appreciate other pianists’ fine work, and most of all, you will learn more about yourself.

This is but one tiny event in your life. You will face other competitions in life, and most of them probably will not even be related to music. No one wins all of the time. It will feel so amazing to win, but we also need to learn to acknowledge and celebrate other people’s success. I am so proud that at your young age, you are going to experience and learn to deal with such mature emotions. It will build character, and make you more special than you already are!

So, good luck to you! Get up there and share beautiful music with others. Tell a story through your music. In my heart you are already a winner and I could not be more proud to have a student like you!

With much love,
Your piano teacher

The post Piano Competitions – An Open Letter to Students appeared first on Music Teacher's Helper Blog.

Returning Student Registration and Fall Scheduling Made Easier with MTH!

Many music studio schedules follow the local school schedules. The end of the year fast approaches with extra work often necessary for recitals and registration for the next fall.

One may use MTH website to eliminate the hassle of tracking changes to fall schedules.

Spring registration

In contrast to music teachers who request registration during the late summer months; at my studio registration is due in April. This accomplishes several goals: I am able to determine how many lesson slots I have available and advertize accordingly, I do not have to work with customers during the busy summer months when they are often traveling, and it may be a lot more difficult to tell an instructor you are not returning when you have lessons for another month (perhaps a good marketing strategy). This also allows time to discuss reasons for discontinuing lessons and possibly the opportunity to suggest changes to keep a student playing.

Use MTH to make yearly registration and scheduling much easier!

Every year when I set up the yearly schedule I include an extra week of lessons on the web calendar. Example: Lessons end May 19^th but my web calendar shows lessons running through May 26^th. I let customers know that lessons will not actually be held on these days but are only there for administrative purposes. It is easy to add a fake event for all students stating there are no lessons during this week and that the extra lesson showing on the calendar is only for fall scheduling purposes. When a parent/student logs onto the website they will see this note on the calendar (See picture 1).

How to use this if registration is turned in before lessons are over in the spring.

In April I request that all registration is turned in by May 1. Parents/students let me know if their students are returning in the fall and tell me if they wish to keep the same lesson slot (but must also include 3 other options that may work for them). Registration fees are added to the May invoices.

As the registration come in I use the extra week of lessons to help with fall schedules by doing the following.

A.If a student is not returning in the fall I simply delete the “extra lesson”.

B.  If a student is returning in the fall I do the following:

1. Click edit on the extra lesson for that student.

2. Change the date to the first lesson date of the next fall. (Ex. 05/20/2013 is edited to 09/23/2013).

3. If the student has requested a day change that you know is possible you may move the lesson to that new day and time. Note that you have made a permanent change in the notes section. Additionally I use a category named PENDING CHANGE to color code my calendar and easily see lessons for which a change is requested. You may even go as far as adding descriptive words in the “Event Title”. (See picture 2)

4. Change the lesson fee if the rate has changed.

5. Add notes in the “Description” section about the needs of that student. This allows you to have the scheduling notes right on the calendar and on the actual event!

6. Use categories to “highlight” lessons that need changes. Category example: PENDING CHANGE (color special blue). This makes it easy to see which lessons may need adjusting.

7. Change the end date of the repeated event by one year or it will not move properly.

8. Select “Save Event” and “All Following” to have the event show in all weeks of the entire new lesson year or “Only this instance” to have the event showing in only one week of the new year.

By using the extra week of lessons I am able to determine from which students I need registration, as their extra lesson still exits. When I go to September of the next lesson year, I am easily able to see who is coming back in the fall and because of the color coded lessons (by using categories), I am easily able determine what I need to do.

Finally, in August I request any changes since May be sent via email. These notes are copied and pasted into the “Description” section of the event and I begin the process of creating a schedule.

Remember to delete your notes from the “description” if you send reminders or your customers may be confused if their reminder contains multiple notes about scheduling.

You may also use this system if you request registration in the summer

At any time during the year; follow the previous instructions to move the extra week of spring lessons to your first week of fall lessons.

As you receive your fall registration, use the lessons that are showing in the fall of the upcoming year to create your new schedule.

Summer lessons

Summer lesson protocol varies by studio. You may be able to use some of the ideas presented to schedule summer lessons. At my studio, summer lessons are scheduled separately from lessons held during the school year.

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I hope this helps many of you use the MTH calendar to help with the scheduling process.

If you have specific questions on how to use the features listed above, feel free to contact MTH support staff.

May the rest of your day be filled with beautiful music!

The post Returning Student Scheduling Made Easier with MTH!! appeared first on Music Teacher's Helper Blog.

Life as a private music teacher can be a lonely one indeed. When the rest of the world is chatting it up at the water cooler with co-workers, we are doing everything everyone else does after work. And when “after work” has arrived for everyone else, our day begins!

But our day does not look like everyone else’s day! While many see work as a social outlet, private music teachers spend their time, (for the most part) with preschoolers, children and tweens. And while this group is a blast, we need the opportunity for a water cooler chat too.

And that’s why next week we are presenting International Week of the Piano Geek; an opportunity for private music teachers to connect with online piano personalities and resources that are making our profession a little less lonely.

Every single day between April 29 and May 3, we will be sharing a wealth of resources that exist online to make life as a piano teacher easier. From blog posts to live Q and A events, to comment discussions, there will be a ton of action to keep you entertained and informed. And you can be a part of it all at PianoGeekWeek.com.

Click here to register today and get in on an exciting week of resource showcases, giveaways, freebies, and more.

About The Authors
Andrea and Trevor Dow are piano bloggers and educators with a passion for creating innovative music education resources and sharing cutting-edge teaching strategies. When they aren’t in front of their computers writing for their TeachPianoToday.com blog, they are busy running their thriving music school on Vancouver Island. 

With International Week of the Piano Geek, Andrea and Trevor hope to advance piano education by opening up a world of resources that are continually evolving online each and every day.

The post You Won’t Be Lonely Long – It’s International Week of the Piano Geek appeared first on Music Teacher's Helper Blog.

For music teachers, working online presents some special challenges.  Here are some tips.  If you’ve tried Skype teaching or learning, please contribute your thoughts as well.  In my next post I will discuss ways to work with students online in real time, without the delay of Skype!

Let’s take a look at setting up for a Skype lesson, verbal skills, visual and sound issues, online materials and what to do in the case of technical difficulties.

Set up.  From the college of hard knocks, here are a few tips on preparing for a Skype lesson. 

Time Difference.  Make sure you are aware of any time difference between you and your student.  For a while I was teaching a student in France and my cell phone’s world clock was one hour off so we missed the first lesson!  Music Teachers Helper can be set to automatically email them a reminder of the lesson; when there’s a time difference, the online calendar will show the lesson in my time zone, but I add the time in their time zone after their name in the Event Title for their lesson entry, for their benefit.

Hardware.  Make sure you have a cable connection if possible; wifi can be sketchy at times.  Have your power cable in or ready in case you have low battery during a lesson.

Lighting.  Make sure the lighting shows you clearly, and be aware of what’s behind you, that the student will have to look at — nothing you wouldn’t want them to see, and nothing distracting, such as people moving through, or a TV that’s on.

Student camera placement.  Make sure the student’s camera is positioned so they are not too close or too far, and that you can see what you need to see.

Verbal skill.  Teaching an effective Skype lesson requires extra verbal skill.  The time delay and the limitations on seeing fast movements often force you to describe things you might demonstrate or help with physically if you were teaching in person.  Think ahead about methods or exercises you want to choose from when you work with a student online.  For example, I once got stuck teaching a bowing exercise that involves making a large circle with the bow.  It’s not only hard to position myself on camera so the student can see the whole picture, but it’s also hard for them to see anything that moves fast — it looks jerky or blurry.  One part of that exercise I like to have a student observe is the wide vibration of my string, but they cannot see this on Skype.  I have since learned how to describe this exercise more verbally, with carefully chosen and carefully timed words, so that the student gets it reasonably well.

In general, I have found myself spending more time on Skype discussing ideas, attitudes, techniques verbally rather than demonstrating them.  With practice, this can be quite effective, though it cannot quite have the impact of being in a room together.

Visual Quality.  When I do demonstrate something, I keep my eye on the image of myself to make sure the student can see what’s important.  Sometimes I will hold my hand up closer to the camera to demonstrate a position as I describe it.  Occasionally the image will turn into slowly moving pixels, but that is usually a temporary glitch, and the sound continues to work okay during bad visual moments.

Sound Quality.  Sometimes the sound quality can be good, but sometimes it can be screechy, through no fault of the student!  I used to hook up special speakers to my computer to make sure I could hear clearly, but due to the variable quality of sound, I have found that my regular computer speakers work well enough; I just listen carefully, and situate myself in a room with no other noises.

Sound delay.  One difficulty is the delay in sound, often a half second each way.  Be aware that when you say something it may take a moment for them to hear you; sometimes I even time a comment a hair early so it comes across at the right moment.  Take your time to speak clearly and make sure you let the student finish what they have to say before you speak.  Otherwise it is easy to start talking at the same time.

In my next post I’m going to discuss a new method of working with students online without this sound delay, allowing you to play with them together.  In the mean time, please feel free to add your comments or questions on this timely teaching method.

Flexibility.  It’s important to be flexible.  If you’re working on something that requires visual clarity and the image goes bad, be ready to move on to something else immediately and come back to it when the image is better.  Or if you’re asking the student to do something that is fast, and it looks blurry or jerky, you may have to ask them how it felt.If the sound gets screechy, you may have to ask the student how it sounded, and tell them what you’re looking for.  Sometimes this is helpful, to keep the student aware of your goals and to tune them into looking for the right sound or feeling.

Emails, attachments, links, online tools.  The whole experience of teaching by Skype is a bit of a compromise (much like progressive lenses on eyeglasses!) so your job is to make the lesson overall as useful to the student as possible, given what you can both see and hear.  You may wish to make available to the student online materials that can emphasize important points brought out in the lesson.  Sometimes even during a Skype lesson you can take a moment to send them by email a message with a link they can look at, or an attachment with explanatory material, music, or a recording.  At the bottom of the Skype screen is also a dialog box you can use for this too.

In any case, the Music Teachers Helper File Area is always available to put up a piece of sheet music or a recording for the student to have once the lesson is over.

In my teaching I also offer online tunlearning pages divided into group of a dozen tunes each so that students have a choice of a dozen tunes with sheet music and recordings of phrases and whole tunes.  This can serve as a nice companion to the Skype lessons; it also allows me to log in to the same tunelearning pages they’re looking at and explain any questions they may have, or recommend another piece of music to work on.

If the connection fails.  A few times I’ve had lessons interrupted for technical reasons.  Usually the call is soon reconnected.  Once a call was interrupted because my student’s computer decided to update at that moment!  Once the call just couldn’t come  back, so we talked a bit extra by phone.  As I mentioned above, when you hone your verbal skills, you really can help the student verbally by phone to some extent as well, so for the last 10 minutes of that lesson I able to review what we’d done with the student and make some recommendations, following up as usually with written lesson notes when I reconcile her lesson in Music Teachers Helper.

If the lesson really fails, though, what is your policy going to be?  It’s a good idea to think this through in advance, though students will certainly work something out with you as well.  It’s hard to charge for a lesson that fails due to technical difficulties; it’s not as if the student didn’t show up.  You might be able to be more flexible with makeup lesson time for Skype lessons since you are probably working from home.

Your feedback.  Once again, as this method of teaching becomes more popular, more teachers have ideas to share.  Please feel free to add your own comments here for me and others to read.  Thanks!

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