analogman1 Posted March 15, 2020 Share Posted March 15, 2020 Hi Folks, For a while, I've been wanting to teach certain students via Skype or Google Hangouts. It would be especially helpful for those who have problems with daytime scheduling (I'd be willing to get up early or stay up late if it means another student!). With the current coronavirus situation, I'm actually having several students request this from me...So... Right now I'm fully "Apple" equipped (iPhone, iPad, and MacBook Pro) so obviously I could FaceTime, but that would only be with others equipped the same way. Plus, I think I'd want to have a split-screen and be able to speak to my students and let them see what I'm doing on the piano. (unless you guys do it differently?) Is anyone successfully doing this, who'd be willing to share some pointers as to what I'd need to get started? I'd really appreciate it as private teaching is all I do and I'm fearful it's going to be tough to make ends meet soon. Thanks in advance! Tom Quote Tom Nord Electro 5D, Modal Cobalt 8, Yamaha upright piano, numerous plug-ins... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElmerJFudd Posted March 15, 2020 Share Posted March 15, 2020 Most people are just using Skype, FaceTime or Facebook Messenger, or Google Hangouts. These are most common because most people have them. Latency is not great though. Good enough for demonstrating, talking, watching, commenting, getting feed back. But less than poor to play together. An audio interface and better quality mic than what"s on your iPad or MacBook improves the experience for your students. Having your camera or iPad/MacBook on a stand you can easily swivel where you want it helps also. And good lighting. If you use transcriptions having them on a shared cloud drive that you can easily send a link to students is also very helpful. Another option is https://www.jamkazam.com - latency is noticeably better. but it requires both you and the student to download and install, setup accounts. Others create a youtube channel, record and post a constant stream of lessons, build up a following and monetize with ads or selling merchandise. But you need millions of people to make any money this way. You can also record your lessons, chop them up into 30min segments and sell them on a site like https://teachable.com Quote Yamaha CP88, Casio PX-560 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marino Posted March 16, 2020 Share Posted March 16, 2020 Other than Skype, I'm using the Zoom platform. It's very robust and reliable with many possibilities, but the interface is a bit complex, and the latency, although much better than Skype, is still too much for playing together. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David R Posted March 16, 2020 Share Posted March 16, 2020 I will be starting to use Zoom, mainly for its screen-sharing capacity if I'm teaching arrangement, composition or production. None of the services will allow you to play at the same time as the student, so it creates a monkey-see, monkey-do situation. Quote My Site Nord Electro 5D, Novation Launchkey 61, Logic Pro X, Mainstage 3, lots of plugins, fingers, pencil, paper. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
analogman1 Posted March 16, 2020 Author Share Posted March 16, 2020 You folks Rock! I will investigate what you've all suggested! If anyone else has any suggestions, feel free to jump in. Elmer had suggested an audio interface and better quality mic; any suggestions would be highly appreciated. (I've been delaying purchasing an audio interface because I'm revamping my whole setup but any suggestions for an adequate interface and mic would really help.) Thanks in advance! Quote Tom Nord Electro 5D, Modal Cobalt 8, Yamaha upright piano, numerous plug-ins... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nursers Posted March 16, 2020 Share Posted March 16, 2020 I regularly use a service called Blue Jeans, which is just like Skype / Zoom / GoTo Meeting etc - just another one to look at depending on your budget or needs: LINK Quote The Keyboard Chronicles Podcast Check out your fellow forumites in an Apple Music playlist Check out your fellow forumites in a Spotify playlist My Music: Stainless Fields Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElmerJFudd Posted March 16, 2020 Share Posted March 16, 2020 You folks Rock! I will investigate what you've all suggested! If anyone else has any suggestions, feel free to jump in. Elmer had suggested an audio interface and better quality mic; any suggestions would be highly appreciated. (I've been delaying purchasing an audio interface because I'm revamping my whole setup but any suggestions for an adequate interface and mic would really help.) Thanks in advance! You don"t need anything too fancy. You could skip an interface and use the Audio Technica AT2020USB+ and your regular 3.5mm headphone jack. Or a Focusrite Scarlett Solo with a regular AT2020 and an XLR cable, boom stand and a pair of Sony MDR7506 headphones. Quote Yamaha CP88, Casio PX-560 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morizzle Posted March 16, 2020 Share Posted March 16, 2020 As music schools have been closed in my region, I'll start remote video teaching tomorrow. The YouTube thing is not an option for me atm as it is too one sided. I'll be doing WhatsApp-Video as the LoFi-version and Discord/Zoom for multiple cameras and screen sharing possibilities. I'll be testing it more with a colleague today, but I suspect Zoom has better audio quality. Like marino mentioned, it's a bit more complicated to handle than discord, though. Quote It's not a clone, it's a Suzuki. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Docbop Posted March 16, 2020 Share Posted March 16, 2020 You don"t need anything too fancy. You could skip an interface and use the Audio Technica AT2020USB+ and your regular 3.5mm headphone jack. Or a Focusrite Scarlett Solo with a regular AT2020 and an XLR cable, boom stand and a pair of Sony MDR7506 headphones. From a Skype and TrueFire student POV I used an AT2020USB and a small USB camera (because the built-in computer camera was hard to position) for a long time and worked great for lessons and music discussion group I was part of. Inexpensive and both just plug into USB. Also used the same for making videos of my practicing, a good USB microphone is really a handy tool to have around. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Bryce Posted March 16, 2020 Share Posted March 16, 2020 You don"t need anything too fancy. You could skip an interface and use the Audio Technica AT2020USB+ and your regular 3.5mm headphone jack. Or a Focusrite Scarlett Solo with a regular AT2020 and an XLR cable, boom stand and a pair of Sony MDR7506 headphones. Do the latter. The DACs that are built into those Audio Technica mics are...inexpensive, and may (read: will) result in degraded audio. Coming out of the XLR output makes a very noticeable difference. Add a Cloudlifter to improve the mic's performance even more. dB Quote ==> David Bryce Music • Funky Young Monks <== Professional Affiliations: Royer Labs • Music Player Network Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
analogman1 Posted March 17, 2020 Author Share Posted March 17, 2020 Again, thanks for the great ideas and suggestions, guys... WIll sort this out in the next few days... Quote Tom Nord Electro 5D, Modal Cobalt 8, Yamaha upright piano, numerous plug-ins... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
allan_evett Posted August 12, 2020 Share Posted August 12, 2020 I've been teaching remotely from my home workspace since late March. The store/studio where I normally teach is open again, but teachers and students are very cautious about returning. Most of us are looking at a post-Labor Day scenario, if even then. Meanwhile, I use FaceTime, Zoom, Skype and Google Hangouts (Have also heard that Google Duo works well.) The students typically use an iPhone/Android or iPad/Android tablet on a stand. Normally they will position the device to show hands/arms and the keyboard. No one is using a two-camera setup yet. I use the built-in camera on my iMac, but also have a basic Logitech USB camera on a tripod behind/above me - so that the view can be switched between 'talking head' and keyboard. I run the input of both of those through the ManyCam software app. For up to two sources it's free, though I have the basic 3+ source version (approx. $30/year). Any of the sources can be Wi-Fi based, and I sometimes use my Android phone as a third camera on a synth that's across the room. I use an iPad for reading copies of the music students email to me; or I just snap an iPad photo directly from my computer screen during the lesson. I also have a few teacher copies of beginning books as well. Though my workspace includes an audio interface and speakers I normally keep vocal communication and student instruments in the internal mix/computer mic and speakers - running the sound from my keyboard (and Logic Pro X, in a couple instances) through the audio interface/speakers only. Zoom, Skype, etc. each have different ways of attempting to get all of the sound and video components to interface within the computer environment; FaceTime and Hangouts are rather primitive regarding audio. Would be great to hear everything processed through the audio interface, but I got tired of frequently hearing feedback and other artifacts (some of which was aggravated by internet signal dropouts from either side). I've checked into a few apps that allow seamless audio/video communication between all software and hardware, but haven't tried any of the legit ones yet. Quote 'Someday, we'll look back on these days and laugh; likely a maniacal laugh from our padded cells, but a laugh nonetheless' - Mr. Boffo. We need a barfing cat emoticon! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElmerJFudd Posted August 12, 2020 Share Posted August 12, 2020 There has been some progress on getting latency down and some services, both freely available and commercial options are developing quickly. The theory is, that if they can get latency down as low as possible, that's only one component. What makes playing together lousy for musicians is also the audio quality and maybe more importantly the drift. Unpredictable and changing latency makes latency even more unbearable. So if they can keep audio quality good and at least get latency consistent (and as low as they can) it becomes much more pleasant an experience for the players. Synthax (RME, Ferrofish) is working on IQOYA https://www.synthax.com/digigram-iqoya-guest-for-universities-and-schools/ Elk Audio is working on Aloha - which looks like its in beta and working well over wired connection. they believe 5G is make it super convenient. https://alohabyelk.com Jam Kazam has made some updates recently, https://www.jamkazam.com Lola https://lola.conts.it Soundjack https://dev.soundjack.eu Quote Yamaha CP88, Casio PX-560 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Docbop Posted August 12, 2020 Share Posted August 12, 2020 I was doing Skype lessons until recently and only issue I had initially was I was using an old MacBook Pro and audio, video, and latency was a problem. I got a new tablet and the everything improved instantly and was very usable. Teacher was an old school Jazz cat so only one camera view looking at him no view of the keyboard. I had the tablet on a stand set so he saw the keyboard and my hands (and belly). Every once in awhile he would ask me to play something and octave lower so he could see my hands better. So really simple setup on both side and worked well. The best part of the online lessons I could record them so I didn't have grab paper and pencil all the time to make notes and I could go back and rewatched if I misunderstood something. Weekly Piano used to put some of his lessons on YT (with student permission) along with his lesson video. He just used his iPhone on a stand above him so you just saw his piano and top of his head. Every now and then he just look up to say something direct to camera. His setup appeared to be a MacBook on the piano he used as a monitor especially when doing live chats to see the chat text and the overhead iPhone. He even did YT's and lessons when on the road from backstage with his iPhone on a boom stand. Don't need a lot to do streaming lessons. I've some with fancy setups even comment some the people doing streaming video with just a smartphone are getting as good results for less money and setup hassle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrankHSantos Posted October 4, 2021 Share Posted October 4, 2021 I am a school student and I am studying through the Zoom app. I don't know if you have heard about it or not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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