How can I do music lessons online?

You can use online platforms such as Zoom, FaceTime, Google Hangouts and Skype to deliver lessons. There are pros and cons to each platform, and there are a few important things to bear in mind about teaching a music lesson through a video call.

yourmusicteachingsuccess.com - How to give music lessons through online video calling platforms

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We have used online video calling systems to keep in touch with friends and family. They’ve been a boon. But in her 20+ years of instrumental teaching, privately and in schools, Claire has not had any reason to deliver her lessons through them – until now. It’s clear that music teachers are likely to cease teaching face-to-face for some time (some have already) as a result of the measures we need to put into place to protect people’s health. But this doesn’t mean you will have to stop teaching altogether. You can use online platforms such as Zoom, FaceTime, Google Hangouts and Skype to deliver lessons. There are pros and cons to each platform, and there are a few important things to bear in mind about teaching a music lesson through a video call.

Test lessons are crucial

We spent most of Saturday doing test lessons through the platforms, with Claire upstairs and Jamie downstairs, and Claire giving Jamie some mock lessons over FaceTime, Skype and Zoom. Claire teaches guitar, piano and violin and has been testing her video-call teaching setup for all of her instruments. As above, we’ve both used video calling platforms quite a bit for social purposes, and Jamie has attended or run many client meetings through video calls over the past few years. But until now Claire’s not needed to teach regularly through any of them. We know some music teachers have offered lessons through these platforms for a while. But if you have not, then we hope you will find our observations and tips helpful. We also have some further links which will help below, and do listen to our interview with David Taylor about this subject.

General observations:

As a teacher in the UK, the online platforms available to you and your students include FaceTime, Zoom, Google Hangouts and Skype. Ideally you need to become familiar with using at least two platforms because your students may have preferences and may be limited in terms of which platform they can use. Even if you are familiar with using platforms for social calls, make sure you do some test lessons with friends or family members before you try using them for a lesson. Many folk have heard of “Skype” and for some, they use the phrase “skype call” to mean video calling generally, not necessarily through this platform.

Video call lessons work well through a laptop or tablet.

In our experience Skype used to work well, a few years ago, before Microsoft acquired it in 2011. Since then, Jamie (who used to use it for client calls) noticed a deterioration in user experience. It is popular, many of your students may have it and want to use it, and it is entirely usable to deliver lessons though. But we simply prefer other platforms (your and your students’ opinions may differ!) Some of your students will be familiar with video calling, some won’t (and some will find it daunting). Schedule time to talk them through how to do it. Schedule a practice call with each student so you can both get used to it.

Important – call quality:

As a music teacher you need to be able to hear and see your students well. And they need to be able to hear and see you. When you make a video call to give a music lesson through one of these platforms, you will get a better quality of call if you turn the internet browsing software on your computer off, so it’s not sucking up (is that a technical term?!) some of your data connection. And when you are giving a lesson, try to get anyone else in your household to stay away from using data at the same time. If you’re trying to teach and someone else connected to your internet router is streaming a video, uploading or downloading a large file, or playing an online game then your call quality will quite often suffer.

Important – lighting and positioning:

Claire teaches her in-person violin, piano, and guitar students at the front of our lounge, in a bay window with plenty of natural light. It’s a lovely, comfortable space. But for teaching online she has had to consider the best position for her computer or tablet so that:

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i) its camera is pointing at Claire and her instrument, from a position where it captures video and she can see it. ii) the student can see Claire and her instrument clearly – she needs to consider how the direction of the lighting will affect this, and set herself up so there aren’t distracting shadows, and there isn’t any glare behind her. iii) the computer or tablet is in a stable position, ideally plugged in so it won’t run out of power mid-lesson, and won’t fall off a stand or overbalance. If you’re used to using video calling software to keep in touch with friends and family, but not to deliver lessons, then you’ve probably made your calls from the sofa. Test how and where you can set up your computer, laptop or phone so it’s in an ideal and stable position to give lessons. Make a test video call to a friend, family member (or another musician or music teacher) to ensure they can see and hear you from your teaching setup.

iv) try out the position of your tablet or laptop relative to your instrument during your testing to get the best quality of sound. Is the sound from your instrument projecting towards the microphone on your device?

v) if you are using a tablet then consider using a case or clamp-stand of some sort to ensure you can prop up or position it in the best way to give a lesson without any risk of it falling over. vi) you’ll also want your student to be positioned (and set up their laptop or tablet) so that the light source where they are is in front of them, rather than behind them.

Latency and lag

This means there’s a delay between one one person on the video call speaking, and the other person hearing (and seeing) them speak. This is only our experience, but we’ve found Zoom and FaceTime calls to be better than Skype (ie much less latency). But in general, these days there is less lagging than there used to be on most video calls. Lagging does tend to increase if you are using a computer and have left all your internet browser tabs open, or if someone else in your home who is connected to your router is using a lot of data bandwidth at the same time (the tips above re call quality apply here).

Other

Plug a pair of headphones into your tablet or laptop and use these when you are listening to your student: it makes it much easier for you to hear what your student is playing, clearly, and without your device’s microphone then transmitting the sound of them playing back to them. (Thanks David Taylor for emphasising this, see more from David here). Simple headphones are fine.

FaceTime:

If you use an Apple device (iPhone, iPad or computer) its video calling software FaceTime is built in. You can make video calls to another FaceTime user – ie, if you want to teach through it, your student needs to have an Apple device too. The fact it is pre-installed is helpful, neither you nor your students (as long as they have an Apple device) need to download anything. is built in. You can make video calls to another FaceTime user – ie, if you want to teach through it, your student needs to have an Apple device too. The fact it is pre-installed is helpful, neither you nor your students (as long as they have an Apple device) need to download anything. We’ve usually found the quality of calls through FaceTime to be excellent. It’s very, very easy to use. It has limited functionality: you turn it on and make a video call. You need to be calling someone who also has an Apple device, and you need to know their email address associated with their FaceTime account (usually, but not always, the email address they use as part of their Apple ID). Its ease of use might well be something which your students appreciate, especially if they have not used video-calling software before (but they do need an Apple device).

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You can’t schedule calls in advance from within FaceTime. You can’t record a lesson.

Zoom:

This is an excellent, stable platform.

Call quality is fantastic for both video and audio (Jamie has recorded many interviews for his FM radio show using Zoom calls over the past few years, having tested the call quality across multiple alternatives).

It works on PCs and Macs.

It has simple “contacts” section, so you can add people’s Zoom details ahead of time. You can record video calls so you could give your student a recording of their lesson (if you do then ensure they have given you their specific permission for this). You can schedule calls in advance from within the software, which creates an email sending details of how to access the call (the lesson) to your student. It’s worth testing this to ensure these notifications come through as you want them to. You can share (selected parts of) your computer screen during the call – helpful if, for example, you want to discuss a pdf you are both referring to. User experience / easy of use / ease of setting up a call is, in our experience, far better than for Skype. Zoom has specific music mode settings – see David Taylor’s article (link below) for details.

You need to download Zoom (it is free to use) from https://www.zoom.us/

Skype:

It works on PCs and Macs.

Lots of people have it, probably more than for Zoom. So even if it is not your first preference, your students might want you to use it. You can record video calls so you could give your student a recording of their lesson (if you do then ensure they have given you their specific permission for this).

You can schedule calls in advance within the software.

You can share (selected parts of) your computer screen during the call – helpful if, for example, you want to discuss a pdf you are both referring to. User experience / easy of use is, in our experience, much clunkier than for Zoom. Sometimes it doesn’t display contacts properly. You need to download and install Skype (it is free to use) from https://www.skype.com/en/ Your students will need to have downloaded and installed it too, and to have a Skype account.

Google Hangouts:

We have concentrated on FaceTime, Zoom and Skype. When or if we have tested Google Hangouts we’ll add to this section.

Meanwhile David Taylor has great advice about this within this article.

Other:

Many folk have WhatsApp on their smartphones. Again, and at a pinch, you could use this to give a video call lesson if it’s the only system available to you and a student. We’ll continue to update this advice, here on our website and through our email newsletter as Claire transitions to giving more lessons online. The ISM, The MU and other institutions which support musicians will continue to offer advice and support to members so do keep checking their sites too. We also recommend listening to Jamie’s radio show interview with David Taylor. This will be broadcast on Sheffield Live FM radio on Friday 20 March but we are making the podcast available now. David is a former jobbing cellist who works with globally-known orchestras, arts organisations and individuals. David founded Yorkshire Young Sinfonia and is an expert in using digital technology to deliver arts and performance projects. He was generous with his practical advice about using online platforms to deliver lessons, and the interview also covers livestreaming performances too. You can listen to it here.

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yourmusicteachingsuccess.com - How to give music lessons through online video calling platforms

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