Online Lessons | enjoy-music-lessons

Online Music Lessons via Skype/Facetime

We love teaching online lessons and we think you'll love them too. We've found that online lessons don't feel all that much different than face-to-face lessons. Most of the benefits of face-to-face lessons apply to online lessons as well:

- The teacher can give feedback, answer questions, and guide practice through pieces

- The student is consistently encouraged and motivated to progress

- The teacher can demonstrate music, and give close ups of hand positions when necessary

- Supplemental material can easily be sent via email and printed at home

Online lessons are extremely convenient - No travel time to account for.

Online lessons are an excellent alternative for makeup lessons - If you currently take face-to-face lessons and have a scheduling conflict or sickness, online lessons are easier to coordinate with everyone's schedules.

Online lessons are great if you are moving or are not from our area

Here's what you'll see:

Main Camera View

Closeup View for Demonstrating

How to Set-up For Online Lessons

Device

You can use a desktop computer, laptop, or tablet. A phone would work fine but the small screen isn't as ideal. We currently use 2 iPads and they work great.

High-Speed Internet

Your internet speed should be at least 3mbps, faster is even better. You can easily check your internet speed by going to fast.com on the device you are going to use for online lessons. If your internet is not at least 3mbps, try bringing your wifi router into the same room as your video device, or you may need to update your router.

Video Calling Software

FaceTime and Skype are both high quality and free video calling apps.

If you have an Apple device, FaceTime is the preferred platform due to its lower bandwidth use and typically higher video quality. It comes pre-installed and seamlessly connects via your phone number. You can also download Skype onto an Apple device.

Non-Apple devices have to use Skype. You just download the app, create a profile and username, tell your teacher your username, and your teacher can video call you.

Device Placement

Position your device with your screen facing the student, so that the student can see the teacher. You may need to press a button on your screen to use the front facing camera on your device.

Your device should be placed at around eye level looking slightly down at the keys and with at least the students arms in full view. Being able to see the student's face helps communication but isn't necessary. Here are some examples of good placement:

The picture below is not as good, as the angle is too low and makes it difficult for your teacher to see finger numbers / technique.

Stool or Tripod

A high stool or other piece of furniture may work well for placing your device.

It may also be helpful to purchase a phone or tablet holder (tripod), preferably one that can be placed directly on the floor. As mentioned above, online lessons are great to use for makeups, so you may look at a tripod purchase as an investment into something you will use for the entirety of your lessons, whether you're exclusively online or face-to-face.

Click here to see the iPad tripod we use

And a highly rated inexpensive phone tripod

Free Consultation

If you are hesitant about whether you have everything set up correctly, or just want to meet with your teacher before officially beginning online lessons, we offer a free 5 minute video consultation. Call or email us to set up your first online lesson!

Recommended Tablet/Phone Apps

Staff Wars is a fun way to improve your note recognition speed and accuracy.

Piano Dust Buster - A game where you can play popular songs directly on the iPad or your piano/keyboard.

GarageBand - Only for Apple devices. A very rich songwriting/composition program that can be enjoyed by beginners and advanced musicians alike.

Music Learning Lab - Turns ear training into a variety of fun games for kids.