7 Tips For Your Online Music Lesson

New to online lessons? Never fear, Mr Shaun is here! By the end of this post you'll have some tricks and tips to help you be successful in your lesson.

1) Practice

Daily practice is crucial. I have never noticed one of my students losing value from a private lesson because it was held online. What I have noticed, after teaching privately for over 20 years, including providing literally thousands of online lessons, is that the students who miss the most value in lessons don't practice consistently, don't setup for their online lessons in the ways I suggest, don't take consistent lessons, don't have a high quality acoustic instrument, or habitually don't practice in the specific way I outline during weekly lessons.

Weather lessons occur online or in-person, consistent practicers do best. Don't be surprised if I put my fingers in my ears and say "La la la la la!" after someone who hasn't practiced tells me how horrible online lessons are. All lessons are doomed to fail without practice.

It's normal for students, especially young ones, to need help from a parent maintaining consistent practice. Adults can help young students do what is needed by planning out a practice routine. Routines will not prevent students from expressing their feelings about practice, but they do reduce decision making. That frees up mental bandwidth for other tasks. Plus, it's easier to hear "it's time to practice" as opposed to "Practice now [because I said so]!" The former helps the student reflect on what they need to do. The latter invites a power struggle. Both may fail, but the option which helps the student reflect on what they need to do is healthier. It moves them towards intrinsic motivation and away from less desirable coercive methods like rewards and punishments.

In other words, "Practice or else!" is less useful than, "Hey, I noticed it's practice time. So, I'm helping you think about this action you need to take every day. Do you want to start with Fingerpower or your lesson book piece?"

2) Setup The Lesson Area

Do things like:

• Minimize noise and other distractions in the lesson area. For example, turn the TV off and put toys away. Adults should avoid communication with their child taking a lesson so that they can focus their attention on the lesson and their teacher.

• As few people as possible should be in the lesson space unless a younger student needs help with technology.

• Turn off notifications on the device being used for the lesson.

• Some students find success using smartphones, but I feel iPads and laptops work best

• Have pencils, metronomes, books, pedal extenders etc at the ready.

3) Camera Angle For Pianists

Here is one piano student's setup. It's more important for your teacher to see your feet, body, and hands, than it is to see your face in my opinion. I'm sure your face is lovely.

This student can easily lean into the frame to view the screen and speak with me.

4) Camera Angle for Wind Instruments

Your teacher needs to see your embouchure, body, and fingers if you play a wind instrument.

Careful not to place a stand between you and the camera. For that matter, we never place a music stand directly between us and an audience when we play live either.

The same is true for other instruments too.

5) Mount Your Camera

Grifiti makes a great telescoping tripod that will work for your iPad or other tablet. It's called "nootle." I use this for lessons and gigs all the time.

The photo to the left shows the universal mount which even works for the large iPad pro.

You can order this tripod on many websites.

Grifiti makes all kinds of mounts for mobile phones as well as tablets.

Wire Music Stand Hack

Music students usually have a wire music stand laying around somewhere. Use it like this to angle a smartphone or tablet.

Take note, pun intended, of the camera lens view. Carefully place the device so the lens is not covered and the view is not obstructed.

6) Check The Time Zone

If your teacher is in a different Time Zone, be mindful when scheduling.

7) Enable Original Sound on Zoom

Students using Zoom should figure out how to enable original sound on their device before their lesson. The process to enable original sound varies depending on which device you are using.

Instructions on enabling original sound on a laptop are as follows:

1. Click on the dropdown menu associated with the microphone icon in the bottom left corner of the zoom meeting window.

2. Click audio settings... > under Audio Profile click "enable original sound for musicians"

3. In the Zoom meeting window move the cursor to the top left hand corner of the screen by the Green shield with check in it. Toggle "Enable original sound" to the "On" position.

Bonus Tips

• Lighting- Be sure light shines on you, not into the camera.

• Charge your devices

• Update your devices

• Check your internet connection before the lesson.

• If internet connection speeds are slow, try turning the video off. Video takes a lot of bandwidth, but we don't always need video in an online lesson.

Did you realize...

Students can take lessons when they are on vacation or out of the country. Of course you will need an instrument, but I've have plenty of students tune in for lessons from another town, state, or country. If you don't have access to a piano, for example, when you're out of town, we can easily devote a lesson to music theory- that only requires your theory book and a pencil.

I've worked with students who have taken online lessons from the home of a friend or family. Changing the location of a lesson by leveraging technology can be fun and exciting. Kids might love letting their friends or family know they are logging in for their lesson online- I've seen it make my kiddos feel special. It's cute!

Looking forward to seeing you at our next online lesson!