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How To Teach Music Lessons Via The Internet |
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Computers
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Written by Chad Criswell
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 Until recently teaching music via the
web has been limited to static, text based courses such as music
theory or history. Today however, new software and hardware advances
have made this fantasy into a reality for students and teachers all
over the world. This article provides a primer on how to begin
teaching music classes or lessons in a private, one-to-one
environment via the Internet. Other articles in this series will
discuss how some musicians are teaching one-to-many lessons via video
sharing services such as YouTube and video streaming sites such as
Ustream.
Why Teach Music Lessons On The
Internet?
The beauty of the concept of teaching
live, person to person music lessons on voice or on an instrument
becomes incredible appealing when a person begins to realize the
breadth of opportunities that a student can access by taking or
giving online music lessons .
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An aspiring violinist in the
middle of Iowa could have a private lesson with a world class
musician in Prague without leaving the comfort of his living room.
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A conducting class could have a
face to face master class with the conductor of a major symphony
orchestra.
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A pianist could perform a live
audition for a panel of judges scattered around the globe.
All of these examples are completely
possible using free software programs and do not require huge
investments in time or money. Some music educators are already using this technology on an ongoing basis. Some people such as pianist George Litterst and his company TimeWarp Technologies have made a business out of not only teaching music online but also creating software that makes the process easier and more productive. His Classroom Maestro and Home Concert Xtreme products help students visualize and understand musical topics that are presented during an online music lesson. They are used in conjuction with the other vital components mentioned below.
What Is Needed To Teach Live Online
Music Lessons?
One of the most popular video
conferencing applications is also the most simple and robust program
available for teaching music lessons via the Internet. Skype
is a free Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) application that also
provides video support via a web cam. Other useful clients for
teaching music lessons include the free iChat client on Macintosh
computers and another free VOIP
program called Oovoo. In addition to Skype and a web cam a user
must have a good quality microphone (preferably one that connects via
standard microphone connections as USB microphones can have lag
issues).
Finally all of these items must be used
together with a fast computer (Mac or PC) and a broadband Internet
connection with fast upload speeds. Upload speed is much more
important than download speed for the purposes of streaming a live
music lesson over the Internet. The upstream bandwidth should be at
least 300k/second and if possible as high as 500k/second to give the
best possible quality with very low latency (delay).
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