How to Set Up Your Online Piano Studio
Since the 2020 pandemic, I teach a much larger number of students online than before. Around 30% of my original students chose to stay online when the lockdowns ended and I now teach a number of students I have never met in person. Previously, I would only teach at most a couple of students per week this way. It’s definitely an effective way of providing music education and this backed up by a multitude of academic studies. I would actually call it a revolution for music education.
My students and I experimented with numerous set ups during lockdown, and for the best quality lessons I recommend the two-camera set-up below. I use Zoom videoconferencing software for my online music lessons and you will need to install it on all the devices you use prior to the first lesson.
The two-camera set up
What you need
Camera 1 (Tablet) - Face
Camera 1 is used for transmitting your face so that I can read your expressions to tailor my teaching. A tablet computer is great for this job - tablets are superior to phones for this job because they are bigger so you can see my keyboard, face and view sheet music pdfs here. It can be positioned on the music stand of piano directly in front of your face. You can use Zoom in ‘Gallery View’ mode when you are talking to me directly, then switch to ‘pinned’ mode when you want to see my hands in greater detail.
Camera 2 (Webcam/Phone) - Keyboard
Camera 2 is used to transmit footage of your keyboard.
Ideally you would use a wide angled web-cam, positioned directly above the keyboard, attached to a mobile phone holder on a clip on a microphone stand. This web-cam is then connected to a Zoom enabled computer.
However this is all quite expensive, so many students position their keyboard camera to the side of their keyboard. This is fine for me to work with, the most important thing is that I can hear you playing, but I may ask you to adjust the angle during the lesson.
A mobile phone can be used for this task but you should make sure you stop phone calls from interrupting the transmission.
You will also need
Either a) an acoustic piano in good, recently-tuned condition or b) a good quality 88 weighted-key digital piano (Yamaha, Kawai, Korg and Roland are the brands I recommend).
A proper piano stool. Don’t use a swivelling computer chair for playing piano ever please you will ruin your back and neck!
A well lit room.
A pencil, eraser, notebook, your sheet music and metronome to hand.
Things to remember
All devices should have the Zoom app installed. I will send you my unique zoom ID prior to the lesson.
The device with the least effective microphone must be muted. This stops unpleasant feedback echoes.
I use my mobile phone during the lesson to quickly send media to students via Whatsapp, please do not think I am using my phone for anything other than your lesson!
