 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Chalumeau
Date: 2021-07-22 21:45
I recently started teaching online clarinet lessons. I live in a small, isolated town, and this is really the only way for me to have more students. I've only taught one online lesson so far, and it was a beginner clarinet lesson. It went okay, I guess, but it was very challenging to not be right there with the student, especially a beginner. Does anyone have any tips? I have more online students coming and am hoping to get better at this!
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Author: SecondTry
Date: 2021-07-22 22:55
Hi Chalumeau:
My response centers around the software out there to effect such things.
While I suspect that any of the well known online programs, from Zoom, to Skype, to FaceTime to the Microsoft offerings would be more than fine for peer to peer type situations--which sound like where you'll spend most of your time, if you ever face a situation where you want to perform real time online collaborative music with more than 2 musicians, I'm afraid these programs may fall short, not being designed for such things.
During Covid I belonged to a couple of online music groups where we used a software program I've written about on the forum before called JamKazam.
Where this program shines above the others is in its design and ability to handle coordinating the digitization of each member's sound (and image if desired,) across an internet whose speed invariably differs among the participants. It is not free (although not expensive,) and for all intents and purposes necessitates (at least as of this writing) that internet connections be hard wired, not WiFi based, the latter being too slow. It's behind the scenes functionality might best be explained by its proprietary metronome, which first links all the participants computer clocks, rather than simply transmits a sound from one node.
The hardwired requirement is beyond my technical ability to explain, but has something to do with the number and size of data packets in wired versus WiFi internet.
JamKazam was a fledgling company prior to Covid whose free service switched to a multi-tiered pay service during the pandemic as its growth exponentiated. It did though seem to take much of the subscription money and apply it to frequent software updates.
If you run with at most a single student at any one time you may not need Jamkazam.
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Author: Fuzzy
Date: 2021-07-23 07:26
Chalumeau,
It depends on what level of beginner you're working with. I doubt remote lessons for beginners at the very early stages would work well. Simple things like assembly/disassembly, tight/loose corks, checking for leaks, reed placement, etc. would be particular barriers which might lead to future issues for the student if not properly addressed at the time. At minimum, they are issues which could become frustrations via Internet but fixed within a second or two if in person.
Software as mentioned by other posters is both good and bad, as it mandates that the student, or someone acting on the student's behalf - be savvy enough to implement whichever software you like to use. Many solutions are pretty easy now, but still...time spent away from music and focusing on technology.
Perhaps I'm somewhat skeptical right now due to a recent experience I had in helping my friend find a clarinet for his daughter. (Beginner - and my friend had never touched a clarinet before, but is a smart and capable guy.) I spent an hour walking him through putting his new mouthpiece into the barrel...and how to get it out with paper shims (since he forced it in, against my warnings), then dealt with his resulting panic...before he finally figured things out and everything started working just fine (I sure hope he didn't crack the barrel). As a result, I'd be very skeptical of performing lessons remotely for the early beginners.
Fuzzy
;^)>>>
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Author: nellsonic
Date: 2021-07-23 09:43
Teaching well online requires the same skills as teaching well in person, but with a special emphasis on listening (and diagnosing) really well and on being very organized.
Like so many, I had to suddenly move my whole studio to online lessons when the pandemic hit. I found myself being thankful over and over that this hadn't happened early in my career because the skills that took the longest to develop were the ones I needed most.
Having now taught many hundreds of online lessons I am starting to transition back to in-person. I would say that online lessons have their place but that in-person is still vastly preferable when it comes to overall effectiveness and efficiency. Under normal circumstance online would be preferable only when a good local teacher is not available.
Beginners are definitely the hardest to deal with online. Hopefully your student has good aptitude with both music and technology, as well as decent equipment (computer and clarinet). A good internet connection is crucial. It all becomes so much harder when any of this is missing.
I was really glad that I had several months of just figuring out all the online stuff with existing students before I had to deal with new beginners. I still find it challenging and tiring in most cases, but so far it's always worked out.
Anders
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Author: SunnyDaze
Date: 2021-07-23 14:41
Hi,
I'm having lessons online just now.
One thing I've found really helps is videoing myself practising during the week and then showing the video to the teacher so we can discuss it during the lesson. It means we can see much better than if I try to scramble to play well over skype at that moment when we are having the lesson.
I video myself playing along with an accompaniment track too, which really helps. I get the accompaniments with the ABRSM grade books.
We just meet on skype.
I think it's really well worth offering online lessons as there are plenty of people who can't go to in person lessons, ether now or at other times. Music lessons are such lovely thing to have. I think as long as the student is enjoying it and feeling like they are making progress then it's all good.
The other side of it is that clarinet players also need access to a technician, and that is a separate problem. That needs face2face help, and in that case, the instrument may need to be posted.
Jen
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