It seems in the current crisis that we need to move to online lessons in most cases. I am going to miss you in my studio!
But the good news is face time works really well for remote lessons.
Thanks to my student Kristen who was the volunteer for my first face time lesson, we had a successful time together in spite of a few technical glitches which I am hoping are now sorted out.
I am ready to teach students online and unless you have a late generation ipad, it seems an iphone works well. My ipad is working well although it is a bit far away from our router but we are working on that. I have a microphone stand and a cradle for my ipad, picture below (sorry sideways), and it is positioned so my students can see some of me but mostly the piano keyboard and what I need to see is the student’s hands on their keyboard. Kristen used her iphone and it worked perfectly for her and me. Having something to prop up the phone on at the end of the keyboard would be a good idea. Ukulele and guitar students: I will reposition the ipad so you can see me and I would like to see you and try to position your device so I can see your hands not just your music stand!
If the video cuts out we just call again and the disruption seems to be minimal. I don’t think streaming videos while your student is doing an on-line lesson with me would work well.
If you have never used face time you need to first go to your contacts (hopefully I am there with my phone number 919-599-9372) and up the top you select the video icon, and you are calling on face time! Experiment with family members if you can.
If you do not have apple devices: Please use skype. I recently downloaded an updated skype app and it is free. The video quality is not as good as face time but it will be perfectly adequate. My skype handle is my email (lcollingridge@gmail.com) and that is a good way to have you ID because I have most people’s emails. If you need to use skype please let me know so I am expecting skype call not face time. May need to experiment a little!
For those who are still OK about coming here, I am fine with that and have set up my studio so there is 8 feet between me and a student. I will disinfect door handles etc before and after. I completely support social distancing but I am not having groups of people here, just one at a time. Please let me know what you are going to do. Some parents have already done that thank you.
Stay well, and hopefully sane with what is an enormous disruption to our lives.
Lorna
