The value of video lessons has become apparent, but could the experience be even better? Yes. My initial setup has morphed significantly, to match the specific needs that come up in virtual music lessons. The layout of my studio, as well as minor improvements in both audio and video elements allow me to much more easily engage with my students online. If your student struggles to engage during video lessons, consider implementing some of the same changes to make it easier for them.
Adjusting Audio
Have you ever noticed the sound cutting in and out during a call? I have! Well intentioned background filters are tuned to cut out everything except voice. That includes filtering out instrument sounds. This makes it hard to hear how each student is playing, as the sound is cutting in and out. Luckily, with minor settings adjustments, this problem is significantly improved. Often, audio quality can be easily improved (depending on the platform you’re using), by unchecking a few boxes in the audio settings. Both Zoom and Skype can be adjusted in this way to make a real difference for lessons. No platform is perfect, but I’ve found that some fare better than others. With these adjustments, Facetime, Zoom and Skype are all on fairly even footing, with Hangouts lagging slightly behind. I’m not aware of a way to adjust audio settings in Hangouts, but maybe their new Meet app will be better.
To adjust the audio settings in Zoom
- Open Zoom
- Click zoom.us in the menu at the top of the screen
- Select preferences…
- Under microphone, uncheck the box that says “automatically adjust microphone volume”
- Click the Advanced button
- Disable the two Audio Processing options that suppress background noise
To adjust the audio settings in Skype
- Open Skype
- Click Skype in the menu at the top of the screen
- Select Audio/Video
- Uncheck “Automatically adjust microphone settings”
Video: Seeing is believing!
The larger the screen is and the better the speakers are, the more engaging the lesson will be for your student. So, tablets or iPads are better than phones. A laptop computer is better than a tablet. If your instrument is near a TV, see if you can cast to it, or connect with an HDMI cable, so that the image is larger, and the student can more easily see when I’m showing them how to play. I know having a big screen and better sound has made a big difference for me over the last few months!
I hope these suggestions are helpful to you. Let me know if you have any feedback, or suggestions of your own.
It's a Musical Life 