Mix Margaret Dylan Jones

This page is for anyone wanting online lessons. See in-person lessons if you prefer me to visit you.

Before your first online lesson, perhaps a day or two earlier, we can have a free session to get your set-up working if you need it.

You can use various pieces of equipment. In any case, it's best just to make a start using what you have, though using a smartphone will be difficult and is not recommended, especially because of the small screen size. Some smartphones and tablet-like devices may lack crucial audio settings. As we go along you might want to experiment with other equipment.

These are the minimum requirements for both you and me, which might be all built-in in the same device:

I'm running an Apple MacBook laptop, mostly using the built-in camera and sometimes using a webcam directly over my piano. For hearing you I use headphones or the laptop speakers.

Sometimes I use one of two separate mics, or the built-in mic of the laptop; which one depends on whether it's a piano or theory lesson, or a voice lesson.

CAMERA or WEBCAM (built-in or separate). Angle this from slightly above, pointing at you from your right. For piano students I need to be able to see you from the chair up to your head, and both hands, plus quite a bit of the keyboard. You will need something high to put this on, perhaps a bookcase, a tall music stand, a camera tripod or an iPad holder.

MICROPHONE (built-in or separate). You will need to experiment with the placement (location) but definitely don't put it sitting on the piano. You need just the right spot so I can hear you speak and also hear the piano. If you have an acoustic piano don't put the mic too close to one end otherwise I'm going to hear mostly the bass or mostly the treble. Some students use a gaming headset (headphones with a  microphone).

MONITOR / COMPUTER  SCREEN. This needs to be big enough for you to see me when the monitor is a long way away from you (your computer screen might be a metre or so away from you). The bigger, the better, especially if we're showing each other musical notation.

ZOOM  software. This is free, easy to install and easy to use. They also have a browser version which doesn't require installing but that won't be quite as good. The Zoom app is free for one-to-one use and they only want a name (whatever you want), your email, and a password. Get it from https://zoom.us. Download it now so you can start getting familiar with it.

A little TRAP with ZOOM sound

The default audio setting is built for speech in a noisy crowd, not music in a lesson. Unfortunately, that speech setting can really mess up the sound of piano or singing, so please go into the audio preferences and enable 'Original sound for musicians.' Then, on a laptop, you will see in the top left of the Zoom window 'Original Sound for Musicians: Off,' which is the default. You need to click this so it says 'On.' Make sure you're using an up-to-date version. 

Every time I test my audio settings it changes back to 'Off,' so I have to click again to get it to 'On.' Some devices might not have this option.

My Zoom name is Mx Margaret Jones (MM), I'm the 'host.' For the lessons I will email you the meeting link, it's an 'Invitation.' The meeting password will be embedded in that link. You can start your session a bit before the scheduled time; I will see your name in the Waiting Room and will let you in.

HEADPHONES or earphones are sometimes necessary to prevent getting background noise or feedback loops. Preferably not 'Beats' or cheap ones, they don't give a good sound for piano, instrumental, vocal or classical music. The best headphones (and earphones and speakers) have a 'flat' response; that is, they reproduce the sounds accurately and don't boost the high or low sounds. Flat equipment is better for learning any kind of music.

An  ETHERNET  CABLE  might give a better quality connection than WiFi. They can be very long, up to 50 metres.

SEPARATE  SPEAKERS  will give you better sound for hearing me. For hearing you I use headphones or a 50 watt keyboard amp I use with my digital piano when I do performances. The trick with amplifiers is get one that can go much louder than you need because the best sound you can get from them is somewhere in the middle of their loudness range. You should turn the volume dial only partially, perhaps about half-way (mine is about 1/3).

A  SEPARATE  MICROPHONE  will make your sounds clearer for me to hear you, but this can be added later. I believe a separate mic needs to be a USB mic or, like mine, have an analogue-to-digital converter attached to it.

Of course,  GOOD  LIGHTING  is always important in music lessons (and practice). You need at least one light shining from behind or above the player (so the player can see their sheet music and the keys). For online lessons you might also need a bit of light showing the player's face and hands so I can see them. Normally, you mustn't have a light shining in the player's eyes, not even peripherally (from the side), so this might require some experimentation. For online lessons I have a light shining in my face but it's not too bright.

SHARING  PDFs  and  OTHER  FILES.
We can both see and write on musical notation (sheet music) files etc using the green Share Screen button in the middle of the video screen at the bottom. Over the years I've made a lot of my own teaching materials (piano pieces, theory sheets, vocalises etc) which I have on my computer as PDF files. I think you will also be able to share your files with me, perhaps text files and photos or scans. If not, you can email them.

ALL  MUSICIANS  and music students should have a pen, a pencil (B is better than HB or 2B for music), an eraser, a sharpener and a music exercise book to write in. I call this book "The Most Important Book," and it has some pages with music manuscript (music lines). These can be found at Officeworks: Studymate 96 page A4 music book or similar. To find the B pencils at Officeworks you may need to ask a shop assistant (I always have to ask, even though I know exactly where they're supposed to be, because they get accidentally hidden).

For online lessons a texta pen (Sharpie) might also be useful if you write something on paper and want to hold it up to the camera.

LESSON  NOTES. In some cases I will type-up the lesson notes and email them to you after a lesson. Or you can write them yourself as we go along.

With in-person lessons I have always found it's very good to have a parent sitting in on childrens' lessons so I hope parents will continue to be involved online. If we're all "on the same page" it really helps parents to understand what I have asked their children to do and which aspects I'm currently focusing on.

RECORDING

You're welcome to have a recording of the lesson, recorded by the Zoom app. In fact, many years ago when I had my own teaching studio I encouraged students, particularly voice students, to record lessons and listen to them again. Now, on my screen, I have a 'record' button for this purpose, which can be paused and restarted. Students benefit from watching a recording of their lesson again as a form of revision. What a great educational aid!

Parents: if you want me to record your child's lesson you will need to give me permission. This is easy. If you are there I can record you telling me this (so you'll have to say it again after I hit the Record button).

SHARING the Recording

Please don't share a recording online without asking me in each instance. Likewise, I won't share without asking you in each instance. Confidentially is assumed. If we do share anything it will probably need editing first if only to cut out the boring bits.

If  TRANSCRIBING  (writing down) the lesson always be sure to show me what you've written. Not many people have written their lessons out over the years but, in almost every case when someone has transcribed a lesson recording, they have done so incorrectly. You only have to miss or misunderstand one word to reverse the meaning. Which they frequently did!

LESSON  FEES  are the same as in-person lessons. Please pay online directly into my bank account or my PayPal. As usual, you are welcome to pay lesson by lesson or by a calendar month in advance. Anything else does my head in.

Always include the date of the lesson you are paying for so I can see that in my bank account.

How are ONLINE and IN-PERSON LESSONS DIFFERENT?

Adapting my teaching to the new environment has worked really well, even for singing.

As time goes by and we all get more experienced with online tuition I'm sure many advantages will become obvious. From other teachers I have heard some inspiring tales of better student outcomes.

The  teachers who have full-time teaching schedules are finding it exhausting, but that is not a problem for me as I am very much part-time. Despite the teachers finding it is much harder work there are educational benefits.

In traditional lessons (where the teacher and student are in the same room) I'm able to play duets with the piano students, and accompany the singing students (I am both an excellent pianist and an excellent accompanist).

When I demonstrate playing or singing in person it's a little easier to see and hear it, compared to online lessons.

These little bits of me playing the piano or singing can be very helpful and effective. I might play the right hand part while the student plays the left hand part, as a duet. I can play a song backing, either playing all the notes or just a chord here and there, or re-arranging the backing in some other way (at sight). These things can't be done online because of the time delay, or they have to be done in a modified form. But I have found a way to do this online in many cases.

See you on the internet!

Mx Margaret D. Jones
MusB(UWA), DipEd, LTCL, ATCL, AMusTCL, AMusA
MIMT, AMC (Associate Composer)
WWCC

A couple of vidoes you might find useful:

Alistair Parnell's excellent video is mostly addressed to students: Get ready for online music lessons with ZOOM.

Simon Powis has a really good video (with most of it also transcribed as text): Teaching Music Online With Zoom. It's addressed to teachers but is well worth a look for students.

SECURITY as at 10 April 2020: Apparently, there are some security concerns with Zoom and other online videoing software. However, our ‘meetings’ are only one-to-one, they require a password (built-in to the URL), I use a waiting room, and the hacks on Macintosh computers require the hacker to physically use your Mac first. The installer problem was fixed a few days ago with an update. The news about Zoom recordings being easily found online is because thousands of people decided to upload and share their recordings, and foolishly didn't rename them. We won't be doing that. So, we should all be safe.