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Well, I got my Skype account working and bought a good webcam with built in mic. We tested out the sound quality with my husband in one room and me in the other, and it seemed decent enough. Not great, but enough I think to pick up nuances. The visual was clear, but a bit choppy. All in all, I was quite pleased. I'll be taking skype lessons from my voice teacher in CA, and there may be some students of mine who will be moving away that would be interested in them as well (both voice and piano). I'll let you know how my lessons turn out! If it goes well, I may start advertising online lessons

Thanks Morodiene,

I'm hoping to try it out Thursday night with Rob in Australia.
Thinking the distance (I'm in FL, U.S.) should be a good latency test.

Best,

Frank B.

Congrats on getting set up, Morodiene.
I hope it works out for you.

Just for general info, there is a Skype add-on, called 'PrettyMay' call recorder. The basic version is free.
I don't use the recording function, but there is a facility in the program, to play audio files stored on your computer, via Skype, to the other party, in real time, whilst you are chatting. It has it's own Start/Stop, and volume controls.
This is great for sharing recordings you have made, or for playing a recording of a piece, or song, that you are teaching/learning, etc.

Rob

Rob,
Thanks for the info! I think that can be very helpful, especially for singing when I'm playing clips that show them what I want them to do.

I was looking at your website to see how you had things set up policy-wise, and was wondering why you decided to do that "pay as you go"? Was it just to ease people's minds about doing this online? As it stands, I think I'd only offer skype lessons to students that I already know, but I still see my time in preparing for lessons and reserving a time for lessons still worth a value, and skype lessons might be even easier to "miss". What has been your experience with the business end of things?

Morodiene,
To be honest, I only decided try Skype, when one of my guitar students moved over 2,000 miles away, to the East of Australia, but wanted to continue her lessons, so I don't have that much experience yet. I also use it with another student, who only lives 15 mins away, but is not always available on his appointed day, so we can fit in a lesson when we both have free time, and happen to be online.
A family member in the UK is keen to start soon.
I agree that teaching existing students is so much easier, as a relationship has already been established in person.
As to my 'policy' I am thinking of refining it slightly. I thought that PAYG, as you say, would give both parties a chance to find out if Skype was a viable alternative.
I am just testing the water at the moment.
I would love to hear about others' experiences.

Rob

It seems to be a tough call, because with Paypal you could do that very easily with no extra paperwork. And if there are technical issues that prevent the lesson from happening, then that would also have to be considered. However, if it is a set time that you are getting together on a regular basis, it makes sense that a policy should be set up for tuition rather than pay as you go, just because it means a commitment on the part of the student, which I have found gets better results. A parent is more likely to make sure their child practices and prepares and not blow off lessons if they've invested money into it (likewise for adult students as well).

I agree absolutely with all you say, but the Skype model, is still in it's infancy for me, and I think it is more likely that people will sign up for 'one off' lessons, to see how it goes for them. If the PayPal payment is not made in advance, the lesson does not happen, simple as that.
This particular type of distance learning is a relatively new phenomenon, so I am prepared for a little give and take, on both sides, in the initial stages.
Personally, I would not be prepared, at this stage, to entertain teaching children over this medium. It is fraught with pitfalls.
I should declare at this stage, that I have no wish, or qualifications, to teach advanced students. I am more interested in adults, who wish to learn to play piano, or guitar, purely for their own pleasure. My lessons are structured to the individuals' needs and wishes, and conducted in a relaxed and informal atmosphere, as far as possible.
I believe that any student requiring formal or advanced tuition, would find the Skype environment, very restricting, on many levels.

I agree it is very limiting, and not ideal for any student, honestly. However, with those students of mine who are graduating and would like to continue or are moving away (possibly out of the country where they would have to take lessons in another language) it could be a great solution. In those cases I don't think there'd be a problem with paying in advance, with some flexibility for technical problems.

I also agree that it would not be good to teach children this way, because they do need something a bit more engaging. Most of my students are not serious musicians and do this for enjoyment as well. I think the toughest part will be in instances where being there to actually help the student via touch is necessary.

Has anyone visited this site

http://OnlinePianoLessonsLive.com

Looks like a great place to start an international career.
Also, an even better place to take lessons.
Everything I have seen in this thread is OLD STUFF.
This site takes online teaching to a new level.

First of all there is nothing for the teachers or the students to download or install on their computers.

Second They also give Group lessons, because there is no limit to the number of video streams they can process.

The only requirements are a web cam and to have Flash Player installed.

Let me know if you like it ... pintwister@hotmail.com

PinTwister,

We don't need a commercial for a web site you represent, we need facts about hardware and software, and why it works.

I don't care how many "streams" a system can handle.
We are interested in quality, latency, etc.

Saying all the student needs is a web cam tells me right away you aren't talking about anything that will help.

First, web cams vary greatly in quality, second, the tiny little mics built in tend to produce horrible audio quality when you are trying to stream a concert grand piano with someone playing something like the Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 3.

Another option people in this thread may want to look into is regular video. And no, I'm not talking about myself. You can have a teacher create a video for you and discuss it via email or chat.

It's another option. I personally don't do this but may start if the interest is there.

The problem with this is the interaction is delayed. They have to watch, remember their question, respond, wait for an answer, etc. Live streaming is really more effective, IMO.

Well, I am pleased to confirm, that a Skype connection between me, in Perth, Australia, and Frank, in Florida, USA, was a complete success, with barely a milli-second of delay, or frozen video.
Frank appeared as though he was on live TV, and our various instruments sounded great, and there was absolutely no delay between fingers on keys, and sound ocurring, either end.
Furthermore, I have to say, that Frank is an all round great guy!
Thanks for the opportunity, and experience, Frank.
It was a pleasure to 'meet' you :-)

Rob
PS It would be interesting to know, Frank, the specifications of the laptop you were using, and also your connection type?

Wonderful!

I am particularly interested in what equipment was used. I have a somewhat nice web cam with built in mic, so I wonder if that will be sufficient or if I should set up a better mic (which I do own, but it would be a pain to set up as I use it regularly for in person lessons).

Surprisingly (to me), the built in web cam in my laptop seemed to work just fine.

I have an external web cam, and a decent mic, but I couldn't get them working through Skype (will work more on that later).

As it is, the built in camera and mic apparently worked ok.

No doubt better equipment would yield better results, but I'm not sure it's necessary.
The one variable that does seem important is the speed of the connection.

I hope to experiment more with this, and I know the concert pianist/teacher I've been talking to is anxious to work with it.

Ya, I would think one has to have a high-speed connection and not dial-up for any success.

How close was the webcam to your piano? Was it just showing you hands the whole time, or was it further back to show you face and hands from a little bit of a distance?

Very cool, and very interesting.

Can I ask how good the visibility was of your (and Frank's) fingers/hands? It would seem that the key to make this work for teaching is for the teacher to be able to see absolutely clearly what's going on with fingering and hand positioning and tension and the like, and I know I don't always get a good sense of that when I'm watching YouTube videos, say.

Rob and I experimented. He actually had two cameras set up, with a switch so he could switch between them. He also had a small mixer and some other equipment.

When I had the separate web cam working, I could hang it over the keyboard (on a mic stand) and zoom in or out to show the entire keyboard and my hands (as well as some of my round tummy). For some reason Skype insisted on working from my laptop internal camera, but I'm sure that's my fault.

Frank,
You should be able to find and disable your laptop's onboard camera, by going to 'System Properties > Hardware > Device Manager'
Then when you plug in your USB camera, Skype should 'see' it.

It may also be possible to choose either camera, by using a small program called DVdriver, or another called SplitCam, without the need to disable the onboard camera.

Rob