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This question is for those of you who take (or have taken) Skype lessons or other online lesson formats...

I am considering giving this a try as I don't have the type of teacher in my area that I am looking for. I have been traveling for lessons with a Taubman approach teacher but I can't travel as frequently as I would like to have a lesson so I am considering filling in with Skype lessons.

What I would appreciate is any tips or suggestions for things I can do to get the most out of a Skype lesson. And then any other advice you would offer regarding online lessons.

Just for reference, I am an adult piano student who took lessons for 6-7 years as a young person and I have been back playing for the last year.

Thanks so much!

Patrick

I have not taken Skype piano lessons but I have taken both upright and electric bass lessons on Skype. IMO it can work really well and if you look around you have some really good players giving lessons.

If you decide to go that route I would suggest getting a camera that sits on top of your monitor instead of the built in cam. You can angle it much better so your teacher can see what you are doing better. Also I used a program to record the lessons so I could go back and watch again.

Skype lessons helped my bass playing tremendously, good luck.

You could just use your phone/tablet I suppose.

I have taken lessons via Skype off and on for years.

I attach my Cam to a standing lamp and direct it down toward the piano keys.

Works fine.

I also utilize software to record each lesson.

Is there a way to use two cameras? Like maybe the camera on my iMac for a wide view and for me to talk to and then another camera pointed more focused on the keyboard? I'll try googling this a bit. Thanks.

My Skype/Facebook teacher sugested I put a laptop on a stand or table at one end of the piano. So I have the laptop on a table approx. 36 inches tall at the treble end of the keyboard. I can see her easily - and she seems to see more than enough of what I'm doing (or not doing) on the keys.

I have done Skype lessons with my teacher with good results. I have used my phone and a tripod and nothing else. Let the teacher tell you how to place the camera so they can see what they need to see. I did my Skype lessons with a digital keyboard so there was no fallboard or piano mechanism to disrupt the sight lines.

I use facetime with my ipad which is held by a stand made to hold tablets I found on amazon. The ipad sits to the right of the piano and my teacher can see the keys and my entire body. Of course I can see the same with her. This set up works fine for me. Best of luck.

I switched from Skype to Google Hangouts (a search might bring up the discussion in the ABF where I was given advice). The reason is that the quality of Skype became bad. They adjusted Skype to be perfect for conversation, cutting out "background noise". As a result, a whole note held with pedal ended up sounding like a staccato 16th note. Google Hangout has an option (studio?) which is better designed for music.

I have a digital piano, with cable going to the computer for sound, a Logitech camera, and I use a clip-on XLR microphone going to a mixer so that the sound from the piano and my voice can come to my teacher in the most direct manner.

Been using Skype for years, but frustrated with poor quality audio, and dropouts, so currently trialing Zoom.us which so far, has superior audio and video quality.
The free version has the ability to connect and switch between multiple cameras, and also has a built in record function.
So far, so good :-)

P.S.
A useful tip, whichever video calling app you use, is to set up a separate account on a second computer, laptop or tablet, and 'call yourself' so you can see and hear how it will look on the other end.

My teacher uses Zoom for lessons, and for the workshops that she does for groups of students. It works pretty well. The sound quality is better than Skype, and there is less lag. I have a small, adjustable height table that I put my laptop on at the treble end of the piano. The teacher can see my body position, seating position on the bench, feet on the pedals. and hand position. I send a recording of my pieces to her about every two weeks as well, so that she can hear the finer details. The combination works well.

Thanks for all of the suggestions. My teacher currently uses Skype so I will get that setup on two computers and see how that looks. I am hoping to switch between two cameras - the camera on my iMac for a wider view and then I just ordered a Logitech c920 that I will mount on the iMac (or maybe a little higher on a tripod) and zoom in closer to the keyboard. At least this is what I am thinking about. Ideally I would like to stream both cameras at the same time so the teacher can see both views together but I don't think I can do that. I did receive a suggestion for a software called "ManyCam" that I am going to look into though that may help with this.

I'll report back on how it goes.

Thanks again.

I'd be interested in what you find out, and whether that works with Logitech (the camera I have). I'm not totally happy with the single view I have to offer right now.

I will let you know how it works!

In Skype for PC there is an option to switch cameras. It is in the 3 horizontal lines at the top right of the screen. It is late here in Australia, but I will try to post an image of how to do it, tomorrow.

OBS Studio in conjunction with OBS VirtualCam plugin will do this. Both free.

Layer and size your two cameras in OBS then use the plugin to send the result to Skype, Zoom, etc.

Thanks for the suggestion! I'll look into this as well.

Just did my first live lesson, using Zoom, and it worked flawlessly :-) No video or audio glitches.

I was able to instantly switch between three webcams without using external software, and could share high quality audio files from my PC to the student, as well as record the lesson, all from within the zoom interface.

Just to report back as of now, I downloaded the ManyCam free version and the latest version of Skype desktop and was able to get a picture in picture transmitted over Skype using my iMac built in cam and the Logitech. I chose ManyCam over OBS simply because it seemed easier to get setup. I was a little worried about OBS since it is open source and possibly less user friendly.

I was surprised how big of a difference in quality there is between those two cameras so I decided to order another Logitech camera. I will also upgrade ManyCam to one of the paid versions so I can move the PIP window and get rid of the watermark. Once I get that all setup I will schedule my lesson. So I believe I have this figured out but we will see how the first lesson goes.

Thanks for all of the help and I will report back after my lesson or if I run into any other issues.