Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Anyone cancelled their piano lesson ?

Oops. I wasn't following this thread in the last day. PianogrlNW- bSharp(C)yclist and KevinM are right. I had confirmed with Customer Service (which you can use even if you aren't a paid subscriber!) that no subscription is needed for the Preserve Original Sound feature. As they said, you do need to use a credit card however, even if you aren't paying with the card. Also, this feature won't work if you are using an iPad or iPhone - so with those devices (such as I have for the time being), you are stuck with the compression.

Cool and Novel (bad pun) Humor it'll go viral......

In Romania there's a state of emergency since last Monday. We had at that time about 150 cases confirmed, and several tens of thousands in quarantine or isolation. Now we stand at 360, with 50 healed, with heavily restricted circulation and most of the things closed. This should not be taken lightly, "only 200 cases in my country" and no measures will end up with tens of thousands infected and hundreds of deaths in a couple of weeks.
Last week I had my first online lesson, on Facebook. It went great and it was pretty interesting since both me and my teacher had their own piano, so she could play more instead of explaining how I should play or switch places.

I had an in person lesson last Thursday (teacher comes to me), but almost the same day we got more government advice to keep a social distance of at least two meters from every one. So my wife and I are going into lock down for some time. We have enough food for a while and I am planning on switching to Skype from now on. Took me a while to get Skype set up my iPad and I haven't managed a video call yet, but I am sure I will.

Ya, I agree - using a laptop works best, and if it's a mac, the mic is probably good enough. If you want, you can use an external mic, however, and that's even better.

I only recommend the ipad or iphone for my voice students - that seems to work much better than even mac mics, but it's still tricky because of the sustaining power of the voice it will often overpower most small mics even at a distance.

I will have my piano and cello lessons by mobile phone and zoom this week. Sort of testing how it goes. It is possible for me to set up better equipment if necessary, but mainly I am just continuing lessons to support my teachers and to keep myself motivated to at least do little practice. I have fixed salary and the only way the virus is affecting me is the enourmous extra work load...which I am trying to handle while working from home.

I don't think sound quality matters much since I haven't been practicing at all for a week now. 12 hour work days and also working on weekends has taken it's toll...

Sunday my piano teacher informed me that all piano lessons are cancelled for now. Our state, Montana has 46 confirmed cases with one in the county she teaches in, who returned from an overseas trip. Online lessons is not an option at this time. I'm glad and sad about the decision. This was my one outing of the week since the virus started. As a senior citizen I need to be careful though, because of the virus. Lately I've been having trouble concentrating when playing and not playing as much as I usually do. Piano lessons is a big motivator to practice. It shouldn't be though. It should be because I love to play. And many times it is. But right now I'm more concerned about our finances then getting the virus. How are we going to pay next months mortgage? My husband and son are house painters and are not getting work. They had a very slow winter and this is the beginning of their busy season. My son, wife and 4 children live with us. Sorry I'm rambling. Can't wait till this Coronavirus is over!!

Pat
I’m so sorry to hear about the financial worries you have for your family. ... it is always depressing to know we have worked hard, done the right things, and then be faced with financial hardship through no fault of our own. My thoughts go out to you! I’m so hopeful the government package will provide the assistance your family needs. I hope for all of us—- that the pandemic will end soon and we can return to our normal lives,’.

Please check with your mortgage company as some of them are waiving payments during the pandemic. I believe this also may be included in the pending package.

I will be praying for you!

dogperson Thank you for your kind and caring words and for your prayers!

We're talking about more than music classes cancelled. Entire cities are in lockdown. People are asked to not attend gathering of more than 5 people and keep social distance at least 3 feet from each other. The # of infections are still rising and not yet peaked. The Olympics finally get postponed. We still have a while to go before life returns to normal.

My music teacher is talking about teaching online since the local conservatory is not open.

Lets' do a skype !

I had my first Skype lesson of the outbreak yesterday. I'm not sure the audio compression is much of a problem - my teacher had no problem hearing what I was doing wrong!

I use a computer and webcam, I think the webcam has a slightly wider field of view than most phone cameras & tablets so I can get more of the keyboard in the shot. I don't think it matters though - an iPhone taped to a chair would probably work almost as well.

Of course, it's not the same as a face-to-face lesson, but it was still very productive. It's also some extra social interaction - I live alone so it's probably quite healthy for me

I was meaning a "social" skype for members on here. but nix to that idea. I read your blog , and interesting that how easy it is to feel the same, and likely because of the circumstances.
Here in the USA , in PA there are only "life essential businesses" open and all schools are closed until the state gov't changes the quarantine/ lockdown levels.
I'm not feeling the pain of isolation yet, but more so appreciate the time to sleep as I work nights as a nurse (first time I ever revealed that) on a sub-acute unit.
As extracurricular activity I'm taking a free course online from the Univ of Edinburg, on Coursera--"Know thyself"....As far the course? interesting, and a different take on spiritualism for me during a drastic time of a pandemic; and a rehash of a "MPT or "Modern Political Thought" Course in College 35 years ago.
Also my micro course concentrated it's last page on a pandemic issue over 35 years ago.
So as diversion in the meantime I'll keep tinkering at the piano.
And wish everyone health.

I think you're probably onto something with the extra-curricular activities - I'm going to see if I can find a short course in something interesting (and not musical!)

I had my first virtual - it went better than I thought. At my end I will need to work on the angle of camera [using android phone with a tripod adapter]. Thankfully, teacher has a great ear and audio was pretty good for him to hear me hitting the wrong notes. It is sure helping me to work on my aural skills at the same time as I can’t really watch him play.

I liked it as I was playing on my own piano, in my own environment where I practice most of the time.

We will try zoom next week, google hangout worked fine. And paying him is easy to with all various payment apps!

I had to cancel further lessons because it's getting too hard to get at my teacher at the scheduled time with public transport. transport is at a lower rate, connections are broken, drops outs, etc.

But my piano is getting very badly out of tune anyway and I don't expect the tuner will be available soon. So it seems I'll have to quit playing for now...

Why not try going to online lessons? I would think an out of tune piano is better than no piano? When things go sideways, we need to adapt - that’s my philosophy anyway.

I have no camera and my computer crashes completely when I run skype. I can not risk anything like that as it's the only communication device for the work. And the piano is getting quickly to the point of being unbearable. I already tweaked some squealing unisons but others are going out as well and I know that this will quickly deteriorate further... Some chords sound different, I already wondered a few times if I had all the notes correct.

Had my first online lesson on Thursday. A lot better than I thought it would be. Neither of us are used to online lessons using only FaceTime but it worked out ok

I had mine Monday using Zoom. I had to jimmy my iPad onto a music stand to get a good angle of the piano but it worked well. This way I can support my teacher. I really like that my teacher had duplicates of the music and could just play something he wanted me to work on. No more switching spots! I think though like some others my playing/practicing is suffering. I’m working from home and finding I’m putting in way more hours than I would normally