Last week a music teacher asked me about my piano setup, and how I manage to get everything on screen like this:
It took me a long time to get the setup that I have now. This is how it started-
Skype Lessons since 2017
My nephew, who stays in Australia, learns piano with me since 2017. We’ve always had online classes. My jazz lessons with Anurag Naidu also have been online since 2018. My setup was just one camera where you could see me and the piano keys. It wasn’t the best setup but it worked.
WhatsApp Video Calls
March 2020 was the recital season. All teachers in Pune were busy preparing for their annual recitals. Everything changed in less than 20 days.
When we had to move online, all students didn’t have Zoom or Skype IDs. Most of my lessons were taken on WhatsApp video calls for a week or two.
ZOOM
A lot of helpful teachers were willing to share their knowledge on some Facebook pedagogy groups. I learned that Zoom is widely used by teachers. It had a couple of features that I liked a lot- Screen sharing, annotations, whiteboard. With these tools at my disposal, I was able to teach better since I could make notes on the music, make the students visualize a lot of things. My laptop was not with me, so I had to work with my mobile phone. It was quite strenuous on the eyes, and I needed a bigger screen soon.
Hunt for a Bigger Screen
I had a MacBook Air 13’ for 4 years. I really liked the user interface and overall performance of this device. Since I didn't have it with me anymore, I considered buying an iPad Air. My friend Aditya graciously agreed to lend me his iPad Pro for a few weeks. It’s a nice device, but I wanted to connect my keyboard, webcam, headphones on this device. It was going to be difficult because Apple products, especially iPads, are unfriendly (read expensive) if you want to connect several external devices. Hence the iPad was out. I was now considering a Windows Laptop. Eventually, I bought a touch screen windows laptop in August 2020.
Virtual Piano
Now that I had a bigger canvas to experiment with, I started looking for options to make my teaching screen better. I was familiar with apps like Synthesia which allowed you to share a virtual keyboard on the screen. You could even connect it to a keyboard with MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) so that whatever you play on the keyboard reflects on the virtual piano.
My digital piano did not have a MIDI port. Hence, I considered upgrading my digital piano. I bought a Yamaha P-115. I now had the option of actively showing what keys I was playing directly on the screen. The only drawback- students could not see my hands and fingers at the keyboard.
Subscribing to an Online Teaching Resource
My teacher and head of Studio Meraki, Sonam Lodhi, is always on the hunt for new teaching resources. She suggested that I subscribe to a Piano Atlas online so I could get access to hundreds of books on their website. This website has backing tracks, theory books, sight-reading material, Disney repertoire, jazz/blues/rock/pop songs, flashcards for all students- you name it! It was one of the best decisions because I could now give my students a lot of interesting repertoire without having to scan it from the book. I had it all at my fingertips.
I suggest this for all new teachers, especially those who want to work on their sight-reading skills. When I had joined my first teaching job, I used to spend my spare time going through the books in the library. Sight-reading has never been my strength, but exploring the new material, seeing how the syllabus is designed for the student, how the information is provided in a step-by-step manner really improved my teaching skills, and it was lots of fun.
Using a Streaming Software
My good friend Aniruddha suggested that I should try using live-streaming software for my lessons. I was skeptical at first because ‘how would a gaming software help a music teacher, right?’ I downloaded it and it was a game-changer. With a lot of help, I had gotten a grasp of how to use that software for teaching. I ended up creating a lot of supplementary material for my students because it had become so easy. Arranging and hosting Summer Recital 2021 and Rhythm Challenges became much easier because of that. I made a few videos for Studio Meraki’s Scales Competition 2021 as well.
The MIDI Files Experiment
I had bought the virtual piano software for myself. I was looking for some free alternatives so that my students can also use them, and I found one. I wanted to see whether students can work on a few skills by using that software. I designed a few exercises for them which would work on developing hand coordination, dynamics, and articulation. These exercises were not compulsory for all. Those who were comfortable using this technology were encouraged to take part. The results will be explored in another post since it is still an ongoing experiment.
Conclusion
Online teaching is a new concept. It is still in its developing stages.
I hope solutions to these problems will be found soon. Till then, teachers have to keep looking, be creative, do some problem solving, and share their knowledge.
If you are interested in upgrading your online teaching setup, you’ll wonder why I haven’t mentioned all software/platform names. I would encourage you to go hunt for resources yourself. There are tons of options out there. In the process of finding the right tools, you will learn a lot- even if you make some poor choices along the way. If you get in touch with me, I would love to have a chat with you about this. Perhaps I could learn some new things from you. The teacher I mentioned at the beginning of this blog is my student. She suggested me an app that was a savior last week when my laptop camera suddenly stopped working.
Keep learning and keep sharing!
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