Zoom lesson tips

Dear Friend, If this is your first time taking a lesson on Zoom, congratulations! You are welcoming a new experience and showing how adventurous you are. I hope these tips will help you be more comfortable.

Preparation:

At least 24 hours in advance, please scan your music and email me. (If that is impossible, email me the exact title/opus #/composer/edition of your piece.)

Tech set-up:

1. AUDIO INPUT so I can hear you better:

Upper left corner: "Original Sound for Musicians" should be ON.

On your control dashboard next to the mic icon, you will find an "^" arrow. Click on that to reveal the menu. Click on Audio Settings.

Check the High Fidelity Sound button

Set both “suppress background noise” options to “low" or "disable”
Check the box “enable original sound”; this avoids distortion of music
Set Echo Cancellation to “auto.”

2. VIDEO: Click on the link I send you and allow 5 minutes for set up and camera angle.

Make sure both your smile and your hands are visible in the camera. I recommend a side table with a box on top, or a music stand that adjusts to a horizontal angle. Make sure bright windows and lights are in front of you, not behind. We can adjust camera angle for pedaling as needed.

3. CONNECTION: On the lower left corner, make sure the mike and camera icons do NOT have a line through them, and press "Join Audio" if you see it.

Optional:

If you don't have a good external mic yet, then I would love to ask that you to pre-record your scales and pieces. You can either use your phone and forward to my email, or video- record via laptop using the Zoom app and attach the file to an email. (If your email size is limited, gmail accounts will automatically convert a large file into a google drive link. You can also use dropbox.) We will watch this together one segment at a time.

If you are willing to create your own Zoom account with a name and password, then you can enable "original sound" that is not compressed. Sign in to the Zoom web portal. In the navigation panel, click Settings (under Personal). Click the Meeting tab. Under "In Meeting (Advanced)", check the box that will "Allow users to select original sound in their client settings is enabled".

If you're adventurous/advanced, then invest in an external USB mic. Blue Yeti mike $130 is the most popular and what I use. Blue Snowball at $50 is a good cheaper option.

If you already have Zoom H1 hand recorder, you can plug it in. Place your mic in the crook of the piano with the lid fully open for the best instrumental sound.

(Blue Yeti: Tighten the two stand screws so it's vertical, start gain dial at 10 o'clock, start the "pattern" dial at 1 o'clock cardiod (upside down heart shape), plug into laptop, go to Zoom bottom left to mic icon then select "Yeti" for your input. The Yeti should stand vertically straight up at mouth level. )

Please keep your mic at least 2 feet away from your computer speakers to avoid echos.

Follow-up:

If you had any difficulty or wifi issue, it's ok. Email me. Let's trouble shoot to make it better next time.

Stretch, rest your eyes, and hydrate. Celebrate your growth and progress!