Advantages of virtual lessons:
-Lessons are held from the comfort of your own home, saving you gas money and travel time.
-Instructional time is actually longer since the student can "arrive" to the lesson already unpacked, tuned, and prepared to begin playing.
Challenges of virtual lessons:
-Sound quality: I may need to work with you the first couple lessons to help you adjust your settings for optimal sound.
-Sound delay: The teacher and student cannot play together at the same time, so having easy access to your practice tracks is important.
PREPARING FOR YOUR ZOOM LESSON
1. Begin setting up 10-15 minutes before your scheduled lesson time. Set up in a quiet, distraction-free area. There should be no one else in the room if possible (with the exception of a parent engaging with a young child in the lesson). Make sure that your instrument and both hands are visible on camera.
2. Checklist of things you need to have ready to go for your lesson:
-Instrument
-Music stand
-All music books
-Pencil and highlighters
-Access to tracks and metronome
-Weekly sight reading assignment
3. Tune your instrument using a digital tuner or tuning app (scroll down for suggestions).
Important: If you are an elementary school student who is new to tuning, please watch this video with your parents first.
4. Get ready to Zoom! I recommend using a computer when possible, but smartphones and tablets work as well. On a computer, you should be able to play your tracks and use the online metronome all on the same computer. If you're Zooming from a phone or tablet, you'll need a separate device (metronome and CD player OR another phone/tablet with apps/tracks) for audio. Make sure your tracks are playing from speakers with adequate volume - either the computer speakers or another device connected to a Bluetooth or plugin speaker. Phones and tablets are NOT loud enough on their own.
5. When you are ready and it's time for your lesson, click the link at the top of this page to enter the virtual studio. You will first be placed in the virtual waiting room, and I will admit you when I finish with my previous student and am ready to begin your lesson!
PRACTICE TRACKS
I have put all practice tracks for each Suzuki book onto Google Drive. Please note that these tracks are intended only for students who have already purchased the book and CD so that we stay legal. DEMO means there is an instrument playing your part. BACKING TRACK means that it's the accompaniment only. When students are first learning a new song, they need to listen daily to the demo. When students are ready to pass off a song, they need to play it for me up to tempo with the backing track. To get a song up to tempo, students must increase the speed gradually using a metronome.
Please bookmark your current tracks for easy access.
SCALES
Intermediate and advanced students should be practicing 2-3 octave scales.
Click below to view/print 2-octave scales.
Violin Scales
Viola Scales
Cello Scales
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
There are various digital tuners, metronomes, and tuner/metronome combos available for purchase on Amazon. Here are some apps that are available as well:
Digital Tuners
Tuner Lite (This is the one I highly recommend but it is iOS only)
ClearTune (available for a fee on iOS and Android)
Metronomes
Metronomeonline.com (computer)
Pro Metronome app (iOS, also available on Android)
Welcome to online lessons with Miss Tina Knight! The regular 24-hour cancellation policy still applies if you need to reschedule for any reason. If you are having technical difficulties, please email me BEFORE your lesson start time. My email is tknight@foothillchristian.org.
All Zoom lessons with Tina will use THIS LINK
Meeting ID: 681 867 342
Password: orchestra
