Do Skype Lessons Really Work?
I’ve been teaching via the Internet for about as long as Skype has been in existence. The great thing about studying via Skype is that you can always get in a lesson when you need one. If you are away at school, on tour, live far away from me, or just can’t make it in to the studiofor a lesson that day, you are always only a click away from getting your voice balanced.
Most students still prefer being able to make it into the studio for lessons, but Skype is a wonderful alternative. Some drawbacks to Skype are, there is latency (meaning a delay), therefore I can’t accompany you live. I will demonstrate an exercise and give you the chord on the piano, and you will sing it a cappella (unaccompanied). I also can’t accompany you for songs, so you will either need to sing them a cappella, or have a backing track on your end. The only other drawback is that if there are slow Internet speeds, there can be some connection problems.
I have a fiber optic Internet connection at my studio, so that makes things work quite well. But you still need a half-way decent connection on your end. Usually a 10 MPS download speed and 1 MPS upload speed is the minimum requirement for a decent video conferencing connection. These speeds are becoming fairly standard for most people anyway.
If you are considering Skype lessons, you need to have a web cam, computer speakers and a microphone. The good news is that most modern computers already have the camera, speakers and microphone all built in already, so you will probably not have to purchase anything.
Skype lessons give singers the advantage of being able to get lessons in when they can’t make it into the studio. They really do work quite well. I have students all around the globe from Australia and Asia, to the UK and Canada, and all across the United States!
