Curious about Skype Lessons

[christielea]

I'm loving that the online age has given us so many opportunities to learn flute. For some folks learning online can be the only option due to work/family commitments, remote living locations, a lack of local teachers as well as the cost of private lessons.

There's lots of fantastic flute courses and YouTube tutorials out there but the one thing they lack is that 'real time' feedback - that human element of a dialogue when you have a frustration, encouragement, practice accountability and also having someone to share your successes with.

For those who are unable to attend face to face lessons, skype lessons are the next best thing, and have the added advantage of removing the time, hassle and cost of travel.

The Flute Coach is currently gauging the demand for this learning tool and wants to hear from prospective students. Pre-register your interest using the link below (there's no obligation to purchase).

Learn more about what's planned at

https://www.theflutecoach.com/flute-lessons-register/

I'm curious to know what your experience of Skype flute lessons has been....

[LarryS]

I have Skype but I've never used it yet, other than to send messages to the person who introduced me to it. It could be neat to have my playing assessed in real time, or almost real time, but I'm a bit self conscious when it comes to talking face to face with people I don't know. Ideally I'd get a teacher but I can't afford one, so Skype may be the next best thing.
How do you find fellow flute players on Skype?

[pied_piper]

Search Fluteland Forum and you will find some teachers that do Skype flute lessons. Here's a couple. There are more if you search...

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=26831&p=57436&hilit=skype#p57436

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=19771&p=49024&hilit=skype#p49024

[Flanker_27]

Eh, I use Skype a lot to talk to my family abroad, and it's the main professionnal tool of my wife who teaches French using it. I wouldn't really trust Skype-based flute lessons, unless the teacher has an awesome mic and an excellent Internet connection: it's sometimes hard to hear the correct way to pronounce a word on it, and non-human noises tend to be horribly deformed...

[pied_piper]

The quality of Skype calls is highly dependent upon the bandwidth on both ends of the internet connection and the speed of the PCs. If either end has a slow internet connection or slow PCs, Skype will perform poorly. On the other hand, if both ends have speedy connections and decent PCs, the quality of Skype calls can be quite good.

[Flanker_27]

Sure, but then it's limitating nonetheless: it requires both the one giving and the one receiving the lesson to have an excellent connection, which isn't necessarily a given for everyone.
But if both have good hardware - and if the teacher has a good microphone - then, why not?

[fluteguy18]

As someone who benefited SUPREMELY from top-tier Skype lessons 'early in the game' when these ideas were new..... over a DECADE ago... My top teacher and I focused on AUDIO quality and NO video. But unless you are a pro-level player, Skype lessons are a waste of time. Flute playing is SO PHYSICAL and SO TACTILE. You can only SEE and HEAR so much. For anything less than top tier coaching, you need the physical experience of being next to the player and feeling their energy. Seeing UP CLOSE what they do. Anything else determines a hard limit of what can be learned.

[cebrul]

Oh my! I just posted a topic on this as well - I just saw this!

Will be reading this over... Thanks!