Online Singing Lessons

As most of the clients I work with are located outside of Nottingham (across the UK, Europe, North and South America, Asia, etc), many of these take their lessons with me online. Online singing lessons are an excellent way to continue studying without being in the studio in-person.

Lessons from the comfort of your own home

Online Singing Lessons - Mark JW GrahamLocal clients who find themselves short on time also opt for online lessons, primarily for the convenience of no travel time. You can just log on, work on your voice in your coaching session, and log off when it’s done. There’s no travel time, no traffic worries, and you can keep singing in the comfort of your own home/studio/hotel room right up to the lesson… and you can keep singing straight after.

All you need for online singing lessons

All you need for this is the microphone and camera already built-in to most electronic devices, plus an internet connection. That’s it!

And with the advent of smart phones and mobile data, lessons are regularly held via people’s phones/tablets, as well as their laptop and desktop computers.

Pick a Platform

We provide coaching via the following options (links take you to relevant websites for download and registration):
ZoomOur Preferred Choice;
Skype; and
Facebook video.

Zoom is our preferred choice for online lessons due to it’s stability, it’s higher audio quality, lesson recording options, and various audio controls.

That said, the best platform for you is the one you are most comfortable with. As such we are also happy to offer coaching via Skype and Facebook video.

How to Prepare

To prepare, make sure you have your chosen platform installed and available on your computer before your first lesson. Let me know which platform we will be using in advance of your first online lesson. That way we can make sure we are both set up at and contactable via that platform ready for the start of your session.

NOTE: If you are relatively new to such video-calling platforms, I suggest doing a test call with someone you know in advance of your lesson to double-check your setup.

On the day of your lesson

Be online and visible on your chosen platform 5 minutes before the start of your lesson. Please also drop me a quick message to let me know you are standing by, and I’ll call you as soon as I’ve finished the previous client’s lesson.

Please also have some means of recording your lesson available. This can be software on your computer (e.g. Zoom can record the entire session), or could just be your mobile phone set to record beside your computer/tablet, etc.

That’s about it! I look forward to working with you online soon!

Start your online voice training today

  
  

Advanced Setup: Zoom

Zoom has some excellent audio enhancement features that we like to use in lessons. Before doing the following, make sure that you have installed the most recent version of Zoom to gain access to these features.

Before the session

Original Sound

To enable a more raw/pure microphone signal is getting through to either party, we can enable a setting called ‘original sound’.
– Click ‘Settings’ and then within that menu, click ‘Audio Settings’
– In the bottom right there is a button labelled ‘Advanced’ – click that button
– At the top of this new page is a check box that reads ‘Show in-meeting option to “Enable Original Sound” from microphone’ – make sure the box is CHECKED. This will present an extra option to you during the session call.

Reduce unwanted processing

To reduce unwanted audio processing being performed on the audio signal, we can disable a few other settings. If you find yourself in a noisy environment or with some background noise, you may need to re-enable these options.
– Staying within the same menu, there are three audio processing options underneath the enable original sound setting:
Suppress Persistent Background Noise – use the dropdown box to change this to ‘Disable’
Suppress Intermittent Background Noise – use the dropdown box to change this to ‘Disable’
Echo cancellation – No need to change this.

Ensure consistent microphone level

– Click ‘< Back' at the top of the same page. - In the centre of this main menu there is a sub-section labelled 'Microphone' - In this sub-section there is a volume control slider, and a check box just below (labelled 'Automatically adjust volume'). - Please UNCHECK this box, and move the volume control to around 75% of the way to the right.

During the session

During Zoom calls, in the top-left you will see a button that says ‘Turn on original sound’. Make sure this is enabled. When this is enabled the button will read ‘Turn off original sound’. This ensures the raw audio signal we discussed earlier is sent through to the other party.