Using iCHAT

[Elena Monastero]

Voice Lessons and ichat: The other day I was scheduled to teach a lesson in Arlington Heights, but due to the snow I could not make it. Instead, I gave my student my ichat screen name and we had the lesson over video ichat. I had the laptop resting on the piano and she was able to hear everything and sing a long. It was a very efficient lesson. I had already given her garageband sound files of the songs she is singing so she was able to control the accompaniments based on when I stopped her, what section we were working on, and if I wanted to hear a full run of the song. I would highly recommend this to everyone!

[Susan Dobias]

I think this is a fantastic use of the technology. We had already discussed the possibility of having other professionals listen to our students remotely, as Elena describes, but have yet to make it a reality. The downside seems to be having common time to set this up. As teachers, our schedules rarely match across buildings, but it can be worked out. Thanks for adding this discussion Elena!

[nkabat]

That is awesome. I still don't have my ichat up and working. I need someone to show me what to do as I don't seem to be able to get it working.
Nancy Kabat

[Carol Broos]

Do you have a .mac account? It is only $99 for a year and you get so many features that it really improves your productivity. I would help you set it up, just email me - [e-mail]

[atg]

Very cool. Your students are lucky you embrace technology as a tool to do what you already do-teach music. There's so much technophobia out there...stories like this one are great.

[Carol Broos]

Great idea! I find iChat a wonderful personal program. As musicians we could really use this for collaboration purposes. Thanks for the post.

[Jon Montgomery]

Have done this twice. First time was with one of my students and a college music student who had done some observations with me (i also convinced her to get a Mac!). She was on iChat during this lesson so i asked her to help me with the lesson. Was very cool. Then again with my beginning band percussionists and my percussion daughter (audio only) She is over seas for a year and on her evening time, which is during our beginning band time, we hooked up and she listened and critiqued them. Worked pretty good! Oddly enough over 10 years ago, the local junior college set up a long distance learning lab at our high school. Then music department at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale ran some tests with us for Master Classes. However the quality was not at all usable then. Now all iChat or AIM users can take advantage of it!