Simpedia

Carol B., Kansas

I have used several, but always come back to Skype.

Patti P., Hawaii

I just gave my first Skype lesson yesterday. MacBooks Pros have a built in camera, which is what I used. This was a last-minute arrangement, due to the child having a cold and me just recovering from an infection. Since his class partner couldn’t be there that day, we did a one-on-one class. It went quite well. The biggest difficulty is the slight time lag, which takes a little getting used to.

It would be advantageous to have a camera directly over the piano, as we see in the training videos. I’m looking forward to hearing what others are using.

Robert R., Missouri

I use the built in camera on my Macbook Pro.  It works fine.

Carla M., Indiana

I have had 2 Skype lessons so far. I am using a little Microsoft webcam (LifeCam HD-600
for notebooks). It has a swivel head and also a clip. When I want to talk to my student,
I clip it on my piano music rack, when I want her to see what I am playing, I clip it to
a microphone stand. I borrowed one (that was not being used) from my church.
The microphone stand I am using looks like an upside down “L” and the bar goes
across just above my head so it is not in the way and has a good view looking
down at the keys.

Mark M., New York

Skype is not a webcam. It’s videoconferencing software that uses a camera you attach to your computer. We have to choose one of each — the hardware and the software. That seemed worth clarifying.

My FAQ about online lessons mentions some things about camera choice and placement, and placement can affect what camera you’d choose. If you choose to not have an overhead shot, then you’re almost definitely going to use either a camera your computer comes with or a webcam that attaches to it in a standard fashion. For an overhead shot, though, you’ll look for something that can mount easily away from your computer, perhaps on a tripod, so you’ll be looking at a different set of options including possibly tripod-mountable camcorders that can also act as a webcam in providing a live feed to your computer through FireWire or USB connections.

http://potluckcreativearts.com/lessons/video/faq/

Seems a good time to mention again: Anyone interested in joining the separate Video Lessons Cooperative Google Group to have more in-depth discussions about online lessons, feel free to request a membership at:

http://groups.google.com/group/videolessons

Tami D., Indiana

I have had great results with my logitech pro 9000,

I just mount it above my piano facing the keys.