ONLINE TRUMPET LESSONS
I am available to teach through Zoom and Facetime. Zoom is preferred, just for the ability to screen share. I can put sheet music on the screen, show my piano keyboard, we can watch videos together etc. Here’s a couple pics of my home studio setup.

TEACHING SCHEDULE
Saturdays 10am - 6pm
Sundays 10am - 6pm

RATES
$180 per month which is for (4) half hour lessons, same time every week

PAYMENT
Payment is due at the first lesson of the month which guarantees your spot for the month. I accept personal check, Venmo, Paypal and Zelle. A $10 late fee will be added to payments not received by the 2nd lesson of the month. Payments not received by the 3rd lesson of the month will result in the loss of your permanent lesson time.

MISSED LESSONS
Parents and students are advised to pick a time that will work on a long-term basis.  With 24 hours notice you can cancel with no charge.  Less than 24 hours notice, I charge the full rate.  Due to my work schedule I won’t be able to offer makeup lessons or be able to change days/times week to week.  If you have to miss and give 24 hours notice, we will just skip that week and I will give you a credit for the upcoming month.

DISCONTINUING LESSONS
Please give one weeks notice when terminating lessons (“Next week will be our last lesson”) Any fees left over will be refunded.

REQUIRED MATERIALS
1) Books - to be determined on an individual basis
2) Metronome
3) Folder or 3 ring binder for handouts
4) An audio playback device - Bluetooth speaker, stereo, computer etc. 95% of what we will do in the lessons will have a play along track.  Because of the slight time delay students will need to operate the play alongs during the lessons on their end.  Having the play alongs and a way to practice with them outside of the lesson is crucial to students progressing forward and it makes it more fun to practice too. 
5) Music Stand
6) A reliable internet connection
7) Desktop, laptop or tablet - Using a phone is possible but not recommended. Both for the visual aspect and for the sound quality.

A TYPICAL LESSON
10 minutes
Warming up - Technique. Exercises in breathing, flexibility, tone, finger dexterity, posture etc.

10 minutes
Songs, etudes, classical literature, jazz etudes, jazz improv, theory, etc.

10 minutes
Free time, sight reading. Unassigned music the student would like to learn, school music, preparing for an audition, TV or movie themes, how to play their favorite CD, classical, jazz, hip hop, rock, etc. It doesn’t even need to have trumpet in it. If the student doesn’t have anything they would like to work on, we will either keep working on the assignments or sight-read duets.

EXPECTATIONS
Students are expected to practice 30 minutes a day or more because studying music involves more than just attending weekly lessons. The best way to practice is to set aside a place and time everyday where there are no distractions. This time should include a warm up, practice of your assignments and school music. Playing through the easy parts may be fun, but it is not practicing. Improving on the challenging parts is. Students who repeatedly come unprepared will be asked to discontinue lessons until they find the time to take it seriously.

ZOOM CONNECTION TIPS

There are several free and inexpensive options you could experiment with to make your connection better:

1) You will get a much better connection if you plug directly into the router vs using wifi.

2) If you are on wifi get as physically close as you can to the router.

3) During the lessons if there are multiple people in the house streaming this will drastically slow down the connection.

4) Record yourself to hear what YOU sound like.  You can sign up to ZOOM for free and you can record yourself through the app and can hear what I’m hearing :)  You can experiment with friends, relatives and other musicians.  I have been doing a lot of this with other teachers where we play for each other to try and get the best sound possible.

5) Using a desktop, laptop, tablet work MUCH better than a phone both for the bigger visual aspect and for the sound quality.

6) A super easy low tech solution for the play alongs and the metronome that several students have been using is to have a small inexpensive bluetooth speaker.  You can get something from $20 and up.

7) Experiment with headphones.  An easy inexpensive option is to use ear buds that have a microphone.  The plug in ones that come with an Iphone if you have one for example are a great option.  

8) For the play alongs I send through google docs having these directly on your phone downloaded to Itunes or other media player work MUCH better than playing directly from google docs.  You could use these or other music you are working on during the lesson and on your own without an internet connection.

9) Turn on original audio.  Here is a quick 1 minute video of how to do that:https://youtu.be/9wq03WFAV3o

10) It’s not at all necessary to go above and beyond that, but If you do want to do something let me know and I can try and help. I’m not a huge tech guy but I can at least point you in the right direction of stores to go to, gear to check out etc.  I have a pretty elaborate set up with a 12 channel mixing board, studio headphones, 2 condenser microphones, external led lighting, piano keyboard, recording software etc.