The Best Zoom Settings For Online Music Lessons
Online music lessons are both the same and very different from in-person music lessons. Making sure that you have the best Zoom settings, an effective approach to the format and a good microphone, can make a world of difference in your experience of online music lessons. Whether you’re a music teacher, or a music student, the following steps can help you to improve the quality of your online experience.
1. Use The Best Zoom Settings For Online Music Lessons
When teaching music lessons online, I like to use Zoom. Zoom has some nice flexible features for modifying audio settings that can be very helpful. I would recommend that you download Zoom for your laptop. The phone app for Zoom lacks some of the helpful features that I find to be essential for teaching music online. Zoom, along with all other video conferencing platforms uses a voice codex, designed to be used for spoken communication. Consequently, we have to make some modifications to the settings, so that it can better serve our purposes. After working with many students and receiving some helpful advice from other teachers, I’ve settled on what I think are currently the best settings for playing music through Zoom. Start by opening Zoom and clicking on preferences…
Once you open preferences, click on “Audio”…
Then… Deselect “Automatically adjust microphone volume”
Once you have deselected this box you will be able to adjust the input level on the slider to be in balance with your instrument. You should play your instrument to test your microphone level. The indicator should flash from left to right when you play and you want the indicator to sit generally in the middle. If it’s moving too far towards the right, there will be clipping which will create distortion. Experiment with where you are sitting with your instrument, and the microphone volume level until you find something that works.
Next click “Advanced”…
Select the box for “Show in-meeting option to “Enable Original Sound from microphone”
Set “Suppress Persistent Background Noise” to “Disable”
Set “Suppress Intermittent Background Noise” to “Disable”
Set “Echo Cancelation” to “Auto”
Open your meeting…
When you start your meeting you will need to enable “Original Sound” every time you enter and exit a meeting.
This is how you turn “Original Sound” on in a Zoom meeting…
This is what your screen will look like when “Original Sound” is turned on…
Once you’ve completed the above steps, you are good to go! You have optimized your Zoom settings. You may still need to experiment while you are in your lesson to find the place that gives you the best sound, but these settings can make a world of difference.
2. Record Yourself And Send The Recording To Your Teacher
Even with the best Zoom settings in place, the audio quality will still be somewhat limited. With my online students, I like to have them send me a short recording of something that they are working on each week. This accomplishes two things. First, recording yourself is a great way to improve. Students are able to hear for themselves, things that they would like to modify in their playing. Second, the audio from the recording is usually better than what I can hear on Zoom. That helps me to give more focused feedback about sound and other technical aspects of their playing. For the best audio recording results you’re going to want to use an external microphone or audio recorder, but a phone or laptop can be okay when you’re just getting started.
3. Buy An External Microphone For The Best Zoom Audio Quality
If you’re a more advanced musician and you’re serious about having the best possible experience with online lessons over Zoom, you’re going to want to buy an external microphone. There are many good options for microphones and audio recorders. The Zoom H4N is a versatile recorder, that can function both as an external microphone for your computer, via USB or as a standalone recording device. It has quality mics and can make great recordings. Another option for USB microphones is the “Blue” brand. These are quite affordable and a big step up from using a laptop on its own.