PREPARING FOR YOUR LIVE ONLINE LESSON

• Find a quiet place that is free of background noise and any other potential distractions.

• Tune your instrument before your lesson. If you don't know how to, check with your tutor or use an online tuner:

  • Online tuner: https://www.musicca.com/tuner

  • Guitar tuner: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJxRjWtwmEE

  • OR https://tuner-online.com/

• Prepare all your music and any other accessories you may need (e.g., picks and capo for guitarists, rosin for string instruments).

• Your tutor may ask you to send pictures or scans of your music and/or theory homework (if applicable) before the lesson.

• Log in to Teams 5 minutes before your scheduled lesson time to check your video and audio is up and running.

• Position your camera to ensure a full view of your instrument and hands. The ideal view is from the side, rather than the front.

• For group lessons, check you can mute and unmute your device's microphone.

• Please wait for your tutor to initiate the call, as lessons often run back to back.

TROUBLESHOOTING

• Restart or update Teams. Newer versions may only be compatible with each other.

• Screen too dark? Make sure you don't have a window behind you since the camera will expose for the bright window, leaving you appearing dark.

• Background blurred? This is a built-in feature on Teams. We recommend all students to turn this off before starting lessons.

• Issues with sound? Make sure your device's microphone isn't too close to your instrument, which will distort the sound, or too far, which makes it challenging to hear your teacher speak.

• The Microsoft Teams app is now available to download on both computers and mobile phones. If the app doesn’t work for you, you can also use Teams in your website browser.
  Click here to go to the Teams homepage, which has a link to the web version where you can join remotely.