How to Get the Best Online Singing Lessons
After ‘Effective Teaching,’ it’s all about Audio Quality and Audio Lag:
Getting the best online lessons comes down to many factors. The most important factor for online or in-person lessons will always be finding a teacher who is truly effective for you.
For now, though, we’re going to focus on online experience—things like how audio and video quality and speed can yield online lessons that feel much more ‘in person’ and inspiring, versus 'Zoom’s laggy, one-way audio cutting out or getting garbled, again.’
This is done through tweaking or acquiring your technolgy setup. Some of what is listed, here, you may already have (e.g. a laptop and maybe hard-wired ethernet). Some of what is listed below may need to be purchased and set up once, and then can be largely forgotten about.
Making a few technology tweaks so you can have truly real-time lessons may be a small price to pay to make singing lessons more enjoyable, ‘live-feeling,’ and zero risk for now.
Definitions You’ll Need for this Page:
n.b. Quick, partial definitions as they apply to this page.
Garble: The horrible distorted sound we hear on most videoconferencing software, especially over wifi, especially when the audio gets complex, like it does with singing.
Bottleneck: Anything that could limit the speed and cleanness of your online lesson audio.
Lag or Latency: The amount of delay for audio to go from one person to another, or rount-trip, online. ‘Laggy’ or ‘high-latency’ audio means delays greater than what one would experience in a lesson or onstage. Widespread latency in online video conferencing is what makes real-time musical collaboration normally impossible, e.g. via a standard Zoom, Skype, FaceTime, or Messenger call, etc. The dream for voice lessons is ‘low latency’ audio.
Real-Time or Low-Latency Audio: A small delay in audio comparable to during live lessons or between two performers on stage. A delay so small that two people can make music together over the internet. If you have the right tools, below, and are within about 500 km of the Vancouver BC area, we can do this!
One-Way vs Two-Way Audio: Most video conferencing technology figures out ‘who is the main speaker’ moment to moment, and only sends the audio one-way, from the main speaker to the listener. This is not ideal for music lessons. The best online lessons, tech-wise, involve two-way audio platforms, where both parties can send audio at the same time.
Bandwidth: The amount of data that your internet connection can send and/or receive (upload and download) in a given amount of time. Real-time two-way audio requires a lot of bandwidth for both upload and download.
Your Role in Getting the Best Online Lessons:
Find the Right Online-Specialized Teacher:
Your ideal online singing teacher will have no bottlenecks regarding internet bandwidth, hardware, and software. The teacher will ideally have invested in software and learning that helps support the most seamless, ‘in person’-like experiences possible, regardless of what technology the client has.*
*Note: If you’re looking for singing lessons in Vancouver, or within 200km / 125mi of Vancouver, I have a True Real-Time option I offer to singers local to my region.
Get the Right Stuff—It’s Pretty Affordable!
You ideally want to eliminate all the client-side bottlenecks. Assuming you already have a laptop (vs tablet or phone), the remaining hardware and internet requirements don’t necessarily cost that much—as little as the price of 2-3 lessons—but this investment can deliver a dramatically better experience for all your lessons.
The only recurring cost should be higher-quality internet, if needed. The toughest bottleneck for some will be connecting to wired, direct fibre-optic ethernet. Hard-wired ethernet is, as of 2020, crucial for real-time lessons. The good news is, if you can’t solve this right now because of e.g. connection limitations due to your building, you can likely make as much, or nearly as much singing progress with ‘laggy-but-clean’ lessons, especially if you have good pitch and musicality, already. If you can’t solve lag, right now, just focus on finding an effective teacher.
Specific Recommendations:
n.b. re recommendations: I do not guarantee nor receive any compensation for product recommendations—especially any ultra-cheap products listed below. My personal experience with the cheaper Amazon products is that they’re ususally ‘fine-to-great’ but sometimes I need to return items that arrive not fully functional or not as described. Buyer beware. Any below recommendations are intended only to help singers get quick, basic answers about where to start for a much better online lesson experience.
Best Internet Connection for Online Lessons:
My End: High bandwidth, wired ethernet, fibre optic connection (currently 750mbps) means higher quality, more stable audio and video.
Your End:
Step one: If possible, you want your ‘singing lessons computer’ to be connected to your internet via an ethernet cable, not wifi.
Step two: Bonus for higher bandwidths (around 600mbps, depending on overall drain on the bandwidth from all users during lessons) and fibre optic-based service (Telus in BC). Fibre is recommended, whenever possible, because it has much better upload bandwidth than Cable and DSL.
Best Hardware for Online Lessons:
My End: Super-fast audio interface connected to an audio-dedicated MacBook Pro.
Your End:
Computer: Real-time audio works best with a recent computer with a 4-core-or-higher processor. Number of cores matters more than ‘Mac or PC,’ but if you’re a singer, Mac could have a lot of advantages, overall, IMO.
Odd, Very-Fastest Option— a $125 Dedicated 4-Core Computer… called a Raspberry Pi 4. It’s a bit involved to go this route, but also fun. But these tiny, affordable computers do nothing but run the audio software, and they do it better than any other device. I’ll detail exactly how to go this route in an upcoming post.
Ethernet dongle—$15-$30: There are many affordable options on, e.g. an amazon.ca search for ‘ethernet dongle,’ if your laptop doesn’t have an ethernet port, depending on what else you want the dongle to do.
Audio Interface—$150-$250: There are several sub-$250 options that are all super-fast. Cheapest ones with widest compatibility are:
Presonus Audiobox 96 USB—discontinued but still available for around CAD $150 on Amazon.ca (price fluctuates…)
Presonus Studio 24C—CAD $229 on Amazon.ca
Focusrite Scarlett—$230 n.b. Does NOT work with Windows. There is an important MacOS and Raspberry Pi-only option for about $230 as well, but it does not work with Windows—but it is also the fastest tested option available. It’s called the Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 (or 4i4).
Mic: You’ll also need a mic, XLR cable, mic stand, and possibly a pop screen. Good news is, a ‘good enough’ option can be ordered for about CAD $59 on Amazon.ca.
Headphones: Finally, you’ll need headphones that can plug into the 1/4” output of your audio interface. Open-back headphones can be preferable for singing, to many, as they let a lot more of the natural room sound back in, while singing. The Grado Labs SR60es come highly recommended by an expert source but are harder to get in Canada. I ordered mine from US Amazon, here for USD $79. I also like the look of these Philips SHP9500 open-back headphones for about $150 on Amazon.ca
Your End—Fastest: Feel free to skip this, for now, especially if you’re not technically inclined. If you end up studying with me, I can walk you through all of this in detail.
CAT6 ethernet cable(s): Your cable’s rating should be printed all over it. If you have old CAT5, anywhere in the signal to your computer, you should upgrade to CAT6. 5e is probably good enough, but I would start with CAT6 or higher for real-time audio—it’s a cheap fix. Amazon…
WiFi6 Modem: I use the TP-Link AX1500; it should cost about CAD $100 on Amazon. It can be easily connected to the router provided by your internet provider, but it will allow you to assign priority and bandwidth to you audio device.
Direct Fibre Optic Internet Connection with High Bandwidth: In BC, this means Telus Pure-Fibre, for now. You could start with 750mbit/s. Verison FIOS is one option in the USA.
Best Software for Online Lessons:
My End: I have several tiers of audio and video conferencing software that I use, depending on the client’s technology situation. My monthly subscriptions to some services are quite costly, but they ensure that all clients can experience much cleaner audio than they could through Zoom, whether they spend a dime on technology or not.
Your End: It’s best if the student records lessons, as they, and their recorders, will hear real-time audio as ‘perfectly in sync,’ whereas the teacher audio will be more out-of-sync. For MacOS, I recommend Audio Hijack from www.RogueAmoeba.com.
Conclusion - New World, New Rules:
In truth, you don’t need to spend a cent on upgrades to have satisfactory online lessons. But laggy online lessons take away your teacher’s on-the-fly guidance ability and also mute the joy and learning that can occur during live, two-way music-making. Investing in cutting edge solutions and working with a teacher who also does this can fix this.
Finally, for some, online lessons can also be better than in-person, once we factor in driving and finding parking, and access to teachers you normally couldn’t commute to.
Hope this was helpful :)