Giving Guitar Lessons Online, Cam To Cam, Live. Possible??

M

Mike Freze

New member
Hello! I was wondering if anyone can give me some advice about webcams vs. camcorders and the Internet.

I am a private guitar teacher. I thought about giving private guitar lessons online in real time, webcam to webcam. There are quite a few websites that offer guitar lessons as pre-recorded video files, but I haven't seen any offer lessons live, one-on-one, in real time. I thought it would be great as long as both parties had cams to watch each other play, play along together, etc.

Is this possible to do without getting drags or delays in either the video images or in the microphone speakers? Would both parties have to have the same quality of webcams and mics to sound perfectly in sync with each other?

I'm going to be getting a newer, faster Dell computer soon. Is it better to get a good quality cam and mic that is built into the cumputer for this idea or is it better to use an external, high quality web cam (or video camera) that you hook up to your computer?

Any advice you can give me would be great. By the way: is it all in the quality of the cam you buy or does your computer speed or Internet access speed (I have 18 mps) have a lot to do with avoiding video or mic lag if I try to do this?

Mike Freze
 
Thanks! How About This?

I understand. Thanks. What about just having each party watch and listen to the guitar playing separately through each other's cam and mics? Like the student playing for you to watch and hear, then have them watch and listen to you play afterwards (in other words, not together). Will that work as an alternative idea?

Mike Freze
 
Mike Freze said:
I understand. Thanks. What about just having each party watch and listen to the guitar playing separately through each other's cam and mics? Like the student playing for you to watch and hear, then have them watch and listen to you play afterwards (in other words, not together). Will that work as an alternative idea?

Mike Freze
Click to expand...

That will probably be okay.
 
Mike Freze said:
I understand. Thanks. What about just having each party watch and listen to the guitar playing separately through each other's cam and mics? Like the student playing for you to watch and hear, then have them watch and listen to you play afterwards (in other words, not together). Will that work as an alternative idea?

Mike Freze
Click to expand...

In theory I can't see why it wouldn't work.

The one thing that springs to mind is the clarity of the image. I guess the student is going to to need to see where your fingers are clearly. And what with it being a flat image of the screen, it's not quite the same as being able to see the players hands from multiple angles like in real life. It might make things a little difficult, but as long as you are aware of it when you are demonstrating something such that you make sure they can see what you're doing, it should be ok. A higher res camera on your end might help though.

It might also be worth looking into a way to feed the guitar sound direct into the call rather than using a webcam/headset mic.
 
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