What is the best way to set up my equipment for videoconference piano lessons?
How the camera and instrument are positioned is very important. Here’s the ideal setup: • You sit at your instrument. • Your computer would be inline with your instrument, i.e., as close to right in front of you as possible, so that you could look up from the instrument’s keys and see your computer screen easily with your head in a comfortable position. • An external camera would be at or nearly overhead, providing essentially an aerial shot of your hands at the instrument’s keyboard. This is the best view for your teacher and any fellow students. One good option for this is getting a FireWire camcorder and mounting it on a tripod. It’s relatively easy to get the camera high enough for the desired angle, and it means that you’d have a camcorder you could use for more than just videoconferencing. You may be able to mount other kinds of videoconference-compatible cameras at this angle as well. If you can’t place your computer inline, you can have it off to the side as needed. Looking bac
