Navigating Music Technology Challenges and Lessons Learned During the Pandemic

Mixing Board

The past eighteen months of teaching voice and speech during the Covid-19 pandemic have been a whirlwind! While everyone adjusted to new technologies in 2020, private music teachers faced an especially steep learning curve. Although most students, businesses, and professionals adapted to speaking over video conferencing platforms, the music industry faced distinct challenges—technological limitations impacting singers and other musical instruments.

Video Conferencing Platforms:

Viideo conferencing platforms have limited capabilities regarding vocal/instrumental pitch range (sound frequencies beyond speech), dynamics (volume), timbre (overtones and sound structure), and texture (layers of sound, from piano duets to full orchestras or choruses). Musicians also dealt with latency issues (the delay between sending and receiving audio/video streams). Given these constraints, music teachers had to become proficient in audio/video technology beyond just music to tackle these new challenges.

Firstly, most video conferencing platforms are designed for speech communication, where one person speaks at a time. These platforms work optimally when voices resonate within certain formants or overtones. When singing or playing at a higher range than the speech register, built-in microphones may "drop" the sound. And that's just the start. Platforms like Zoom identify music outside the speaking range as "noise" and compress sound waves, distorting the perception of music.

Dynamics:

Secondly, consider dynamics: Louder music performance overloads the small microphone, exceeding its limits and clipping the sound.

Timbre

Thirdly, timbre is a significant issue. Sound quality is compressed as upper overtones are muted, causing the voice or instrument to sound "tinny."

Texture:

Texture, the fourth issue, involves the ability to hear multiple voices or instruments simultaneously. These platforms were designed for one-to-one communication, not for "everyone talking at once." When performing multiple voices or instruments simultaneously, most sound is considered "noise" and compressed.

Latency:

Lastly, the biggest challenge for live streaming music teachers is latency. It's impossible for me to accompany a singer over a conferencing platform due to the time delay between my playing, the student's singing, and what I hear on my end. This makes performing in unison impossible, so I pre-record my accompaniment and send it to the student for a karaoke-style lesson. Teaching a class of more than one is challenging but achievable with some adjustments.

Solutions:

After considering these six issues with conferencing platforms, music teachers had to conduct extensive online research and consult with audio/video professionals to learn about purchasing quality webcams, audio/video interfaces, headphones, microphones, MIIDI and audio interfaces, filters, and digital instruments (like my Roland Go: Piano 88 digital keyboard).

By using Zoom and enabling "Original Sound for Musicians," which disables Zoom's aggressive background noise suppression and echo cancellation, instruments and voices sound clear and natural without "clipping." Paired with "High-Fidelity Music Mode," it provides high-quality audio. Now, teaching online has become straightforward and efficient. I have become highly proficient in online voice lessons, and most of my pre-pandemic students preferred continuing online because it saves driving time, gas, and waiting. Additionally, lessons can be recorded, allowing students to practice and re-watch them multiple times, and the AI tools enable a concise recap of the lessons in an organized and readable style, saving the time of taking notes and sending them to each student.

I am thankful to the audio engineers and sales staff who supported me during this journey, especially the knowledgeable sales team at Sweetwater Music who guided me in this endeavor.