Zoom works well for online music lessons but you need the right audio settings for it to do what you need. Here they are. You’ll find the audio settings by clicking the up arrow next to the “mute” microphone icon on the bottom left corner of the meeting screen (also via the cog icon, top right of the start screen).
The settings are shown in the main picture at the top of this post.
- Make sure “automatically adjust microphone volume” is NOT selected.
- Set “Suppress background noise” to LOW.
- Select “show in-meeting option to enable original sound” and select “High fidelity music mode”. Don’t enable echo cancellation or stereo sound.
That’s all you should need to do in the audio settings. Go back to the main screen and select “original sound” (top left corner).
If you can’t see any of these options try maximizing the zoom window.
That’s it. Zoom should now be ready for music lessons (whether you’re a student or a teacher). Zoom is good for music lessons in most ways except that it is impossible for a student and teacher to play together and hear each other in real-time, so you can only do duets if one player is muted. This is due to a time delay caused by latency. To overcome this issue, you need to use different software and maybe some additional equipment. I’ve previously posted about how to play music together online.
However, Zoom is excellent in many ways for lessons and group tutorials too. For example, it makes it much easier for different students to work on their own parts or at their own level without disturbing others or taking time away from other members of the group.
Saul…Thanx for the info. Suddenly about a month ago, my piano cannot be heard when teaching on zoom. I have listened to several videos, including yours, for settings. It seems that no setting changes help. This laptop used to deliver piano sound just fine. What should I check next?