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Our artsy child - the actor - also loves to play the piano. It's like
a release valve for him. When he gets frustrated with his math (which
happens frequently) I can bribe him to finish with the promise of
playing piano next. He loves it and all you have to do is watch him
play to see it. It's like the music moves through his whole body. He
patiently tries to figure out how to play new pieces and then excitedly
calls us to hear him when he gets them figured out. It's so beautiful
to me, and naturally I hated to take that from him. So once again I
set out in search of a way to allow him continue to play piano on the
road. My answer - Skype.
From the skype website, here's what it allows you to do:
Free calling
You've downloaded Skype, and so has your
friend. Now you can get started on the really cool stuff – such as
making completely free and great quality calls from your computer.
That's the great thing about Skype, you can use your internet
connection and turn your computer into an internet phone and make free
Skype-to-Skype calls.
You and your friend will need to have a headset (or use your
computer's built-in microphone and speakers) to talk to each other. You
can really improve the sound quality of your calls with a headset, or
take your calls to the next level with free video calls.
During my research I found one family that was traveling through
Europe in an RV and their daughter, a musical prodigy, was taking
lessons via Skype. Their blog tells the story of their amazing travels. http://www.soultravelers3.com/ I contacted them to see if they could offer us any suggestions.
Our son recently began taking piano lessons from a neighbor, who also
happens to play piano at the famous Peabody Hotel in Memphis. She is
talented and patient and a great motivator and he loves her. We asked
her if she would consider teaching long-distance. She agreed to try
it, so we both downloaded
skype, got headphones, microphones, webcams and our keyboards hooked
up. We will call her to have a lesson, with the webcam pointed at our
little maestro. The microphone in the
laptop should pick up his voice and the sound of the piano. She will
be
able to see him on her computer screen and hear him on her headphones.
We will be able to see and hear her as well. The whole thing is a big
experiment, but to me it was worth trying.
Our new friend, the "soultraveler" told us, "I will not kid you, music
lessons on the road can be a challenge. Perhaps it will be easier for
you as we have some added challenges here with space, time zone
differences and lack of internet connections on the road." We're up
for the challenge - as long as our internet connection holds up. We'll
let you know how it goes. Lessons start in about a
week.
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