But, if you're a music teacher who's a little bit hesitant about making this transition online, you've come to the right place. Here are useful tips you may follow to help ensure the success of your online music tutoring: 

1. Make Sure To Pick The Correct Hardware 

To ensure the success of your online music tutoring, you need to make sure that you're using the right gadgets. There are many options available for you to choose from, with phones and tablets quickly coming to mind. While these gadgets are handy and convenient to use, their microphones and built-in cameras aren't of the best quality. Moreover, they have smaller screens, which make using apps, such as Skype, less convenient. 

The ideal gadget to use should be your desktop PC or laptop as it features a bigger monitor or screen. It also features a LAN port where you can connect the Ethernet cable that guarantees Internet connectivity that's better than Wi-Fi. 

Another essential gadget you need to get are headphones. The best options are ideally Bluetooth headphones (unlike those having a cable as this may affect the instrument's sound) to eliminate any feedback. You'll also need to invest in a mic that will work harmoniously with your headphones or speaker. As you do this, first try out levels and positioning to ensure there’s no feedback. 

2. Ensure Suitable Lighting And Positioning

Your students need to see what exactly you're doing throughout the music lesson.  To achieve this, you need to position yourself well in an area that's well-lit and doesn't have too many shadows. Moreover, make sure the camera is positioned at an ideal spot. This makes it possible for your students to get a clear view of everything you're doing, that is, far enough for your students to get a clear perspective, while still close enough for every vital detail to be noticeable. It's also best to be front-lit rather than back-lit because the latter affects your webcam's clarity.

3. Pick A Preferred Platform 

There are different platforms that you can choose when thinking about conducting online music lessons. The most popular options are:

• Google Meet: A great choice as it's simple to use for groups, and is free.   

• FaceTime: It's a perfect pick for sending individual instructions to iOS users. 

• Zoom: This app has quickly become very popular due to features such as a chat option, plus it's free and easy to use. 

It would be best if you decided which of these platforms will best help you achieve your goal of ensuring your students get the most value from the lessons. 

4. Choose A Silent Space 

Getting a quiet place is essential to ensure your online music lessons are a success. This is because a silent space prevents your students from getting distracted during the lesson. Getting this silence can be a challenge at home if you have a family or live with roommates. Likewise, you can't conduct the music lessons while outside as you'll be distracted by noises produced by traffic and loud conversations. 

To avoid all these, you need to find a silent space to conduct your music lesson. If this is a challenge, you can consider talking to your family members or roommates to cut down the noises while you’re teaching. Doing this ensures that you not only enjoy peace of mind when teaching, but also ensures your students can clearly understand everything you're saying. Therefore, this allows the online classes to run smoothly, and for your students to get the best value from them. 

5. Consider Latency 

A major issue you'll face when using online connection software, such as Zoom and Skype, is some slight latency. Due to this latency, your students will notice a slight delay between you speaking and them hearing what you're saying. To ease this issue, you shouldn't speak too fast; instead, speak clearly with proper diction. 

You also should avoid interrupting your student as they speak or responding to a question quickly. Otherwise, you might make the entire conversation challenging to understand, thereby necessitating the matter to be repeated. 

6.  Prepare For The Music Lesson 

Before you start your lesson, it's advisable to set aside some time to test the setup with all your students. To do this, you may ask your students to play and test the different sound levels to determine the optimal levels. This should be something you do even after your first lesson to check for any connection issue. 

While preparing yourself might seem unnecessary, it's crucial to ensure you don't start rushing your lesson if a technical glitch happens mid-way during the lesson. 

7. Plan The Lesson's Flow In Advance 

There's a vast difference between online lessons and in-person classes. For the online lessons, one thing that you must always do is to always plan the flow of your class ahead of time. While this plan doesn't need to be overly detailed, it does help in giving you a clear outline of the lesson's overall structure. Thanks to this structure, you'll be in a position to better plan for any last-minute issue that might interrupt your online music lesson. 

8. Emphasize On The Positive

Like in-person music lessons, there also needs to be a set of rules to ensure your online music lessons go on smoothly. To achieve this, you need to make sure each of your students adheres to these rules. Some of the rules you should put in place are:

• The starting and ending times of your lessons 

• The duration the classes will take 

• The need to be in a quiet space during the lesson 

Takeaway 

The Internet has had a significant impact on people’s everyday lives, including education. As a music teacher, you should consider embracing online music tutoring as it provides you with convenience and flexibility you wouldn't be able to enjoy with in-person classes. If this is what you want, discussed above are insightful tips that can help you start your online music tutoring.