Private Saxophone Lessons online!
$25 for a half hour! One-on-one lessons, never in groups. You get my undivided attention. brian@briansaxophoneransom.com.
$25 for a half hour! One-on-one lessons, never in groups. You get my undivided attention. brian@briansaxophoneransom.com.
Whether you're trying out for All State or just starting out on your life dream of playing saxophone, Dr Ransom can help you get there. He has placed students in top bands every year and continues to support aspiring saxophonists regardless of age! Wind Symphony? You got it! New Horizons? You bet!
What did we learn from the pandemic?
It's time to move forward!
Saxophone lessons online are now
BETTER
than meeting in person!
I have free videos online and will follow them up with private instruction. Just email me at brian@briansaxophoneransom.com.
I love teaching classical saxophone.
Here is my video performance of one of my favorite solos.
This video outlines the equipment you'll need for effective online lessons. PLEASE watch it to achieve your best online lesson experience!
(Transcription is at bottom of this page.)
Video Transcription:
Hi I’m Dr. Ransom! I teach saxophone lessons! If you’re thinking about taking saxophone lessons online, I think it’s a great idea! I think it’s better than meeting in-person!
· Easier to schedule. Most lessons occur in the evening after school.
· No driving to and from lessons.
· There’s no chance of ever exchanging germs or viruses.
· Even vast distance is not an issue. I could be in Hawaii and you could be in the Bahamas! As long as we have a decent internet connection!
· No room rental at the music store; no missing band for your lesson; no having to meet at my house or your house. You learn from the comfort of your own home, while I teach from the convenience of mine!
· I have lots of resources at my home office that are impossible to transport to a private lesson away from home. For example, I can play a piece for you on soprano, alto, tenor, or bari sax. There’s just no way I could carry all of those with me to the school or to a music store.
Now let’s talk about the equipment you’ll need for online lessons. Everything I’m about to describe is intended to make communication during lessons as clear and defined as possible. I’m using the Zoom app right now so you can see and hear what a lesson with me will actually look and sound like. If you listen to this video using headphones, you will hear excellent sound quality, and that’s the point of this presentation – so you’ll have excellent sound quality too.
For online lessons:
· You’ll need A PC or laptop computer. Online meetings have become commonplace and people normally just use an iPhone or iPad or other portable device. That works okay for talking, but not for music. For example here’s what I sound like using this mic and my PC. [play excerpt from Creston Sonata] (this is what I sound like using my iPad Pro 3rd Generation [play the same excerpt].) Please notice how the iPad recording sounds terrible, experiences dropouts, and some of the notes disappear altogether. Music has to be clear and steady and have a full sound. You just can’t do that online with an iPad. It’s partly the little tiny microphone in the iPad, and partly the wireless internet connection that buffers and glitches. Plus, online apps on portable devices arenot the same because it doesn’t have the same advanced features. Of course if you just record a video on the iPad camera, it looks and sounds great. But the Zoom app complicates matters because it’s not just recording, but also sending AND receiving video AND audio all at the same time. It’s too technical to go into here, but please take my word for it, you probably won’t get a clear music signal on portable devices. Now, the newest generations of iPhones are getting better all the time, but it’s still not even close to a good computer. By the way, a PC works better than a laptop on average, partly because they have more plugs and just more options overall.
· You’ll need a good internet connection, and I don’t mean wifi. I’ve had people tell me "Our internet is great" but the connection still gets dropouts due to buffering. It helps if you’re in the same room as the modem or router. But the best solution is an ethernet cable or other hard-wired connection. The data stream on wifi is just not very steady.
· You’ll need a good pair of headphones. Speakers don’t work very well with the Zoom app. That’s because there is a slight delay between sending and receiving, creating a sort of echo effect. The Zoom app has a filter designed to cancel out the echo, but it can’t really distinguish it very well, so it winds up cancelling out part of the sound that you want to hear. The only way to achieve optimum sound quality is with good headphones. You might think earbuds will work, but they don’t have the same punch or clarity as headphones. It’s hard to explain, but if you ever try playing the saxophone along with a prerecorded piano accompaniment, the difference is huge. With earbuds, no matter how loud you turn up the volume, you can’t hear the piano over the saxophone. But with good headphones, it’s pretty easy to get a good balance.
· You’ll need a good microphone. As I mentioned before, the little mic in your laptop is not sensitive enough. Same goes for webcam mics. It’s like talking to a little old man. If you speak in a normal voice, he doesn’t hear you. And if you play your saxophone, it’s too loud. On Zoom you’ll get distortion and other weird sounds, all of them bad. You can purchase a great USB mic for $50 or less. I personally recommend Blue brand USB mics. They’re relatively inexpensive, reliable, and sound great. Or you can spend more and get a better sounding mic!
The problem is that the saxophone is about 10x louder than the speaking voice, so it’s way too loud and the voice is too quiet. A higher quality mic helps solve this problem, but the main issue here is “mic placement.” It’s best to get the mic close to the mouth and the saxophone farther away. One option is to use gaming headphones with a built-in mic. These microphones are usually not great quality, but it sits close to the mouth and so it sounds pretty clear. Then the saxophone is further away, so it balances out pretty well. I have had good lessons with students using this setup. A decent gaming headset runs around $100. You could buy a cheaper pair, but you might not like the quality.
Let me show you what I use for lessons. I have a Shure SM-57 mic that I bought, probably 30 or 40 years ago. This mic still costs $100. It always has. And it still works fine! The only thing is that it’s not USB compatible. To make it work with the computer, I had to buy an audio interface. That's a box that converts the analog mic signal to digital. I got this Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 for $170. There are less expensive models too, as low as $35 or so, and they work just fine. So if you have an old mic laying around that’s in good shape, and is good quality, you could get the audio interface and save some money. Of course, if you buy a USB microphone, the audio interface is already built in to it!
This is a pop filter. It’s on a boom stand so I can speak right into the mic and swing it away from me to play saxophone. You should probably get a desktop boom stand with a clamp. You have to get the microphone close to your mouth or I won’t be able to hear what you say, and I want to hear what you have to say!
The headphones I use are Audio-Technica ATH-AD500x. They sound amazing for around $90, and they are super lightweight and comfortable.
Altogether my setup cost about $400 not including the PC. I do a lot of recording too, so it's totally worth it. If I could afford it, I would own a $4000 mic and $2500 headphones because I really love great sound. You can get away with as little as a $100 investment. That will get you a Blue Snowball mic, a $30 pair of headphones, and the boom stand. But please keep in mind that, if you want better internet communication for years to come, you should consider purchasing the highest quality gear you can afford.
If you have any questions at all, please send an email to brian@briansaxophoneransom.com. Thank you for listening and don’t forget to like this video and subscribe to my YouTube channel for more saxophone info and entertaining videos!