Query: Tools for voice teaching online?

[mdlbear]

If you've been reading this journal for a while, you probably know that I've been taking singing lessons. (Comparatively few of you have heard me sing recently; those who have say that the improvement has been noticable.)

And even if you've only been reading for the last week, you'll know that I've been "socially distancing" myself -- I'm in a high-risk category due to my age, and not going out of the house for anything but medical appointments and food. Singing lessons aren't "essential", so I've stopped going -- and Nancy, my singing teacher, has a huge problem.

So I'm asking the lazy web for help finding a videoconferencing system that can be used for singing lessons. I want Nancy to be able to play something on a MIDI keyboard and hear me singing along with it. That would require suppressing the normal simultaneous monitoring on the teacher's end -- the MIDI should play only on my end, and get mixed with my voice at that point. But when Nancy is using her microphone, the return channel has to be muted. And if she wants to sing along with something she's playing, she needs to hear the keyboard at her end, without the round-trip delay.

I'm beginning to suspect that the only way to get all of this is to write it myself, but I'd love to be proved wrong. Meanwhile, I'd settle for something with extremely low transmission delay; that would mean point-to-point rather than going through a server.

And if any of you are giving lessons remotely, I'd love to hear what works for you.

Comments

[azurelunatic]

I don't suppose having her plug the keyboard output into the computer mic input would do the thing correctly? Only that her voice wouldn't be audible on your end during that.

[mdlbear]

Hmm. That sounds clumsy, but it might work if she used a mixer. Hmm. And she could sing along with her acoustic piano -- there'ld still have to be some switching to disable the speakers/headphones when she's using the mic and piano.

[madfilkentist]

There was a mention on WCRB that M. Steinert and Sons (a piano maker who's one of the station's regular sponsors) is running online piano lessons. It might be interesting to look in on how they do it.

Video conferencing software

[markc1957]

Steve, have you checked out Discord?