Best Camera Angles for Virtual Piano Lessons

[@PianistAcademy1]

If you want more ideas about how to accomplish these camera positions, here are some from a reply I gave to Louise here in the comments: Yes, there's a lot in the "technical" side of things... and it's all different for every different device, platform, computer, generation of software/hardware, etc. That's the biggest reason I didn't touch any of that in this video: it would be hours to go through just the most commonly used setups and impossible to go through every variant for people. There's also a bit of creativity involved with finding the best ways to utilize what's currently at your disposal. In your case, I'd use your laptop for the profile view. You can use a table, various tables, a music stand, a cardboard box, a rolling cart... and any combination of these things and more... to get the laptop camera to the best height. In my own case, if I were to use a laptop, I have a rolling drawer system from Ikea with a flat top that I'd put my laptop on. I'd likely need to add some books underneath it to get the height just right. So you can see, even in this case, I'm just using what's already around the house and "customizing" it to fit my need in particular. For your overhead camera, your iPhone would be the easiest to suspend, followed by your iPad. But there are so many personal variables here: for example... do you have a bookshelf close enough to attach a desk-clamp gooseneck to? How low or tall are your ceilings? Are they flat or vaulted? If you have a floor-standing iPad holder, is the base heavy enough that it won't tip no matter what position you place it in? If it is, can you place that "floor" holder on top of a desk or a chair in front of behind you to elevate the holder high enough? You could also mount a clamped gooseneck onto anything that's anywhere in the room or can be moved into the room... a coat hanger, a piece of furniture, a floor lamp, even a fake potted plant in some cases! And you could always buy a boom microphone stand, extend it fully vertically, and attach a phone mount to that OR simply clamp a gooseneck onto the boom arm that would be pointed straight up into the air. For an upright-style piano, you can use the top of the instrument as a spot to place various stands or tripods as well... your iPad holder could be placed there... a tall-enough gooseneck plus a wide angle phone lens might even be able to be directly clamped to the piano. There are probably many more solutions than this, but it depends greatly on your particular setup and what's available to you. With mobile devices and Zoom, the easiest thing is going to be connecting both devices, wirelessly, to the same Zoom meeting. Hopefully there won't be any latency between them, so the video will stay synced with the audio from your Yeti. If you want to run OBS to sync everything, that's the topic of another very lengthy video (which there are hundreds of already on KZbin, not necessarily music related but fine to learn from). With OBS running, you could wire in your iPhone with a standard USB cable to your laptop that's running Zoom. The "Shuttercast" app I list in the description works great for this application, to get video out of your iPhone without anything else showing on your screen. Within OBS, you'd need to create scenes and populate them with the correct devices. Once that's all set up, in Zoom you'd choose OBS as your "video device" and then be able to click back and forth on your laptop between views when your instructor asks. The StreamDeck I also list in the description can make these cues automatic with the push of a button, but that's another topic that would be an hour or two long to cover in video form! To sum up: get creative. Look around and see what can work in your space. As long as the camera can be a few feet away from the keyboard, the profile view is quite easy to accomplish. It's the other additional views that get really tech-y really quickly. I hope you can understand, after reading this, why I didn't want to touch the tech stuff! My mission here was to let people know what end product we need to strive for, since that really isn't anywhere online for piano in particular.

[@louisebailey3342]

Hi Charles. Great video. I have been looking for this kind of advice for some time. I am not very technically proficient so I am trying to master proper camera techniques (hopefully)in time for my next piano lesson. My instructor uses Zoom. I have a Mac laptop, an iPad, a Yeti microphone, iPhone and various stands that I can use to elevate the iPad and iPhone. How do you suggest I set all this up to optimize my instructor’s view? How do I connect ‘what’ to ‘what’ to utilize all of this? I understand from your video, the views an instructor prefers but I don’t understand how to connect and run all the devices for a lesson. Thanks for your help.

[@PianistAcademy1]

Thanks, Louise! Yes, there's a lot in the "technical" side of things... and it's all different for every different device, platform, computer, generation of software/hardware, etc. That's the biggest reason I didn't touch any of that in this video: it would be hours to go through just the most commonly used setups and impossible to go through every variant for people. There's also a bit of creativity involved with finding the best ways to utilize what's currently at your disposal. In your case, I'd use your laptop for the profile view. You can use a table, various tables, a music stand, a cardboard box, a rolling cart... and any combination of these things and more... to get the laptop camera to the best height. In my own case, if I were to use a laptop, I have a rolling drawer system from Ikea with a flat top that I'd put my laptop on. I'd likely need to add some books underneath it to get the height just right. So you can see, even in this case, I'm just using what's already around the house and "customizing" it to fit my need in particular. For your overhead camera, your iPhone would be the easiest to suspend, followed by your iPad. But there are so many personal variables here: for example... do you have a bookshelf close enough to attach a desk-clamp gooseneck to? How low or tall are your ceilings? Are they flat or vaulted? If you have a floor-standing iPad holder, is the base heavy enough that it won't tip no matter what position you place it in? If it is, can you place that "floor" holder on top of a desk or a chair in front of behind you to elevate the holder high enough? You could also mount a clamped gooseneck onto anything that's anywhere in the room or can be moved into the room... a coat hanger, a piece of furniture, a floor lamp, even a fake potted plant in some cases! And you could always buy a boom microphone stand, extend it fully vertically, and attach a phone mount to that OR simply clamp a gooseneck onto the boom arm that would be pointed straight up into the air. For an upright-style piano, you can use the top of the instrument as a spot to place various stands or tripods as well... your iPad holder could be placed there... a tall-enough gooseneck plus a wide angle phone lens might even be able to be directly clamped to the piano. There are probably many more solutions than this, but it depends greatly on your particular setup and what's available to you. With mobile devices and Zoom, the easiest thing is going to be connecting both devices, wirelessly, to the same Zoom meeting. Hopefully there won't be any latency between them, so the video will stay synced with the audio from your Yeti. If you want to run OBS to sync everything, that's the topic of another very lengthy video (which there are hundreds of already on KZbin, not necessarily music related but fine to learn from). With OBS running, you could wire in your iPhone with a standard USB cable to your laptop that's running Zoom. The "Shuttercast" app I list in the description works great for this application, to get video out of your iPhone without anything else showing on your screen. Within OBS, you'd need to create scenes and populate them with the correct devices. Once that's all set up, in Zoom you'd choose OBS as your "video device" and then be able to click back and forth on your laptop between views when your instructor asks. The StreamDeck I also list in the description can make these cues automatic with the push of a button, but that's another topic that would be an hour or two long to cover in video form! To sum up: get creative. Look around and see what can work in your space. As long as the camera can be a few feet away from the keyboard, the profile view is quite easy to accomplish. It's the other additional views that get really tech-y really quickly. I hope you can understand, after reading this, why I didn't want to touch the tech stuff! My mission here was to let people know what end product we need to strive for, since that really isn't anywhere online for piano in particular.

[@louisebailey3342]

Charles. This is an over-the-top fabulous response. I have already forwarded it on to some of my piano playing friends. You are the best 👍

[@Ζωηφλειμ]

Could you suggest an overhead camera and a stand?

[@PianistAcademy1]

One of the easiest solutions is to use your phone camera with a gooseneck clip... I use this one: amzn.to/3KpKfPJ You can attach the clamp side of the gooseneck to anything from a nearby piece of furniture, to a mic stand or anything else going vertical in your space. I personally use a really heavy duty mic stand and attach the gooseneck to the end of the boom. This keeps it out of view on camera for me, but it's definitely not necessary to get a similar result if you don't care about the stand being in your side camera angle (if you have one). Here's the mic stand I personally use: amzn.to/3RdyEa5 But you could easily use something like this as well: amzn.to/3X9ggDe Be sure to have the gooseneck extend over one of the legs of the tripod or the stand might fall over on your or your piano!

[@serwoolsley]

This is surely welcome, thanks for posting

[@PianistAcademy1]

Thanks! And thanks for being such an active member of the channel!!

[@Plain_Piano]

Hi ! This video was really useful for me, but I'm currently trying to improve the light that casts on my keybed, I am using a kitchen light attached to a shelf above my piano but I think it's a bit to harsh in the center 😂. I saw from your camera that your piano is evenly lighted so, can I ask you what lamp are you using ? Or, what do you recommend for a better lighting ? (Maybe softbox, or moving my digital piano next to natural light etc..) Thank you so much if you will read my comment, I love the amazing content you are bringing to us for free ❤ !

[@PianistAcademy1]

Hello there! Thanks for watching! Yes, I'm using a film light with a softbox attached. You need a pretty powerful light in order for something like that to work, but you can always try softening light by putting a white bedsheet in front of it. You can also get softer light with a few lights used together and be sure they are frosted bulbs. Two lights, one of either side of you, will help light both sides of the keyboard more evenly and reduce shadows. 3 lights, one left, one center, and one right will be even better. A softbox makes the source of the light much much larger, so we can accomplish something similar to that if we create multiple sources of light in the different places, rather than just one. I used this light: amzn.to/3tbuFSP. with this soft box: amzn.to/3GKJTRO I hope that helps!

[@Plain_Piano]

@@PianistAcademy1 Perfect, thank you so juch for the kind answer, I will try with the softbox then, thank you again for your time ! 😁

[@williamwinterman1107]

Hey there, what camera are you using?

[@PianistAcademy1]

I use the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K for both filming for KZbin and also for teaching! Yes, it's a bit of an expensive solution for a lesson camera, but since I already own them for content creation I just keep them set up for my teaching days!

[@williamwinterman1107]

@@PianistAcademy1 Thanks for the reply! I really liked the quality of the video, but yes that camera is not that cheap lol. Great stuff anyways!

[@antoniomaccagnan7200]

Another great video. Bravo! Funnily enough, I just installed OBS Studio on my Linux laptop last night.

[@PianistAcademy1]

Thanks, Antonio! If you're on Linux, you are probably going to be more used to the work needed to get OBS running well. Us Mac users just expect plug and play!

[@aBachwardsfellow]

Hi Charles - great presentation! Logitech makes a variatey of webcams - even the inexpensive C270 (usually around $25 - $30 and very light-weight) may be preferable to trying to position a laptop. Not sure about the sound quality - should be adequate for at least beginning - early intermediate lessons. Adequate lighting is another consideration too.

[@PianistAcademy1]

I agree about the webcam, again if you have someplace to mount it and also have a screen nearby to see your teacher on. I suppose there always the possibility of taping (gaff tape) a webcam onto something thats in the right spot! For audio, the onboard mic on new and good quality laptops and mobile devices is usually good enough for beginners. We need to start looking into at least a USB mic for intermediate and beyond. I've done a video about the top usb mics for piano students as well. Plus there's always the option to plug a digital directly into your feed, with the appropriate cables/interfaces/software. Good lighting can help the camera's performance for a webcam or similar, but I've actually given lessons to students sitting in a very dimly lit room with a single lamp, not super well positioned. It's not ideal, but it actually is possible! If you use a nice mirrorless camera or similar, you really need good lighting as well or the camera will see nothing!

[@michaelguida7796]

Cool video! Btw, what kind of lapel mic are you using?

[@PianistAcademy1]

Thanks, Michael! I took a look at a few of your videos... are you located in Scottsdale these days? I used to live in the Phoenix area! The mic is a Rode Lavalier. It's from their professional line, not some of the more affordable lav mics they make that are very popular on Amazon. Here's a link: amzn.to/3h1NYoa. The photos don't show everything about it... it includes a carrying case and a few pop filters (one of which I always use). You need an adapter to get it to standard XLR... I use this one: amzn.to/3yNnahs I've used it for 3-ish years, so there might be something better that's been developed recently, but it was highly recommended to me by a distributor in Phoenix who works with big broadcasting corporations.

[@JeffN-xi1hr]

Great video! Good information! Thanx!

[@PianistAcademy1]

Thanks for watching!

[@martoneill]

Really helpful- thank you!

[@PianistAcademy1]

I'm glad, thank for watching, Martin!