G'day!

I sing baritone in a relatively new quartet in the San Francisco Bay
Area. We're called Brewhouse <http://www.brewhousequartet.com/> .

We recently did a coaching session with Tom Metzger from OwningTheStage
<http://owningthestage.com/> . We were physically in San Jose,
California and Tom was somewhere in Canada.

This essentially involved two computers (each with a webcam, microphone
and speakers), internet connections (local connections were WiFi, remote
were broadband), a quartet, a coach and 5 open minds. From a software
perspective, both computers were runing Mac OS X and we used Skype for
the audio and video.

We could hear and see Tom very well. The audio and video sync'd up fine
and there were really no issues there. We recorded the session.

From Tom's side, he could hear and see the quartet quite well (the
bandwidth remained high enough for 85% or more of the session). To give
you an idea of how rich the experience was, we talked about a wide
spectrum of elements including message of the song, overtones, voice
matching, posture, breathing, synchronisation, intent and effect of the
song on the audience.

It was relatively easy to setup. We had a "sound/video check" prior to
the session to make sure it was going to work and then we met up later
for the real deal. It was bonza!

All in all, as long as you have relatively good up-to-date computers
with a broadband connection between the two, I think you could get quite
a lot out of these types of sessions.

Cheers,
Rob


--- In bbshop@yahoogroups.com, "Keith \(Gmail\)" <keithr386@...> wrote:
>
> Steve,
>
>
>
> I have never tried it for virtual coaching, but there is a free web
> conferencing ulitity that may work for your purposes.
>
>
>
> Try here: http://www.dimdim.com
>
>
>
> Essentially you can set up a live video and audio conference as long
as both
> parties have an internet connection. Obviously the more bandwidth the
> better, and the quality of the computer factors in a swell.
>
>
>
> I would imagine that a coach would limitations in terms of "live"
versus
> "electronic" sound, but it may be worth a look?
>
>
>
> Keith R
>
>
>
> From: bbshoptech@yahoogroups.com [mailto:bbshoptech@yahoogroups.com]
On
> Behalf Of Steve Morris
> Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2008 12:03 PM
> To: bbshoptech@yahoogroups.com; bbshop@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [bbshoptech] Virtual coaching? Has anyone tried it?
>
>
>
> As the local geek I've been approached about the howtos of virtual
> coaching. I hate to admit that I don't know anything about it. Help me
> out there please. Does anyone have experience they could share, what
> software they used, quality etc? How hard is it to setup? How real
> does it feel to see your coach through a webcam? Is this the new world
> order of coaching?
>
> I assume that this is mostly being done with quartets or for personal
> voice instruction. Interacting with a large chorus seems possible but
> impractical.
>
> I have to admit that the idea of hooking up with a coach anywhere in
> the world seems intriguing? My quartet chooses coaches that are in a
> short driving distance because we can't afford big transportation
> costs. That limits who we can choose. We tend to drive to the coaches
> house which takes time.
>
>
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>



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