Best Camera Angles for Virtual Piano Lessons 

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 RU-vid, 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.

This is surely welcome, thanks for posting

Really helpful- thank you!

Great video! Good information! Thanx!

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.

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

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

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.

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 ❤ !

Could you suggest an overhead camera and a stand?