Five and a half years ago, I reviewed Muzie.Live, a new online music lesson platform that was in the early stages of development. I’ve continued using it ever since and at the beginning of this fall it was completely redesigned and is better now than ever! Just check out this new look:
Sam Reti, the developer, is actively exploring and implementing new ideas. Just a few minutes ago I sent an email asking a question about the new sight-reading lab in the platform and in less than two minutes I had a response directly from him sitting in my inbox! The main challenge I’m running into is that I can hardly keep up with all the fabulous features that are available!
If you want to check it out for yourself, Sam is hosting a webinar tomorrow with a live demonstration of one of the coolest new features: MIDI Pass-through. If you and your student both have a keyboard with a MIDI connection, you can play duets in realtime as the sound passes through via MIDI! How cool is that? One of the other new developments that I’m so excited about is the ability to connect with your phone camera via Bluetooth and then with the click of a button on the screen during a lesson, select it as a second camera so that you can easily demonstrate on the piano keys (or any instrument) for your student on the other end.
The whiteboard feature has improved significantly and is useful both during lessons and in between for student assignments.
And just out in the last couple of weeks is the new Sight Reading and Theory Lab. You can quickly roll the on-screen die to display a new sight-reading or rhythm pattern according to the selected parameters and have a student play it to receive instant feedback and a score. The Theory Lab contains sections to test notes, intervals, chords, key signatures, and scales – with options of either playing or singing the answer, or of selecting it from a list of choices. Instead of viewing the theory item, you can also opt to listen and use it as an ear training exercise. Students could easily access and use this as part of an assignment during the week, or you can use it during a lesson or group class for ready-made activities.
If you’re teaching online lessons or make it available for your students as an option for sick days or bad weather days, I highly recommend looking into Muzie.Live for your studio. I’ve barely scratched the surface of what’s available here, so you probably will want to at least book a live demo with Sam to see for yourself what it has to offer!
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