Lakeville, Minnesota, is a charming suburban community of 55,000, about a thirty-minute drive south of Minneapolis. As you would expect, it is home to a number of recreational lakes and smaller ponds. Summer temperatures in the 70s and low 80s are balanced by the typical Minnesotan winters that feature sustained temperatures in the 10s.

Take a leisurely morning drive through Lakeville, and you might find yourself on a lovely curving road that ambles through a modern development, populated with gracious two-story houses and ample yards. You would not be surprised to learn that a piano teacher lives on the street. What might come as a surprise is the fact as you drive by, this teacher is online, teaching two students who are 8,000 miles away in Zambia.

Meet Kristin Shoemaker

Kristin is a neighborhood piano teacher with an impressive educational background: a BM in piano performance as well as an MM and a DMA in collaborative piano. A member of MMTA, MTNA, and the RCM College of Examiners, she has been teaching for fourteen years.

Not surprisingly, Kristin has a typical, private piano studio that consists of two upright pianos and one digital piano. She is focused on pedagogical issues, attends professional conferences, and participates actively in the RCM examination system in her native Canada.

Everything changed

In June 2008, Kristin, her husband, and their two daughters (then ages nine and seven) embarked on a trip to visit Kristin’s sister. They boarded a plane in Minneapolis that was initially bound for Atlanta. Most of the families on the plane were ultimately headed to Disney World. The Shoemakers, however, had many more thousands of miles to travel, to the village in Zambia called Macha, where Kristin’s sister was working as an HIV/AIDS nurse.

According to Kristin, “The purpose of our short, two-week trip was simply to observe, experience, and learn about a drastically different way of life. Macha is a very isolated rural community, two hours from the nearest grocery store, post office, or bank. The majority of villagers live in mud huts, and only a privileged few have electricity or running water.

“I knew this trip would be a stretch for me. But like so many others who visit developing countries, the trip was life changing. When you see contentment amidst no material possessions, when you see children with incredible potential, eager to learn but without opportunity to do so, it helps refocus your priorities.”

Piano lessons in the Jungle?

Using twenty-first-century resources, any of us can take a virtual trip to Macha. All you have to do is:

• Download and install Google Earth on your computer (http://earth.google.com)
• Launch Google Earth (you’ll need a broadband Internet connection)
• Paste these coordinates into the search field and click the Search button (which looks like a magnifying glass): 16 22 25.91”S, 26 48 01.70”E

Remarkably, you’ll not only get an aerial view of this part of the world, you’ll even be able to see some photos taken from the ground. However, the virtual visit won’t come close to depicting the things that Kristin observed:

“When we were in Macha, I was overwhelmed by the lack of material resources. Many of the 50,000 children in Macha are without parents. Life expectancy in Zambia is just thirty-nine years. Recently I heard about a little girl in Macha named Happiness whose father had just died and whose mother had died one month previously. Children like Happiness are often left to raise themselves and their siblings. They are caught in a cycle of poverty without hope.”

Despite the poverty and the overwhelming issues that need to be addressed in this part of the world, there are reasons for optimism:

“What was so amazing about our experience was seeing the hope that is beginning to stir in this community. Macha Works, a local community-driven organization [with funding from the Dutch government], is empowering many bright minds (individually and collectively) to create innovative solutions for rural communities. This is being enhanced through a satellite link to the Internet.”

It is hard to imagine how the Internet would have a major impact in this impoverished rural context, let alone how it could facilitate piano lessons. But as Kristin points out, “One young man from Macha was able to research the process of growing sunflowers for oil over the Internet, and he has grown a successful business. Some villagers are being trained in computer skills and finding employment; others are promoting their own culture through the local radio station. Still others are forming partnerships with the University of Zambia.”

A teacher makes a personal Commitment

So where do piano lessons fit into this picture?

“Over the last two years, this question has forced me to do a lot of soul-searching about why I even teach music, and the answer has given me a stronger desire than ever to do just that! When you see this kind of momentum, especially in an area with incredibly limited resources, it becomes contagious.”

Of course there are the cultural issues to consider as well as the lack of resources:

“These children already know and love music—there is unbelievable beauty in their singing! So why encourage music making on an instrument like piano, and in a style that is foreign to their culture?

“When I think about the impact that playing the piano and piano lessons have had on me personally, and when I consider their influence on my students, words like joy, peace, perseverance, creativity, unity, and transformation come to mind.

“As teachers, we have seen the wide grin of accomplishment when a student has mastered a tough passage at the piano. We’ve shared the sense of satisfaction when a student has overcome that which she first thought impossible. We’ve caught ourselves dancing along with students blissfully playing in ensemble.

“Children in resource-limited rural areas have almost no chance to discover the wonder of expressing the ineffable through a musical instrument. Long-distance piano lessons are just one small way in which that beauty can be experienced.”

Preparing to teach long distance

Within two months of her trip, Kristin was looking into the possibilities of teaching piano lessons to eight-year-old Merel van Stam, daughter of a Dutch family. The family had moved to Macha in order to help improve conditions there. Mom, Janneke van Dijk, is a physician and the Clinical Research Director of Johns Hopkins’ Medical Institute at Macha. Dad, Gertjan van Stam, is a technologist who is involved with Macha Works.

Curiously, Kristin has never seen the van Stams in person. During her visit to Macha, the van Stams were on holiday back in Holland. However, the family had graciously provided Kristin’s family a place to stay in Macha.

“I had used Skype in the past to communicate with out-of-town family, and I was curious about how video-conferencing might be used in a musical context. Because of the impact that the trip to Macha had on me, and because they had already had all of the necessary tools, I contacted the van Stams shortly after returning home to Minnesota, to see if they might be interested in toying with the idea of piano lessons over the Internet for their daughter, Merel.”

This was a bold move. According to Kristin, as of the fall of 2008, she had never even used a MIDI file in her teaching, let alone long distance teaching technologies. What was she thinking?

Videos

“Good question! Yes, I was definitely a beginner in using technology in the piano studio. To be honest, I can still be a little spacey in this regard, but remote teaching is more doable than it may first appear.

“I remember calling up a friend that fall, asking if I could hire him to walk me through the MIDI setup on my Mac computer. It seemed daunting to me at the time; now it is a two-minute process.

“Like many piano teachers, I had all of the tools at my fingertips (including a digital keyboard with MIDI capabilities and a computer with a good Internet connection), but those tools were sitting dormant!

“Within weeks of contacting the van Stams regarding the notion of piano lessons through e-learning, I came across an ad for Internet MIDI in this journal. It sounds silly, but my heart started beating faster; when I read the ad describing how two pianos could communicate together online with perfect MIDI connections, it was my confirmation that this setup might actually work!”

Preparing to teach a student 8,000 miles away

The van Stams were delighted with the prospect of piano lessons for their daughter. Although Internet access is rare in similar African communities, Macha has had Internet access via satellite since 2004. The connection can be problematic, but it does serve as many as 100 computers in this isolated area of the world.

Currently the cost of this Internet connection is absurdly high (about ten times what Kristin pays in Minnesota), and it provides only a fraction of the bandwidth. Fortunately, it has been adequate for long distance piano lessons and other sorts of elearning.

Before lessons could commence, the van Stams had to acquire a digital piano. A digital piano would make it possible for Merel to connect her instrument to Kristin’s during lessons and to connect to a personal computer with interactive software for practice between lessons.

With the help of a few very generous people, a Yamaha YPG-635 digital piano was purchased in the United States and sent to Macha in late October 2008. It arrived in the jungle by small plane. With software and MIDI files that were provided by email, the van Stams were ready to go!

How do these lessons work?

According to Kristin, “The setup is surprisingly simple.We each have a computer with an Internet connection; the more reliable the connection, the better the lesson! We each have built-in web-cameras on our computers. I also use an old video camera connected to my computer as a secondary camera for demonstrating at the piano during the lesson. We have installed free video-conferencing software (Skype and ooVoo) for each of our computers. These are the bare essentials for getting started.

“Video-conferencing software can be great for the audio quality of the voice, but it’s not ideal for communication between pianos, because the audio is highly compressed. To bypass this, we have used Internet MIDI software to exchange data electronically through MIDI technology. In essence, when a note is played on one keyboard, the remote partner keyboard sounds the same note instantaneously across the globe, making it possible to have a purely musical conversation in real-time.

“Even though we have been using this technology since 2008, I am still amazed every time I hear music from Macha, over 8,000 miles across the globe, as clearly as if it had been played from inches away. As we move into the future, this software will become the backbone of all of our realtime communication.”

Challenges remain

“Real-time teaching has its merit, and the immediate interaction it offers can never be replaced. But when the Internet connection is weak, it can be exasperating to deal with audio feedback, inconsistent audio (making it impossible to hear a steady beat), a frozen video feed, and dropped calls.

“We have spent a lot of time dealing with these challenges, but as time passes, I see this improving. However, because of the frustrations we have faced, we have been forced to look into time-shifted lessons, or an exchange of pre-recorded videos between teacher and student.

“Working with this medium has been an enlightening experience for me. The instructional videos have been a helpful evaluative tool in my own teaching, and they offer so many benefits to the students, including the chance to work at a selfdirected pace of learning (pausing, rewinding, and repeating the video as necessary).”

Tools for time-shifted teaching

Kristin has been inspired by the timeshifted teaching of Mario Ajero, faculty member at the Stephen F. Austin University:

“As I was beginning to research options in teaching over the Internet in the fall of 2008, I stumbled across Mario Ajero’s Piano Podcast (http://marioajero.blogspot.com). Mario is truly a pioneer in using pre-recorded videos to teach music, and he effectively uses tools like Internet MIDI, Classroom Maestro, and screen-capturing software to reinforce what he is teaching visually. His large following (fan-base!) of young people is a testament to the growing interest in this field.

“Many teachers already own some type of video/audio recording equipment, like a web-camera (either built-in or external), video camera, iPhone, or digital camera. I have used all of these devices to make videos, some more successfully than others. With my Mac, I use iMovie (the built-in video-editing software that is standard with Mac computers) to do quick editing.

“I love the visual reinforcement that can be added to pre-recorded videos. Seeing the animated keyboard in Internet MIDI has been a huge help for the e-learning students, and the notation provided in Classroom Maestro has solidified theory concepts. To capture everything that I’m seeing on my computer screen when using Internet MIDI and Classroom Maestro, I use ScreenFlow (www.telestream.com). For Windows users, Snagit (www.techs mith.com) provides a good screen-capturing alternative.

“Once the video has been made, we post and store it on a social networking site.We have tried Facebook and YouTube for sharing, but my current favorite is Vimeo (www.vimeo.com).With Vimeo, it is easy to organize a group of videos into a passwordprotected “album” by category or by student. Once a student is ready for a new instructional video, I can pull that video from an existing database of videos, and, in one click, it can be added to the student’s album.

“So far the time-shifted videos have covered concepts like posture at the piano, five-finger scales, intervals, triads, major and minor scales, improvising activities, and specific steps for learning new pieces. As the students progress, I anticipate that we’ll continue to use this medium for teaching more advanced theory fundamentals, introducing new pieces and their challenges, and developing more skills in improvising and performance.

“I should also mention that to supplement their practicing, my remote students also use MIDI files. Playing with an accompaniment adds a little incentive in practicing and helps develop a stronger internal pulse.”

It doesn’t stop with just one privileged child

Merel’s best friend is a ten-year-old child named Beauty Mulobela. Like so many children in Macha, her parents are no longer living and she has been left to raise herself. According to Kristin, “The van Stams have become her family, and because she spends so much time in their home, she was a perfect candidate for experimenting with e-learning through piano.

“Each day, Beauty and Merel ride their bikes several kilometers along dirt roads to MICS, the Macha Innovative Community School. This is an exciting place! The school has three main emphases – English (Zambia’s official language, but not spoken by many villagers), computers, and orphaned and abandoned children. The school has become a model for other rural communities, and it continues to act as an incubator for testing new ideas, drawing visitors from all over the country and abroad. In the future, MICS will house additional pianos that will be used for e-learning.”

Epilogue

On January, 20, 2010, I received the following email from Kristin:

“Found out five minutes before my Zambian students’ lessons this morning that five high-level Zambian officials including the Minister of Education and Zambian National TV had made the five hour trek to Macha and were sitting in the room, specifically to observe and videotape the lessons. Blocked Internet for all other 100 computers in Macha in order to have a good connection! Internet MIDI worked for part of the lesson. The Zambian Minister is hoping to pilot this idea in other parts of the country.”

Since then, the Internet situation has continued to improve with additional funding from Holland. As this article went to press, Kristin reported that her last ten lessons with Merel and Beauty had been devoid of Internet problems.

The grand experiment continues to grow. One of her Minnesotan students, a ten-year-old named Luke, moved to Arkansas. He is now taking lessons long distance with Kristin, and he is also participating in online group lessons with Merel and Beauty.

Kristin is about to ship a stash of digital keyboards to Macha and has enlisted an additional teacher for the pedagogical effort. As more teachers join her group of cyber instructors, the program will grow.

For Kristin, “Being involved in this elearning adventure has reminded me that I am most fully alive when I choose to be aware of the spiritual presence that surrounds me. For me, that is God. I forget that far too often, and I love how the kids in Macha help me get back to that realization.”

“Unfortunately, right now, this arrangement is very lopsided with only Western ideas being shared. It is my hope that at some point in the near future, this will turn into a two-way exchange, so that tribal musical traditions can also be affirmed, preserved, and passed on.”

More information about Kristin’s work, including photos and videos, can be found at www.machapiano.com.

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