How to host a Virtual Recital using YouTube on Zoom

Hosting a virtual recital is quite a bit different than organizing a physical recital. Everyone's internet connections are at different speeds which affects both the sound and image quality, its hard to hear an audience clap, there are all kinds of audio feedback pitfalls, and if people are unfamiliar with playing the piano for the computer - there could be delays and tech issues. These are all good reasons to have students record a YouTube performance instead of playing live during a Zoom recital. If all the participants upload their performances to YouTube, then you have a lot more control over the tempo and quality of the recital.

A YouTube recital may seem like the student isn't getting an authentic recital experience, but there are a lot of positives with a pre-recorded recital. First off, it can be easier for the music teacher because you don't have to organize (and pay for) a venue, print up programs, decide if there are refreshments, etc. It can also be really good for some of the performers who suffer from performance anxiety. With a YouTube recital, the students can make several takes and choose the best one. Then on the day of the recital, all the pressure is off and they can relax and enjoy the experience more. Another positive... I have a student who lives far away and normally has Zoom lessons even during non-pandemic times. They were able  participate for the first time in the Zoom recital and it was very fulfilling for them. Finally, family members like grandparents who can't normally attend physical recitals are suddenly able to attend the Zoom recital. Considering all these positive aspects of a Zoom recital, maybe its worth having a few even during normal times!

I recently co-hosted a Zoom and YouTube recital with my fellow EMTA teacher, Amber Saldivar, and we both thought it went really well. Here's some of our recommendations for hosting your own Zoom and YouTube recital:

1. Have your students record their recital pieces, upload them to Youtube, and email you the link. Check the link to make sure it works. The link should be unlisted if the recital piece is still in copyright. Also, make sure the YouTube video isn't labelled for kids or it can't be put into a playlist.

2. Make a Youtube playlist and make sure all the videos are listed in the order that you want them to play, just like a program for a live recital. Instructions for creating a Youtube playlist are at:  https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/57792?co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop&hl=en
Its also a good idea to make a printout of the recital playlist and have it beside your computer so you know the playlist order without looking at the YouTube browser window.

3. Create a plan for the recital. In a recent online recital, we had the following structure:

• Opening remarks were made by the organizer of the recital welcoming everyone, introducing the recital, and telling everyone what to expect.
• Prior to the playing of each piece, the performer was asked some questions about their piece, like "How did you pick this piece?", What do you like about this piece?", What did you think about making the YouTube recording? Was it easy or hard and why?
• The YouTube clip was played and we asked everyone to use sign language applause, which is basically holding your hands in the air on either side of your head and twisting them with a big smile. (You could practice this during the opening remarks.) This is helpful when everyone is muted.
• Continue through the playlist.
• After all the performances are over, call on everyone individually and ask them to make a positive comment about their performance or someone else's performance.
• Finally, open the floor for anyone who wants to say something and make sure to thank everyone for participating.

4. Once the plan for the recital has been created, tell the participants what questions they will be asked during the recital so its not a surprise to anyone at the event. Also, make sure everyone already knows how to use Zoom so you aren't providing tech support during the recital.

5.  Most importantly - practice holding the recital with a friend to check all your Zoom settings prior to the event. If possible, try to test at the same time of day that you will be holding the recital because your internet speeds may vary due to the time of day. A paid Zoom account will be necessary if you don't want to have a 40 minute time limit on the recital. During your test, go to speedtest.net to check that your internet speed is fast enough to play YouTube clips well. (Zoom recommends a minimum 1.5Mbps up and down)

The following YouTube and Zoom settings to worked best for Amber and myself:

• Prior to the recital, make sure to open your browser to the YouTube recital playlist. Select the first performance on the playlist and set volume on the YouTube clip to maximum. Then make sure the performance is paused and set to the beginning of the clip. Now set your Zoom audio settings to original sound (although during my tests, this didn't seem to make a big difference in sound quality. There is a Zoom support article on this subject: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/115003279466-Enabling-option-to-preserve-original-sound ) After that, make sure your computer audio source is set to computer and test your computer audio volume to make sure it is set at a good level. There is also a Zoom support article on this subject: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/201362283-Testing-computer-or-device-audio

It is imperative that you test your settings because as the host sharing the video clip, you will not be able to tell how well the video is playing for other people during the recital. It will always sound good to you because you are at the beginning of the transmission point.

• During the Zoom recital, Mute all participants including yourself prior to playing every YouTube clip. If people can talk during the video, it can create audio feedback loops which will make the audio noisy. It may be helpful to announce what you are doing during the recital so people can understand the steps you will be taking to play the YouTube clips.
• Activate the screen share button, then select the YouTube tab on your browser as the share source and MOST IMPORTANTLY! check the small box at the bottom of the share window that optimizes the video for sharing. Finally enlarge the YouTube clip in the browser window take the entire screen otherwise everyone attending the recital will see your entire browser window and not just the YouTube clip. Zoom has a support article on optimzing screen sharing for a video clip: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/202954249-Optimizing-a-shared-video-clip-in-full-screen .
• YouTube will start auto-play of the next video in the playlist and there is no good way to disable this, so the best thing is to pause the video that plays next and then stop the screen share. Then when you go back to the playlist, restart the next video at the beginning. Just FYI - if you stop your screen share, and the next video is playing, no one will hear the YouTube audio even though you will still hear it on your computer (assuming you are still muted).
• One more thing, the video that the recital attendees see tends to be a little bit jerky in our experience. I believe this is because the YouTube video is being streamed over the network through the host so there can be a lag in transmission, however it didn't seem to impact everyone's viewing experience unduly.

Now that you've run all your Zoom tests and are prepared - Good Luck and enjoy your online recital!

The Prague Sonata

I received The Prague Sonata book as an unintentional Christmas present one year from Amazon. I had ordered a number of books as presents for members of my family and had considered this book as a possibility, but I didn’t actually order it. Then it showed up in my package from Amazon. So....Thanks Amazon! I think I didn’t order this book originally (even though I love interesting books about pianists and musicians) because I have been disappointed in the past with some books that simply use a piano teacher or musician as a character in an otherwise uninteresting story or it becomes evident to me that the author doesn’t really have a good understanding of music in general. When I read reviews of this book, the subject matter seemed promising, but the biographical details of the author were mostly about his distinguished literary credentials and I was worried that the book wouldn’t have enough musical credibility. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find that I enjoyed the book a great deal. The writing was clear and the narrative moved along at a good pace. The characters were interesting and the story was absorbing enough that I was able to pleasantly spend time totally immersed in my fictional setting. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who likes their fiction to include musical elements.

According to an interview with the author , Bradford Morrow, the plot is a quest epic. During the Nazi invasion of Prague in 1939, a woman named Otylie Bartošová is forced to break up a treasured eighteenth-century musical manuscript, a handwritten piano sonata she inherited from her father. Much later, a young New York musicologist (and former aspiring classical pianist) named Meta, comes into possession of part of the manuscript and begins a quest to locate the rest. Meta’s journey takes her to Prague and other places in search of the other movements. I found the story very convincing for the most part, however if I’m going to nitpick:
1. The evil musicologist was a bit of a stretch for me. I guess the author felt Meta needed an antagonist to make the “quest” a little more difficult.
2. The romantic interest in the novel being a journalist seemed fine for me, but it seemed a little self-conscious to have him taking secret notes about writing a book about his experience with Meta at the same time.
3. Although the novel does not really mention a timeframe, I found it difficult a bit difficult to believe that so many of the original people involved with the manuscript from WWII were still alive during Meta’s quest.

I think the part I enjoyed the most about the book was its setting in Prague as well as the plausibility of an actual lost sonata by a great composer as presented in the book. I have previously visited the beautiful capital of the Czech Republic and it was great fun to recognize landmarks like Lobkowicz Palace, where we also saw rare musical manuscripts as a tourist. I also agreed with descriptions of the Nazi occupation and the Velvet revolution that were part of the story. During my personal visit to Prague, I attended a lecture about the communist occupation and details included in the Prague Sonata book dovetailed very well with local opinions presented to me during my own visit.  The back story to the manuscript coming into the hands of Otylie managed to seem like reasonable conjecture. In addition, the descriptions of the musical manuscript were authentic sounding. Consequently, I feel Bradford Morrow did a very good job with his book research especially in his description of Prague as well as with the details of the lost musical manuscript. This story makes you wish a lost Sonata by such a famous composer had really been found.

Some Favorite Quotes from The Prague Sonata:
• All wars begin with music….The fife and drum. The marching songs, sung to the rhythm of boots tramping their way to battle. The bugle’s call for an infantry to charge. Even the wailing bassoon sirens that precede the bombardment and the piccolo whistles of the falling bombs themselves.
• Why do people fight wars? The girl asked. Because God lets them, he answered, suddenly quieter. But why does he let them? Her father thought for a moment, tucking the wool blanket under her chin, before saying, Because God loves music and so he must abide war.
• “Prague? Wow Meta. Can you really afford to do that?” “I’ve got some money saved up. Not a ton, but if it came down to it, I could always sell my piano.” “Never. You’d sooner die,” Gillian insisted.
• Her student was as earnest as death. He knew all the notes, had memorized them like multiplication tables. One day, he would grow up to be a damned good industrial engineer.
• Scales, she wrote in Czech in her diary. Jakub, I had forgotten what soulful things scales are! The perfection of flowers here in this park, the flowers that know just how many petals and leaves are needed to grow every spring to find their way into the sunlight, that’s what scales are.
• …luck is the progeny of persistence.
• “His piano was his saddest loss. It was all burned, but the brass pedals and part of the – what do you call this? – music board with the Bosendorfer?”…. “The label on the soundboard didn’t burn completely, so he saved that.”