Skype lessons world-wide

[Jody Kruskal]

Live on the Web: Anglo Concertina Lessons

 

I have been giving private lessons on the Anglo concertina in New York City for years, but now I also offer online web-based lessons to anyone in the world via Skype.

 

I play and teach in the harmonic style (otherwise known as “English” style). Basically, that means melody on the right hand and self-accompaniment on the left. I can help all levels from beginner to experienced players become better musicians and learn to play their whole instrument. I would be pleased to work on tunes or songs that interest you and also make appropriate tune suggestions to further your learning. These are one-on-one, real-time personalized lessons that conform to your musical interests and abilities. Most students play C/G or G/D 30 button Anglos.

 

My 30 years of experience on the instrument can help you advance rapidly and inspire you with tips and techniques to help make your playing richer and more satisfying. I am a patient and experienced teacher, familiar with a wide variety of songs and tunes played at American and English sessions and dances including contra, old-time tunes and songs, Playford and ceilidh dance tunes, tunes for morris and sword as well as Swedish and Irish tunes. For beginners, I can show you how to get both hands working together to play the tune with accompaniment. For intermediate or advanced players I will work with your strengths and abilities to get the most out of your Anglo.

 

The lessons can be weekly, bimonthly or on an individual basis. They cost $60 usd for a one hour session. Payment is best made through paypal.com. A lesson session typically includes an hour online with me and a printable document. It may also include an mp3 of me playing your tune or an exercise at a tempo that will be useful to you. For regular students I include a brief check-in midweek to see how things are going, answer questions and prepare for the next lesson.

 

If you are looking for the pure drop or traditional Claire style of Irish concertina playing … though lovely stuff, I don’t play it or teach it.

 

For online lessons, you will need to have a broadband internet connection and a free Skype account. Your computer will need to be connected to a webcam, a microphone and headphones or earbuds. The Skype medium works surprisingly smoothly. Both parties can hear well and the video quality is good, with few dropouts and glitches. Face to face is absolutely better if you are within striking distance of Brooklyn, NY – but my Skype students are all over the globe and don’t have to take the subway to Brooklyn for a lesson.

 

If you are interested, please email me using the contact link below.

Edited January 6, 2011 by Jody Kruskal

[RAc]

well, for an endorsement -

 

so far I had one lesson from Jody, but certainly not the last - here's a brief rundown of what happened from a stduent's point of view - this posting is not coordinated with him.

 

As for the infrastructure, I'm REALLY surprised that Skype teaching and peer to peer jamming hasn't caught on more - next to face to face lessons, this is the best interactive way to get in touch with musicians all over the world, especially in a community as sparsely populated as the concertina scene.

 

With Skype, there are no trap doors or hidden sales contracts; it's indeed all free except for volume based internet fees for the provider (where applicable; a flatrate is certainly the way to go here). Setting up Skype as well as the camera and mike was hassle-free; plus you only have to do that once and then you are set.

 

I emailed Jody twice, then sent the money off via Paypal, and we scheduled an appointment. It was as easy as that, seriously. Given the time difference between Eastern Time and Berlin Time, there is a small but sufficent window for us to find a time slot where both are awake and not working otherwise. Just be sure to know the current time difference between your teacher's and your place...

 

Now for the teaching: I picked up the concertina 4,5 months ago after having played the acoustic guitar for over thirty years, so my expectations were different from those of most people seeking instruction. I don't play the anglo, but the advice I was hoping was concerned tone and volume/air flow control, which is really an element of the concertina as such. We agreed that although he isn't too familiar with the duet, his "harmonic style" playing as outlined above (which is also the way I'm heading) gives us enough overlap to give it a try.

 

I sent Jody a few scores of things I was working on beforehand, and (as can be expected from a professional teacher) he did his homework well, looked over the scores, had a few beforehand remarks and was well prepared. The instructions took place in a relaxed and eye to eye but concentrated atmosphere; Jody doesn't waste time but gives each item exactly the time it needs before moving on to the next one. I believe he has a solid (experience based) intuition for how much explanation a given student needs for each given excercise.

 

The suggestions he made were right on the spot and answered exactly the questions I was having (plus one or two more ;-)). He followed up on the progress unsolicitedly a few weeks later, which I considered kind of cool.

 

I can recommend the instruction and consider it money well spent. Now of course this puts a burden on Jody as well (should I publish a recording of mine, it'll be both my playing and his guidance under scrutiny), but I'll probably have another lesson with him prior to that.

 

Again - on the German concertina forum, there is about one request a month for teaching, and the only answer that one can give those seeking instruction is "your chance on face to face lessons in Germany approaches zero, but consider skype lessons; you have a choice of teachers all over the world." I suspect that it's the same almost everywhere.

 

I also suggest that anyone interested in Skype lessons search for the name of the potential instructors on YouTube to get a feeling for the musical backgrounds; this helps finding the best match between instructor and student (when entering the Cyber World, all of a sudden there are quite a number of instructors to choose from...)

 

best wishes and a happy and sussessful 2011 for everybody here!

[chris]

Hi

maybe anyone who has a skype connection may wish to add it to their profile??

chris

[PeterC]

Hi

I too can recommend Jody's offer.

I'm from Germany (like Ruediger) and so I wouldn't have the possibility for lessons with Jody without Skype. My next vacation is in the summer and I certainly don't want to spend it NY! But with Skype my teacher is conveniently near. I even don't have to leave my home or to use the NY subway as Jody put it (when we met in December, in NY was the "big snow", some of the subway lines were closed …)

 

To put it short: Skype for Concertina lessons works well and is very handy!

 

And as for Jody: look on his homepage, hear his Tunes of the Month and decide for yourself if his style suits you. For me it worked, just what I wanted to learn. Every lesson with Jody gives me inspirations and a lot of new ideas apart from the new songs!

Cheers!

PeterC

[RatFace]

About Skype - it might be worth trying out Google voice/video chat if you have any problems or reservations about call quality on Skype. I think every time I've used it it's been at least as good quality as Skype, in many cases better. In some cases Skype was completely unusable, but Google was completely fine (video call from England to Australia).

[Jody Kruskal]

Thanks Peter and Ruediger for posting about our lessons. You are both so different but both delightful students. I look forward to working with you in the future.

 

As for Skype... I have been happy with the service but Randy Stein suggested another one... http://www.oovoo.com/