Last updated: 10/1/2021 1:00am

This F.A.Q will be updated on a regular basis and will be a source of information for opus 1 families, students, employees and teachers regarding online lessons.

Is Opus 1 offering online lessons?

YES

Opus 1 is offering both in-person and online lessons.

If you do not wish to attend your lesson in person, you do not need to request online lessons, your regular lesson will go at your usual time with your usual teacher, except it will be online. Our teachers are all (except a few exceptions) teaching from our studios and available in-person.

How do I join my online lesson?

Before your lesson, make sure to secure a recent iPad or laptop (with speaker, camera and microphone) and download the Zoom app (https://zoom.us/download) and make sure you can access your opus1.io account from that device.

About 15 minutes before your lesson you will see a “Join Online” button appearing on your lesson in your opus1.io account.

The Zoom ID / URL will be the same lesson to lesson, with the same teacher (they are specific to each teacher).

If you are having trouble accessing your opus1.io account, please contact us by email or live chat on our website.

What do families think of online lessons?

Opus 1's online lessons have been received exceptionally well. In fact, 77% of our members from a recent survey indicated that they would either stay online exclusively or would like the flexibility to attend either online or on-campus on any given lesson.

Sandy, Palo Alto: “Our family takes a total of five weekly lessons with various teachers at Opus 1 Music Studio and it has been great. With COVID-19 and shelter-in-place order, our initial worry was that we would have to halt all of our lessons. However, thanks to the Opus1 staff, we were able to switch over to online lessons without missing a beat! Now with the online lessons, it’s as if we are able to bring the teachers to our home, or wherever we go in the future. Thanks Opus 1 Music Studio!”

How to make the best of an online lesson?

Here are a few tips to make the best of an online lesson:

• Make sure you try and access your opus1.io account prior to the lesson so that you don’t waste precious lesson time dealing with online access (password reset etc.). Our staff is available to help 7 days a week.

• Use a recent iPad / Laptop with a good quality camera / microphone / speakers.

• Make sure to have a reliable Wifi connection with broadband internet

• Using headphones might help with sound quality

• Prepare to have the iPad set up in a way that the teacher can see you / the student play the instrument

• Younger students may require a parent to be present to keep the young student focused and disciplined during the lesson.

• Your teacher should have the music sheet you / the student is working on but may not always have it ready. So please before the lesson take a screenshot / photo or have a PDF ready to share over Zoom during your lesson, You can also send your music sheet to admin@musicopus1.com with the name of your teacher.

• For better audio / sound quality

  • Make sure you download the latest version (Zoom released a new version with much better audio quality “High Fidelity Mode” early September 2020)

• In your Zoom Audio settings:

  • Select your external Microphone if you have one (a relatively cheap external microphone can improve sound quality considerably)

  • Disable “Automatically adjust microphone volume”

• Under Zoom Audio / Advanced settings:

  • Disable Echo Cancellation (If you can use headphones, if not do not check-it)

  • High Fidelity music mode

  • Use Stereo Audio

• During the lesson make sure “Original Sound is ON”

• Note: High Fidelity Sound is not yet available for iPad but Original Sound is.

Here are also examples of setup to ensure your teacher can see you. You can also join from 2 devices at the same time (one iPad or Laptop and one iPhone).

This page will be updated as we have more information to share on this topic. Thank you