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Vinnie Mah

Apr 02 2020
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massive guitar lesson on zoom us

Massive Zoom Guitar Lesson! | Fighting the COVID-19 with Guitar!

By Music Articles No Comments

Massive Zoom Guitar Lesson

We just ended our first massive ZOOM guitar lesson today! What an experience! The COVID-19 has suspended lessons in enrichment centres in Singapore since 26 March. Lessons will remain conducted over web conferencing until the end of April. However, this isn’t stopping us or slowing us down. Instead, we found a new way to connect with our students! We got everyone available together for our first ever guitar masterclass over a webcam!

Massive Zoom Guitar Lesson

Ok maybe not that massive 😀

Teething issues from our first group lesson

To organize a massive ZOOM guitar lesson isn’t easy! We found out some teething issues and hopefully they can help you run your lessons successfully!

Muting

Muting is a function available for both the host and the participants to use. Although weird at times to have nobody talking to you but we recommend to mute everyone when you are delivering your lesson material.

Screen Sharing

ZOOM US screen sharing option

If left unchecked, a mischievous participant can potentially jeopardize your lesson. We recommend you set this to “Host Only”. This function is only accessible through their setting page on their website.

Prepare Slides

Zoom Screen Sharing

This is more of a tip than an issue. Learning by a person talking away can be difficult for some. Slides provide a great way to get the points delivered easily! I also allow the students to be able to use the slides for a recap of the lessons later!

Conclusion

While it is never better than having a group lesson physically together,  it was great to see everyone again and learn something! The group agreed that this is meaningful and helps them get out of the dreary COVID-19 situation. The students were given assignments after the session and were looking forward to another round of web conferencing! Some suggested a longer session with more interaction!

While our *Free Trial Lesson is usually conducted in our centre, we now do it over a webcam! The experience you get will be beyond your expectations! If you are not sure, you can drop us a text on facebook messenger too!

Video snippets of our first virtual group lesson!

Mar 29 2020
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SYF 2020 cancelled

Singapore Youth Festival 2020 Cancelled | A tribute to our students!

By Music Articles, News No Comments

Singapore Youth Festival 2020 Cancelled

The Singapore Youth Festival 2020 is cancelled and it caused waves of sadness. Students put in endless hours of dedicated hard work to improve their skills. Some soldiers on with practices despite blisters or abrasion, others sacrificed their little free time for the team. It was a mammoth task, to begin with. Going from zero to hero in just 4 months time means every practice session must be as intensive as it can get. So one can imagine the level of disappointment when the students learn about the news. They were ready to take on the stage but it was not meant to be.

Singapore Youth Festival 2020 Cancellled

Photos of the students during their practice session

Leadership, teamwork, and creativity

Developing qualities like leadership, teamwork, and creativity is a real challenge for our academic driven education industry. Only through activities can we discover and mold the next generation of leaders. Allowing them to work together to understand the true meaning of being in a team. Giving them the tool and instrument to create something completely new. CCA, or Co-Curricular Activities, is the backbone of creating the next generation of amazing citizens. There is no argument that every child in Singapore must participate in a CCA and why it is good for their development. In fact, it is compulsory from a certain grade onwards to take part in a CCA. The importance of such activities goes beyond the classroom.

Students deserve a pad on their back

As mentioned in the SYF website, the decision to cancel this year’s SYF Art Presentation is not easy. However, in view of the evolving COVID-19 situation, we agree this painful decision is best for everyone. Nonetheless, we feel students all over Singapore who worked really hard for this year’s SYF deserves a pad on their back. All of them are a champion to us! We hope they will be able to pick themselves up quickly and proceed to soldier on like they always do!

 

Mar 28 2020
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video call music lessons

Video Conferencing for Music Lessons | Does it actually work?

By Acoustic Guitar, Classical Piano, Drum, Electric Guitar, Music Articles, News, Piano, Pop Piano, Ukulele No Comments

Video Conferencing for Music Lessons Experience!

While we are no strangers with conducting our music lessons via video conferencing for our students. some as far as Shanghai. The new measures from the Ministry of Health have effectively forced all our students to have their lessons over video calls! But does this mean the end of the music education industry? Probably not!

video conferencing music lessonsMusic Lessons | The COVID 19 style

Ideally, music lessons should be done in a conducive room with proper instruments and equipment. The acoustics of the room should also be treated properly with professional-grade acoustic treatment walls to remove unwanted reverb and echo. The lighting of the room must be at the right lux level. These are now considered luxuries.

With the current COVID-19 situation, we converted all our music lessons to video conferencing! Though easier said than done, we really wanted the best for our students! Rooms have to be rearranged, workstation setup to match the requirement of video calling and endless troubleshooting. At the end of the day, the smile on our student’s face is what that matters.

With that, we bravely embraced our first day of full-on online lessons today!

video call music lessons

Video-calling problems we faced and how we solve them

We would be lying if we were to say that it went smooth sailing. With all the issues, we had to put all our brains together! Sometimes to the extent of researching through the entire ocean of articles online. So if you are a music teacher, perhaps we might be able to offer some tips!

Audio Troubleshooting

  1. Make sure students always uncheck the “automatically adjust microphone volume” function.
  2. If you are using the laptop’s mic, keep a distance from your device.

Even with the automatic volume adjuster unchecked, a spike in volume will still cause the app to compress the audio hard. As we would have guessed, apps like this are created with speaking in mind. When a loud volume is detected, the app will push it down to prevent the other users from blowing their speakers. We had no issues with Ukulele and Piano but all the trouble with Drumset.

To combat the issue of feeding the drum’s signal in without having a problem, we mic-ed the entire drumset! Signals are sent into a USB audio interface that is then connected to the computer. The microphone source will be the USB device. This allows us to tweak the input volume accordingly. Things will definitely be easier if you have a digital drumset with a USB connection.

Our guitar rooms are also rigged with a USB mixer. As such, we line our electric guitar directly into the mixer with IR technology. We line our acoustic guitar and ukulele into a DI box and speak through a condenser microphone.

Video Troubleshooting

  1. Daylight from windows will help with illuminating the video
  2. Using a decent stand to help with adjusting the camera angle

piano room lightingMost of us hardly use the camera on our laptop, some don’t even know it exists! Some of us live in a dimly lit room and that is bad for video conferencing. So the first requirement is for the student to be able to have decent lighting in their room. While this isn’t an issue with most instruments, this is a common problem with Piano students.

The user back face the room’s light source with the piano to the wall. This results in the shadow of the student to cast on their hands.

Thankfully, solving this is easy! All you need is to place a small table lamp on your piano! This is especially cool on rainy nights when the table lamp is all you turn on to practice your piano with.

 

The camera angle for chatting with your friends or for a business meeting is very different from teaching and learning musical instruments. The laptop-camera was not designed for music lessons in mind. As a teacher, we want to view the students’ playing from a high to low angle. Think of how teachers usually sit next to the student in the room. So the same height and angle are important. As for demonstrating, various instruments require different angles. Piano prefers a top-down angle, guitar prefers a slanted front angle and drum prefers an over the shoulder angle. So the most basic requirement for video music lessons is perhaps a good stand to hold your device. Watch the video posted by Vinnie demonstrating to his students to get a better understanding!

 

Conclusion

Our first day of video conferencing music lessons went fairly smoothly! Classes went on as scheduled without much hiccups. Students were happy and satisfied with the lessons. It gave us the confidence to proceed with more of such lessons! With more fine-tuning, we will be able to provide lessons with even better quality and efficiency!

Normally we ask you to sign for our free trial lesson, we now ask all those who are interested to join us for the music lesson experience of 2020!

piano lesson video call

Mar 26 2020
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COVID 19 STATEMENT

26 March 2020 | Covid-19 Vinnie Classroom Update

By News No Comments

Vinnie Classroom Singapore26 March 2020

Dear Students/Parents,

On Tuesday, when new measures were introduced to curb the coronavirus outbreak, we were hesitant to adopt them and were even hoping we could somehow be excluded from them.

But the Covid-19 update yesterday was unsettling. Compared to Tuesday’s update, the number of local cases doubled from 17 to 35, of which 8 were unlinked, and 14 cases were linked to PCF Sparkletots at Fengshan. This is, by no means, indicative of any upward trend, but a reminder that we cannot afford to take chances anymore. Vinnie Classroom has precautionary measures in place, but the latest cluster reminded us that no set of measures will make us an impenetrable fortress.

It is not our intention to spread panic, but it is a fact that about 400 infected patients have now come under the care of our healthcare workers, who still have to attend to their regular load of patients. We do not wish to contribute to the burden, so the next best thing that we can do is to keep our physical social interaction to a minimum.

Therefore, in the interest of our students and the community,

  • We will suspend all lessons from 27 March to 15 April.
    To facilitate this, we will bring forward the course holidays in Term 2.
    Please refer to the updated course calendar for Term 2.
  • From 16 April to 30 April, only online lessons will take place.
    To facilitate continual learning, we will conduct online lessons via Zoom, and technical guidance will be provided.
    Tentatively, from 1 May onwards, we may or may not resume normal lessons within the premises of Vinnie Classroom, depending on the situation.

The Covid-19 situation changes every day. We acknowledge that what we have is not a perfect response and will present different challenges to different students. We will fine-tune them accordingly. Over the next few days, we will get in touch with every parent or student individually to provide more details and guidance on the setup requirements.

In this trying period, very few aspects of our lives are shown mercy. While we hope that you will understand our difficulties, we urge you to be open about any difficulties you may be facing as well, so that we can work towards a sustainable solution together.

Stay home. Stay strong. Stay optimistic. Stay united.

Yours sincerely
Vinnie Classroom

Mar 25 2020
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COVID 19 STATEMENT

20200325 Covid-19 Vinnie Classroom Statement

By News No Comments

Vinnie Classroom Singapore25 March 2020

Dear Students/Parents,

As many of you may have read yesterday, the Covid-19 multi-ministry taskforce introduced additional precautionary measures to be implemented from this Thursday, 2359hrs onwards. Of them, one was that center-based tuition and enrichment classes will be suspended. Another restricted certain gatherings to a limit of 10 people.

At this moment, we are unsure whether we will be required to suspend all our lessons as well. 95% of our lessons are held one-to-one. During our peak hour on Saturday, we are able to keep below the limit of 10 people within our premise. We have proper hygiene practices in place, disinfecting common surfaces at least twice a day, temperature-taking, compulsory handwashing, etc.

The teachers had a meeting last night to discuss contingency plans and we are in close contact with industry partners and sharing information. We have reached out to the Ministry of Health, and once we receive a confirmed directive, we will update you right away.

Some of you have expressed that it is ok for your child to continue to come to our school for lessons. Vinnie and I are extremely heartened to have your continued support during this tough period. We foresee tougher times ahead, but because of you, we are able to keep our spirits up and continue to have faith in the work we do.

Yours sincerely

Vinnie & Zee

Mar 24 2020
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Rockschool Examination Singapore

Rockschool Examination Singapore | In-depth sharing of the experience

By Events, News One Comment

Rockschool Examination Singapore

Vinnie Classroom just concluded our day as the Official Examination Centre for Rockschool Singapore! We were truly honored to host the exams even though it is just a 1-day event for us, Thank you, Fergal Hughes, for being our wonderful examiner. And thank you Joan, RSEC representative, for being so helpful in facilitating the examinations!

Rockschool is a UK-based music examination board that covers graded examinations for ukulele, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bass guitar, drums, keyboard, piano, vocals, music production, and music theory. They also offer diploma examinations for music and performance arts.

All these examinations provide students with a good avenue to gain acknowledgment in their music journey. Rockschool conducts examinations in 40 countries around the world. Ofqual regulates their certifications are regulated and are recognized worldwide.

Rockschool Examination Singapore

Scroll Down For Video!

How COVID-19 made the Rockschool Examination different

One-to-one examinations were conducted for all Rockschool exams. The examiner sat 2-3 meters away from candidates and do not get close to them at any point in the exam. The schedule of the day required candidates to come just 30 minutes before their slot. We did not allow candidates to loiter before and after their allocated timing. After registering with the friendly Rockschool representative, the candidates were led to a warm-up room one at a time. Hand sanitization, hand washing, no handshaking, temperature-taking, face mask, wipe downs, minimal conversations and social distancing were all observed. It is safe to say we did our best to practice all good hygiene habits for the safety of everyone involved.

Want to find out more, chat with us now!

How parents can help children prepare for exams

Look out for our upcoming article on “How Parents Can Help Their Kids At Home“.

In the meantime, parents just need to remember to be genuinely encouraging. Be there for your children if they get frustrated from practicing, or even unmotivated to continue. Do not put undue stress on them by demanding they score a distinction, but rather remind them that it is most important that they try their best. The journey ahead is long; as long as they keep going with all they have, success will come to them.

father and son practicing guitar together

Father practicing with son at home

Video log of our exciting day as the Rockschool Examination Centre!

Want to take the leap of faith in joining us? Sign up for our *FREE TRIAL LESSON HERE!

Mar 21 2020
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Tommy Emmanuel Baritone Guitar

Tommy Emmanuel Timberland | New Song on a Baritone Guitar!

By Acoustic Guitar, News No Comments

Tommy Emmanuel: Timberland | Beautifully Baritone

Tommy Emmanuel just released a new song titled Timberland and it is not played on his trusty Maton! Took us by surprise because we are all so familiar with Tommy on his Maton EBG808TE! Instead, we see a new guitar in the video. The guitar in question is the Karol Baritone Guitar. The stunning and beautiful gloss finish was the first tell-tale sign that it wasn’t a Maton. Then came the low and haunting notes that a regular acoustic could not produce with such tightness in its tone.

Tommy Emmanuel Karol Baritone Guitar

What is a Baritone Guitar?

A regular acoustic guitar has a scale length of around 24.9 to 25.4 inches. A baritone acoustic guitar has a scale length of 27 to 30.5 inches! 

The extended scale length does not mean you get more frets to play, instead, it provides a very different feel in string tension. If you have a 3/4-sized guitar, you will probably find it easier to bend a string than a full-sized guitar. This is because a shorter scale allows the strings to tune up to pitch easier. Thus you can imagine the effect of string tension on the baritone guitar. Then again, that is provided you tune a baritone to standard tuning. I can only imagine the possibility of breaking the strings or the guitar in the process. Then again, the Niibori Alto guitar is tuned a fifth up from standard (B E A D F# B). The crucial thing to note here is the right match of strings gauge.

Baritone guitars are typically tuned to A D G C E A (fifth lower) or B E A D F♯ B (fourth lower). They are usually fitted with .011 or .012 strings. The tension on these guitars is usually really tight and stiff. Not really ideal for string bending. As for this song, Tommy has it tuned to a fourth lower. 

Tommy Emmanuel Baritone Guitar

Does this mean there is no way of learning this song if you don’t have a Baritone Guitar?

Absolutely not! The song is written in standard tuning, just a fourth lower. This means you can still play the same song but at a higher pitch. Probably won’t bring the flavor and the intended meaning out nicely. Nonetheless, you will still be able to play it. Tommy has another song, Questions, mostly performed with a guitar tuned 1 whole step down. However, occasionally that same song will be performed in standard tuning. Was the essence of the song lost in the tuning? Weel, many of our students who learned this tune enjoys playing it on standard tuning!

Is Tommy Emmanuel new to the Baritone Guitar?

Our quick search on the mighty-web shows that Tommy was first introduced to the baritone back in 2009. The process of him falling in love with the baritone was all captured in a video. Then again, being the guitar man, he must have had experience with this unique version of the acoustic guitar before. It also took him a really long time before he finds the need to bring in a baritone to express himself. So no, Tommy is not new to the baritone guitar.

Tommy Emmanuel: Timberland

The video we have all been waiting for. Get ready for the emotional ride!

If you are inspired and want to learn the guitar, we are offering our *Free Trial Lesson! 

Feb 21 2020
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Sound like Jack Thammarat

How to sound like Jack Thammarat

By Electric Guitar, Music Articles One Comment

Want to sound like Jack Thammarat?

Well, you are in for a treat! In this article, I will share how I managed to sound as close as possible to the amazing Jack Thammarat. Although “Practice, Practice, Practice” is indeed part of the plan, I will share more on how to help you attain that beautiful tone!

Sound like Jack Thammarat

Guitar Amplifier: Laney Ironheart

They say the key to sounding like your favourite artist often lies in the amplifier. Stevie Ray Vaughan to Dumble amplifiers, Slash to Marshall amplifiers and John Mayer to Two Rock PRS amplifiers. If you were unaware of Jack’s love for Laney before, now you know! Jack really makes Laney sound good, or is it the other way around? Unlike other famous artists who are extremely secretive about their amp settings, Jack shows it all to the world. A “feel-free-to-try-my-settings” attitude!

Jack Thammarat they sky was the limit

Effects Pedal: Line 6 HX Stomp

If you are wondering if you should ever venture into the world of digital effects, well, my advice is to give it a shot! Besides, Jack has uploaded his HX Stomp patch on his website FOR FREE! So while the pedal may be slightly cost-sensitive to some, it is actually a gateway to access patches set by your favourite artist!

Download Jack Thammarat HX Stomp Patch HERE

Guitar Pick: Master8 Japan Jack Thammarat Signature

Jack Thammarat Masters Japan Guitar Pick

I shared about Jack’s pick when I was visiting him in Thailand. These picks are very similar to the Dunlop Jazz but it comes with a layer of rubber coating for that fantastic anti-slip capability. The angle of the pick allows for those sweet tones. The thickness of the pick helps to make playing more precise. But if you are still clueless on which pick is suitable for you, read our help article here.

Sound like Jack Thammarat already?

Maybe! But like I said in the first paragraph, it all boils down to practice. This cover I did might be just 5 minutes long on YouTube, but it took me at least 6 months of relentless practicing to get there. I say at least because I am certain I was trying various parts of the song way before I decided to embark on the journey to actually learn the full song. Through lessons with Jack, I also learnt about how he frequently uses the hybrid picking technique to go through fast passages.

I would like to end this article with just 3 words Jack told me on many occasions: “Light but strong“.

 

Feb 08 2020
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guitar size for children

Guitar Sizes for Children

By Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar, Music Instruments, Ukulele 2 Comments

Children’s Guitar: How to Choose the Right Size?

While there are violins as small as 1/16, guitar sizes for children seem to be rather limited. Why is that so? And how can you buy a guitar that is the correct size for your child?

guitar size for children

Amazing Children on Full Size Guitars

Before jumping to the conclusion that guitars should naturally follow the size of the child, we should keep in mind the possibility of using full size guitars. The internet is full of videos of young children performing technical guitar wizardry with pin-point precision on the full size guitars. Below are some examples!

Li-sa-X

Li-sa-X is a rather well-known name today in the guitar industry. When she first uploaded her videos, everyone was shocked. Debates raged over whether such children are actually considered musicians or if they are purely memorizing what they are supposed to do. What’s more, the most talk centred on how she is able to play difficult songs on a full size guitar despite her small build. In case you are wondering, this 7-year old is playing a diploma-level piece of music written by Paul Gilbert.

Yo Yo

Yngwie Malmsteen’s Far Beyond the Sun and John Petrucci’s Musicman guitar. These are not things commonly associated with a 9-year old girl. Also, it’s worth mentioning that Yo Yo is from China, where Western music influence is not just limited but restricted. A typical 9-years old girl from China would have no clue as to who Yngwie Malmsteen or John Petrucci are, and probably also struggle to pronounce the names! Yet here she is, shredding through a song that most accomplished guitarists would have difficulty with! Yes, and she is using a full size guitar!

Famous Video of North Korean Children Playing Guitar

This play-list would not be complete without this video. While many consider this “freaky”, we can only say that the North Koreans have managed to unlock the potential in young children. How they are able to train these tiny children to play these very technical pieces on full size classical guitars is beyond most of us! Now, if you are unaware, the classical guitar has a wider fretboard than the electric or acoustic guitar. This means those tiny fingers would need to stretch even further! Surely defying the ideal “guitar sizes for children”. Without the means of electrical amplification and with only a dynamic microphone in front of them, these children would need to play really forcefully to get the volume you hear in this video! Perhaps it is time to buy their guitar instructionals!

But is it wrong if I want to get a small guitar?

No, not at all! There are those who feel a smaller size guitar will help develop their techniques better. Feng E started off with the ukulele and has been uploading more guitar videos lately. The other camp’s ideology is to track the progress of the child’s ability with the right sized instrument. The ukulele happens to be an easy string instrument to begin on and it has definitely helped Feng E to be really good with his fingers. This little boy has been on big-time TV programs and has shared the stage with giants such as Tommy Emmanuel!

Must I start with the Ukulele then?

No. Sungha Jung, with over 6 million subscribers on YouTube, posted this first video 13 years ago. He went the opposite way as compared to Feng E, venturing into the ukulele at a later stage. The point here is, there is no one confirmed way to help bring the best out of your child.

Conclusion

We suggest all young children start with the ukulele before proceeding to the guitar. This way, if the child fails to develop an interest in the string business, the monetary loss will not be as heavy. If the child does move on to the guitar, buy a guitar based on his ability instead of his size. While there are good sounding 3/4 guitars out there, most are not comparable to the full size version. If you have more questions, you may leave a comment below or check out your local guitar shop! Guitar sizes for children is afterall, a highly debatable topic.

 

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