Skype Flute Lessons

Irish Flute
1

I’ve been lucky enough to get to take a couple of lessons with Eamonn deBarra, a multi-talented instrumentalist who tours with the Irish group Slide. He is a wonderful flute player and a patient teacher. He teaches in the traditional aural method (playing a phrase and getting me to repeat it until I have the entire tune) without recourse to dots or ABC notation. I have found that his insistance on my learning proper breathing while playing has helped a lot with my phrasing and rhythm. In our last lesson he mentioned that he is willing to take on additional students for what I think is a very fair rate for personal online lessons ($38/hour). If you are not familiar with Skype, it is a great service which gives you essentially free internet video conferencing (needless to say you need a computer with internet connection, webcam and speakers/microphone).

You can learn more about Eamonn here: http://www.musiclee.ie/iartists.php?id=eamonndebarra or the Slide website: http://www.slide.ie and contact him for lessons at e_de_barra “at” hotmail.com (replace the “at” with a @)

If you need info about Skype, I’m certainly no expert, but you can get a guide here: http://www.skype.com/intl/en-us/features/allfeatures/video-call/

2

I have had the same luck. Great teacher, totally helpful, observant with attention to the exact details you’re struggling with. Totally recommend a skype session with Eamonn, no matter what level fluteplayer you are. Great experience . ti

3

Bill Ochs also offers lessons on flute and whistle via Skype.

http://www.pennywhistle.com/teaching.html

Best wishes.

Steve

4

I think Zac Leger also gives Skype lessons.

5

Actually that is where I first came across the concept of Skype lessons for ITM. Unfortunately when I tried to get something set up with Bill he said that he was fully booked up for online lessons and would not have a space available for several months. I waited for a response from him regarding lessons, then contacted him again after the interval had passed, but never heard back regarding openings. Hopefully anyone else trying to set something up with Bill will have better luck, by all accounts he is a great teacher.

I have also heard that Laura Byrne is contemplating giving online flute lessons, but do not know if she has started yet. I took a class with her at CIAW and found it to be very helpful. You can reach her at: http://www.laurabyrne.com/instruction.cfm

6

I have always found Bill to be very quick in responding to emails and very helpful as well as a great teacher. His lesson openings are fairly scarce however. Certainly nothing like a wait list of months though; at most a few weeks.

7

My apologies, Latticino! I am usually very efficient, but if you contacted me when I think you did, it was a very hectic period in my life. I am sorry that your query fell through the cracks.

I now have a much better system for keeping track of my availability. And these days on any given week I usually have an opening or two for a lesson.

Anyone who is interested in Irish flute, tin whistle, or uilleann pipe lessons via Skype or iChat, please contact me off-list at the e-mail link on the following page:

http://www.pennywhistle.com/teaching.html

Bill Ochs

8

Bill,
No problem, it all worked out for the best in the end. Glad to hear that things are less hectic for you now.