I see that the great Belfast flute player Michael Clarkson, who hosts the excellent tune resource at irishflute.podbean.com, has just started offering skype lessons. His email is iflute@googlemail.com
Highly suggested ![]()
He’s a very nice teacher, a quite rare quality.
The classes seem to be going well; some people have even come back for more! If anyone else is interested they can give be a shout. I’m OK with timezone differences - there’s something strangely therapeutic about playing tunes at a computer late at night.
I have had a couple of lessons with Michael, and I have only good things to say. He is very accommodating with his schedule (I’m in the US), and he is an all around nice guy to work with. Most importantly, he thinks about your lesson - for example, when we’re working on a tune, he sends recordings of himself playing (both slowly and a bit more up-tempo) demonstrating what we discussed at the lesson. So you really get more than just the 45 minutes online, and despite the distance it feels like what it is - a personalized, private lesson.
Regarding the technology itself, I find it works just fine. There can be the occasional hiccup, but not enough to distract from the lesson - I think the last time we had to repeat one thing once due to the sound cutting out, and that was about it.
Highly recommended!
So here’s another endorsement for Michael as a teacher !!! I also find Michael to be both thoughtful and thorough, so if you are looking for a teacher who really is top-notch and patient as an oak tree you should check him out. After several years of using his podbean site for an audio source for tunes, I was thrilled to find out that he was doing skype lessons because I love his style of playing and I jumped at the opportunity.
To hear his playing you can go to:
http://irishflute.podbean.com/
I’m located in US and the Skype thing is working fine for me also.
Gotta go practice now…