VirtuLessons: Online Music Lessons

A few weeks ago, I got one of the nicest emails out of the blue. And after several back-and-forths, I decided I wanted to introduce readers to this online platform, and more importantly to the person who created it because I liked the concept and I loved the background story. (In full disclosure…there’s nothing in it for me. Take that, FCC!)  So without much more ado, here she is!

Hello everyone, my name is Jessica and I am very grateful to Scott for allowing me to write to you on his blog! I am the cofounder of VirtuLessons, but before I tell you more about it I’d like to take the time to thank you, his readers, too.

As a new small business in the education department, I’ve been trying to connect with parents and I find myself on blogs a lot.  I’ve learned something: homeschooling parents are unmatched in their dedication to provide a wholesome life for their children. They believe in more than just academic excellence, but in character building and experiences too and are ready to take an active role in this journey. I want to help. It is because of your high values that I make this unusual guest post. I feel that you may not only be interested in our service, but in me and my family story too.

So now let me tell you a little about me and my small business. I am a passionate music teacher, and devoted wife to a disabled veteran. I teach elementary music in an independent school in PA. I have experience teaching in NY too, and my students have performed very well in festivals across the state. It was while teaching in NY that I met my husband, Tom. Tom was a Navy Nuke on the U.S.S Philadelphia (you can imagine my surprise when I began to learn about Scott). Tom was injured while underway in 2009, and was honorably discharged in 2011. We moved to PA so that he could continue to work despite his chronic pain. I’m not sure how he does it, he’s my hero and I want to help.

When we moved, I had to let go of a lot of my private lesson students. Naturally, both sides were devastated, so I began to teach them via Skype. We were so excited and they continued to perform highly in their festivals, but I knew a better virtual classroom was in order. During my Master’s degree I studied instructional technology and Tom paired me up with a computer programmer. Together we created VirtuLessons, a web-based studio for taking private music lessons.

The VirtuLessons eClassroom connects students and teachers right in the website browser. In addition to the video chat, the classroom has two interactive whiteboards for uploading sheet music and instrument frames. Both the student and teacher can draw on the board and see each other’s marks in real time! On the bottom left is a chat box, where teachers can leave notes for the student. After the lesson is done, students will see their teacher’s notes on their homepage whenever they log-in so that they (and their parents) will always remember what to work on! But we wanted to be more than just a lesson studio. We understand that students learn through playing, so we also added a lot of interactive activities to do when they’re not in a lesson!

I recognized the benefit that this type of learning experience could have for homeschool families as well as families who move a lot, such as military families. I invited experienced and talented music teachers to the team who are so excited to work with new students on any instrument at your convenience.

I would love for you to check out our site, browse our teachers, and create a student account at www.virtulessons.com ! If you’d like to try it out first, I would like to offer a free mini-lesson to thank you for reading this post on Scott’s blog. If you send me a message at Jessica@virtulessons.com, we can schedule a time to connect during the month of July to meet, try out the tools, and learn a few things about music, too! Thanks for reading and have a great summer!

A few weeks ago, I got one of the nicest emails out of the blue. And after several back-and-forths, I decided I wanted to introduce readers to this online platform, and more importantly to the person who created it because I liked the concept and I loved the background story. (In full disclosure…there’s nothing in…