Latency is the proper name for the time it takes a packet of information to be sent from the sender to the receiver over a network. Unfortunately for musicians desiring synchronization, many users of these services will experience lag time. Many people are familiar with mainstream videoconferencing services like Skype, FaceTime, Google+Hangouts, or GoToMeeting. These services provide users the ability to both see and hear each other with the help of computers and the Internet. Musicians who are interested in real-time collaborative music making, and do not have money to spend on Broadway-budget technology, will often turn to commonly available videoconferencing technologies. However, real-time synchronous music making is not a current reality for the general population. (Healy, 2012) There is debate about the quality of these types of performances but the collaboration between musicians and actors/singers in these stories is successful.

One of the rooms had to watch the conductor on small screens attached to their music stands. For example, the musicians for “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” were split between two rooms in the basement of the Foxwoods Theater, NY. There are recording studios and pit orchestras who are perfecting the art of real-time synchronous collaboration from a distance. When possible, collaborating online in real-time is showing great musical benefits. Online collaborative learning and music making is more contemporary. These activities are primarily designed for students to participate individually. Discussion boards, pre-recorded videos, and drill and practice games are antiquated technologies. Most of these resources are interesting and encourage students to practice and learn while in an informal setting, but they are also fairly commonplace. Quite a few method books now feature an online companion as well. Essential Elements 2000 , Sound Innovations , String Basics, and String Explorer are just a few of the method books that invite students to participate in online communities and use online resources to improve their playing. There are also websites like that are designed to help a student on a specific instrument.

A simple YouTube search returns thousands of videos with lessons on each string instrument. In addition, there are many ways a student can learn to play a string orchestra instrument using online resources. They learn in formal ways: lessons, small groups, rehearsals, and hopefully in informal ways, on their own, as well. As an orchestra teacher, it is interesting to observe the variety of ways orchestra students learn.

Skype web collaboration