Let’s get you ready

for your Songwriting Coaching Session or Guitar Lesson

DAY-OF REMINDERS
You will always receive a reminder email from Derek with the time of your session/lesson and a Zoom link to join at that time (please do not join the Zoom meeting before your scheduled time).

RECODRING
All Songwriting Coaching Sessions and Guitar Lessons are recorded by Derek on Zoom. The only purpose of these recordings is to provide you with re-watchable videos of every single session/lesson, yours to stream or download, indefinitely (even if you stop your sessions/lessons). After each session/lesson, Derek will send you an email with a link to rewatch. if your sessions/lessons are recurring (weekly/bi-weekly), the link will be to a folder that will gather all of your sessions/lessons over time, always at the same link.

Recordings of your sessions/lessons will never be shared with or shown to anyone without your explicit permission.

PAYMENT
That same post-session/lesson email will include a payment reminder, with direct links to pay with either Venmo or PayPal. Due to additional fees that PayPal charges, Venmo is preferred. Payment is due within 24 hours of your session/lesson.

RESCHEDULING & CANCELATION
Songwriting Coaching Sessions and Guitar Lessons are zero commitment, paid for week to week. You can cease your sessions/lessons at any time, preferably with at least 48 hours notice.

Need to reschedule or skip a week? No problem. Just notify Derek prior to 24 hours before your session/lesson and he’ll work with you to find a better time (or simply cancel that week, if needed). Outside of an emergency situation, if you don’t let Derek know before 24 hours prior to a cancelation (or if you forget and don’t show up), a 50% payment is appreciated.

ZOOM
All sessions/lessons take place on Zoom. Please use Zoom on a desktop computer, laptop, or iPad/tablet during your session/lesson. If you don’t have the Zoom Workplace app, downloading and using that in preference of using the in-browser version of Zoom is highly recommend (and it’s free).

A quick read over these best-practices, policies, and Zoom preference tips and you’ll be good to go.

Get the Zoom Workplace app

ZOOM AUDIO PREFERENCS
While Zoom is very good at filtering out background noise when you’re only talking, there are some audio settings that must be adjusted for clarity during music sessions/lessons.

First, open your Zoom settings and under the ‘Audio’ section, select ‘Original sound for musicians’ (and check all three boxes you see below it).

Once you’ve made this adjustment in settings, you should see a box appear at the top right of your Zoom meeting window that says, “Original sound for musicians: on/off” (by default, it’s set to ‘off’). Once the meeting starts, you’ll need to click that box to toggle it to ‘on’.

MICROPHONE / SPEAKER
For the clearest sound, please set your ‘Microphone’ to the built-in microphone on your computer/tablet. You can do this in the Zoom ‘Audio’ settings or by clicking/tapping the small arrow next to ‘Audio’ in the bottom left of your Zoom meeting window, under ‘Microphone’. If you’re using headphones or earbuds/Airpods, just select those under ‘Speaker’ in either of the aforementioned ways (using the built-in speaker on your device is also fine, as long as you can hear clearly).

If you have any questions or difficulty with adjusting these settings, Derek will be happy to help you at the start of your first session/lesson.

HAVE ANY OTHER QUESTIONS?
If there’s ever anything you need regarding your Songwriting Coaching Sessions or Guitar Lessons, just drop Derek an email and he’ll be glad to help.