Musicking.

com
Personas
Christina Hough - January 25, 2015

ONLINE MUSIC LEARNING - CHRISTINA HOUGH

Marie (Tech-Wary Teacher)

User Scenario
Marie is a skilled fiddle player in the Quebecois tradition.
While she has never derived a large portion of her income
from music, she has played many paying and non-paying
gigs, and has taught private lessons. Recently, she has
moved with her family from Montreal to Calgary, following a job opportunity of her
husbands. She misses her friends, and above all her musical contacts in Montreal - while
shes noted the existence of a few fiddler associations in Calgary, she is shy about making
contact.
Since shes left Montreal, one of her former students has urged her to begin offering Skype
lessons. Marie was skeptical at first, but her daughter thinks its a good idea, and her online
research has suggested various ways in which online music lessons might work. While there
appear to be some drawbacks to teaching using video conferencing (for example, shes
dismayed to learn that she wouldnt be able to play along with her students in real time),
Marie is starting to feel cautiously optimistic about the possibilities. Besides live video
lessons, she has also been noticing other models for online music education. One intriguing
example is that of Cape Breton fiddle teacher Kimberly Fraser, who offers weekly video
lessons on a subscription basis. Might Marie be able to offer something similar? She always
enjoys learning new fiddle styles and repertoire, and thinks that many fiddle players in
different locations might enjoy learning to play the Quebecois style.
While shes a little daunted by the technical challenges of organizing Skype lessons - let alone
creating instructional videos and other learning online learning materials - Marie would be
delighted if she were able to turn music teaching into a full-time job.

ONLINE MUSIC LEARNING - CHRISTINA HOUGH

Quick Facts

Name: Marie
Age: 47
Hometown: Montreal
Family: Marc (husband), Gabrielle (daughter,
aged 12)
Education: some university
Occupation: formerly a claims adjuster for an
insurance company, sometimes gives fiddle
lessons and plays paying gigs
Family income: $75,000
Hobbies: fiddling, reading, cooking, listening
to music, learning about regional fiddle
traditions

Maries grandfather was one of the most

celebrated local fiddlers in Rimouski, a town in
the Gasp region of Quebec. Shes very proud
of her musical and cultural heritage.

Musical Role-Model
Its amazing how much you can learn online,
but face-to-face interactions is still the best
way to learn how to play. One problem with
beginner students learning only from videos
is that they can learn bad habits so easily!

Listen

Personality
Tech User Type
Marie is basically a Desktop Veteran - she
uses the Internet quite a lot, but shes not very
interested in mobile (Source: Pew Research
Center Tech User Types).

ONLINE MUSIC LEARNING - CHRISTINA HOUGH

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator: INFJ

(introverted, intuitive, feeling, judging)
Marie is not a very outgoing person, but she
loves connecting with people and helping
them solve problems.

Musical Proficiency
Performance (fiddle)
Performance (clogging)

User Experience Goals

1.
2.
3.
4.

Inspiring
Community-driven
Easy to use
Informative

Teaching/conducting

Notation
Playing by ear
Composing
Arranging

Social and Learning Goals

1. Figure out how to teach music
effectively online.
2. Find other people to jam with in the
Calgary area.
3. Learn about different regional fiddle
styles.

Improvising

Brands
Technological Proficiency
Computer
Mobile
Social Media
Audio/video
E-commerce

Platforms
Computer: Windows
Tablet: None
Phone: iOS

ONLINE MUSIC LEARNING - CHRISTINA HOUGH

Music Education Profile

learned fiddle from her father
played in high school and CGEP
orchestra
teaches private lessons part-time

Steve (Ambitious but Cash-Strapped)

User Scenario
Steve is a grade 10 student living in a suburb of San Diego. He enjoys
playing the trumpet in his school band, and writing or arranging songs
so that he can play them with his friends. In fact, hes thinking about
auditioning for a university music program after he graduates, and
maybe studying composition. His music teacher is encouraging, but thinks he should take a
at least a year of private music lessons in order to prepare for his auditions. His parents
would have difficulty paying for private lessons, so hes saving money from his part-time job.
Really, though, hell need keep back as much of that money as possible to help fund his
university studies.
Currently, hes supplementing his music classes with online advice and video lessons as best
he can. He often finds himself coming back to forums like the one at TrumpetMaster.com; for
example, he found this thread when he was looking for advice about breath support. The
advice was helpful, but Steve is haunted by the last comment, which urges the original poster
to seek the face-to-face guidance of a teacher. His music teacher at school is great, and has
been especially helpful with Steves composing and arranging, but shes a string player with
a relatively rudimentary knowledge of how to play wind instruments.
Steve want guidance from an experienced trumpet player, but hes is trying to figure out how
little he can get away with spending while still achieving his goals. Maybe he can just pay for
a few lessons? Would that be enough?

ONLINE MUSIC LEARNING - CHRISTINA HOUGH

Quick Facts
Name: Steve
Age: 16
Hometown: San Diego
Family: Nam (father), Rose (mother), Hannah
(sister, aged 18), John (brother, aged 15),
Education: currently in high school
Family income: $60,000
Hobbies: listening to, playing, and writing
music (acoustic and electronic), video games,
chess

These people dont look very much like

Steve and his teacher, but otherwise this is a
pretty good depiction of how Steve is
learning to arrange and write music.

Musical Role-Model
My parents would rather I study something
more employable in college, but they know
how much I love music. I just dont want
to go into too much debt, so it would be
better if I can save money now.

Listen

Tech User Type

Steve might best be described as an
Ambivalent Networker - he uses mobile
quite heavily, but sometimes volume of traffic
a bit much for him. (Source: Pew Research
Center Tech User Types)

ONLINE MUSIC LEARNING - CHRISTINA HOUGH

Personality
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator: INTP
(introverted, intuitive, thinking, perceiving)
Steve loves finding the patterns inherent in
games and music, and takes these as the
basis for his creative inventions.

Musical Proficiency
Performance (trumpet)
Teaching/conducting

User Experience Goals

1.
2.
3.
4.

Authoritative
Fast
Fun
Adaptable

Notation
Playing by ear
Composing
Arranging
Improvising

Technological Proficiency

Social and Learning Goals

1. Prepare for trumpet auditions by
improving technique.
2. Learn about music programs at different
schools.
3. Help people learn music learn
composition and sound editing software.

Brands

Computer
Mobile
Social Media
Audio/video
E-commerce

Platforms
Computer: Linux (home), OSX (school)
Tablet: None
Phone: Android

ONLINE MUSIC LEARNING - CHRISTINA HOUGH

Music Education Profile

currently studying music in high school
plays in a wind band, and sometimes in
smaller groups of wind instruments

Elaine (Daydream Believer)

User Scenario
Elaine has never learned to play an instrument, though she
sang in several choirs growing up, and loves karaoke. Shes
also an avid music listener, and especially loves indie bands
and singers.
Shes always envied people who can play a musical instrument. Six months ago, a friend of
hers was selling his guitar, and she impulsively decided to buy it. She has dreams of playing
and singing for her friends, and perhaps leading sing-alongs. For the first few weeks she was
excited about learning. She began by going straight to YouTube, selecting the channel of Erich
Andreas (a.k.a. Your Guitar Sage), because his was the first video to come up when she
searched for guitar lessons for beginners. She liked his introductory lessons, and so
decided to sign up for the 14-day membership trial on his website so that she could access his
other lessons. After a few weeks of working through his videos, however, her motivation
began to wane. She found that her progress was slower than shed like, and when she
realized that she had gone over two months without touching the guitar - and was now being
charged $40 a month for access to her online lessons - she decided she had better cancel the
subscription.
Last week, however, a close friend of Elaines announced her intention of learning to play
guitar, and the two of them have resolved to keep one another accountable for practicing
regularly. On Elaines recommendation theyve both decided to subscribe (or re-subscribe) to
Erich Andreas site, and they have also been comparing goal-tracking apps and other
approaches that might keep them on track.

ONLINE MUSIC LEARNING - CHRISTINA HOUGH

Quick Facts
Name: Elaine
Age: 24
Hometown: Toronto
Family: single, frequently visits her parents in
Hamilton
Education: university
Occupation: marketing account coordinator
Income: $37,000
Hobbies: blogging, camping, yoga, listening
to music

Musical Role-Model

Represents Elaine as she diligently works

on mastering a chord change.

Im not really good enough to play in front

of people yet, but its boring to always
practice by myself. So its hard to stay
motivated, right?

Personality
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator: ENTP
(extroverted, intuitive, thinking, perceiving)
Listen

Tech User Type

Elaine is outgoing, creative and curious. She

likes thinking big thoughts, but is best
motivated by the promise of interacting
with others.

Elaine is a Digital Collaborator. Shes online

all the time, and loves to create and share
content (Source: Pew Research Center Tech
User Types).

ONLINE MUSIC LEARNING - CHRISTINA HOUGH

Musical Proficiency
Performance (guitar)
Performance (voice)

User Experience Goals

1.
2.
3.
4.

Creative
Social
Fun
Clean and simple

NNotation

Social and Learning Goals

Playing by ear
Improvising

Arranging
Improvising

Technological Proficiency

1. Learn how to play songs on the guitar.

2. Have fun even in the early stages, so that
she stays motivated.
3. Meet and learn from other people who
play the guitar and like similar music as
her.

Brands

Computer
Mobile
Social Media
Audio/video
E-commerce

Platforms
Computer: OSX
Tablet: iOS
Phone: iOS

ONLINE MUSIC LEARNING - CHRISTINA HOUGH

Music Education Profile

vocal music classes in middle school
sang in choirs as a child and as a
teenager, stopped in grade 10

10