The Future Is Here In 360°

The future is here. In full 360-degree view.
 
I recently saw an episode of #askgaryvee on YouTube that was filmed with a
360-degree camera. If you watch it on a mobile device, you can change the
angle of what you are looking at by merely turning the phone. You can
pause, replay a section and watch it from a completely different angle. On
a computer, you use a set of arrow keys to point the camera wherever you
want. Very cool.
 
Around six months ago, I was fortunate enough to travel to the suburbs of
Pittsburgh with Denis Colwell to see a demo of one of these cameras. To say
my mind was blown would be an understatement.
 
In both instances, I had the same reaction. This technology can and will
completely transform our lives. In ways we are only beginning to
understand.
 
My brain hurt while thinking of the ramifications for us in the business of
training students to make , market and deliver "serious music."
 
After the demo last spring, my mind reeled at the possibilities for using
this technology. Seeing the #askgaryvee video reminded me that this
technology is not decades or years into the future. It is here now. It is
expensive right now, not available to everyone yet and not widely known.
 
But it is here. To stay.
 
The rest of this post is my "brain drain" list of possibilities for using
this technology to help train musicians, deliver a new form of concert and
break down the barriers between performer and audience. Feel free to add
your own in the comments. Or disagree with me. Or improve on these!
 
Here's my top 10:

1. Set the camera up and ask a pro/clinician to play a piece or practice
for half an hour or an hour. Imagine being able to watch a world class
performer from any angle?
 
2. Same setup with a master class.
 
3. Same setup with an ensemble rehearsal. The conductor/applied faculty can
watch and analyze the individual players of the section they teach or the
conducting teacher can watch the conducting student. The ensemble conductor
can watch the overall program.
 
4. A school classroom environment where a student teacher can watch how the
students are reacting to their teaching approach or style.
 
5. The possibilities for online lessons are amazing. You could send the
feed to a teacher in another location and get real-time or after-the-fact
feedback about the performance, from multiple angles/perspectives.
 
6. Record the great works from the repertoire and provide guided tours of
the piece so people are able to have a visual component to what they are
hearing. The viewer has the opportunity to hear what the experts think they
should be listening for and then also show them the instruments in question
simultaneously.
 
7. If you capture an entire rehearsal, a coach or conductor could go in and
explain why they made the decisions they made and how those decisions
affected the overall product.
 
8. A master teacher could give a set of tutorials on technique,
illustrating how to get started with an instrument, how to approach solving
problems, how posture relates to performance and the student can see it
from every angle.
 
9. We could explore new and interesting staging arrangements so there is a
visual component to a concert.
 
10. All the same things that apply for the solo student are available to
chamber groups as well. From the coaching and performing and rehearsing
standpoint. Additionally a quartet in residence could leave a guided tour
through a piece.