Software from new companies such as eJamming, WorkshopLive, and In the Chair can connect students and teachers in online groups or in solo sessions to record and edit music online. The growing number of homes with access to broadband internet service has helped fuel this emerging trend.

eJamming, a software application and online service that enables musicians to find, network, and play music online with one another in real time, facilitates music education, collaboration, and social networking over the internet, its authors say.

Using eJamming Studio 1.5, musicians can plug their MIDI-enabled digital instruments--keyboards, guitars, bass guitars, drum kits, and wind controllers--into their computers' USB port and connect and play with up to seven other musicians in real time.

"Real-time, in-sync connectivity expands the possibilities of any music-teaching approach. The only limit is the teacher's imagination," said Gail Kantor, chief executive officer of eJamming Inc. "We're seeing the genesis of a new teaching culture ... Plus, there's a 'cool factor' to eJamming that will inspire students after class to connect and study together."

Kantor said she founded eJamming because of her interest in music education, which stems from a career in which she worked on stage and behind the scenes with many high-profile musicians.

The software allows musicians to play music together in real time. And timing, Kantor said, is a crucial component of music. She added, "The technology itself becomes such a motivator to learn and an enabler to teach."

Using the software, a teacher can connect with up to seven students on an eJamming "stage" using a typical DSL or cable internet connection.

eJamming includes built-in Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology and has a sound library containing different instrument sounds. These sounds use MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface), a sound-specification protocol that enables exchanges of musical information between synthesizers and computers, to ensure that if one student plays a harp sound from his or her computer, the other students on that eJamming stage will hear exactly the same sound.

Teachers may show examples of a melody or rhythm and have students group together in eJamming to re-create that example. The software also broadens the possibilities of teaching in an economical way--music teachers who give private lessons can teach more students at once and don't have to drive to their lessons.

eJamming still allows students to get "a simultaneous experience, almost as if [all the participants] were in the same room," Kantor said.

Web cameras can be used for a more complete experience, she said. They can be pointed at a student's hands, so his or her teacher can review finger placement and motions.

Aside from playing and listening to music in real time, users can record everything they hear. Each person's musical execution is saved on everyone's hard drive simultaneously, and a student or teacher can export that sound file to any mixing software program.