One Setup, Built for Every Session

Photo by Jonathan Timmons

 

Imagine one setup that hosts a beginner learning their first chord progression and supports a full-band rehearsal across state lines. That’s Lutefish.

Gina Sobel is a multi-instrumentalist artist, experienced music teacher, and co-founder of the modern Sephardic fusion band, Minnush. Since discovering Lutefish, it has become part of her setup for both teaching and band rehearsals.

Gina began teaching music lessons casually in college. Once she graduated, she began taking the profession more seriously. As her teaching grew, so did the range of her students, spanning different instruments, ages, and styles. Most of her lessons took place over traditional video calls, which worked for communication, but often fell short musically. The delay made it difficult to play together in real time, especially during lessons focused on improvisation, strum patterns, harmony singing, or duet practice. She needed a tool that could keep up with the way she actually teaches.

Lutefish has changed the game for Gina’s virtual music lessons. The impact is especially clear in her improvisation lessons, specifically with one of her jazz flute students.

“Lutefish gives us the chance to play together and trade licks back and forth,” Gina shares. “Also, the audio quality is so great; it really picks up nuances that you don't get over a laptop mic through traditional video calls.”

Gina Sobel with student John Whitlow

She is starting to use it more in lessons with her singer-songwriter students to practice guitar grooves and harmony singing in real time, and is hoping to bring more of her students onto the platform soon.

While Gina spends much of her time working one-on-one with students, her work as a performing musician is just as central to her career. Outside of her solo music, Gina is the co-founder of Minnush, a modern Sephardic fusion band. The group began during Gina’s Virginia Folklife apprenticeship with Susan Gaeta, where they studied traditional Sephardic ballad singing and began blending it with their own voices and modern influences. As Trevor Pietsch joined on bass and Marty Risemberg on drums, Minnush took shape.

With members living across multiple cities, rehearsing together hasn’t always been easy. Coordinating schedules, travel, and time in the same room could slow the process down. With Lutefish, Minnush has more consistent rehearsals to work on new and old music, without relying on in-person meet-ups.

“While it's not a total replacement for live rehearsal, Lutefish is an amazing opportunity to develop new material and run through arrangements, and it helps keep us moving forward when our schedules inevitably get crazy,” Gina states.

For Gina, the same setup now carries her through a full day of music, from guiding a student through their first improvisation to locking in a groove with her band across multiple cities. Whether she’s teaching, rehearsing, or writing, the momentum never has to stop.