Blog - occasional, random thoughts on music - May 2015
Creating instructional videos
28.5.2015
I've created a number of instructional videos on my YouTube channel since I started posting stuff there about eight years ago. The first one, which to date has had over a quarter of a million views, was 'How To Play Davy Graham's "Angi"'. This was produced and uploaded in May 2007. The technique I used then has become a bit more sophisticated with the years, and takes advantage of HD video, but is essentially the same, using a mix of:
For the animated chord diagrams, I create a computer guitar track using the music writing program on my Mac Book Pro - "Harmony Assistant". I start by creating a score of standard notation and tablature - just as I would play it. This serves two purposes: (a) the tab produced acts as a guide to creating the beat-by-beat chord diagrams, and (b) the program can generate and export an artificial guitar track at any given tempo. So, the exported computer-generated sound track is used underneath the computer-generated chord diagrams.
As far as the actual chord diagrams are concerned, I used to use Adobe Photoshop but now employ a similar but simpler (and cheaper) program called 'iDraw". This allows graphic objects to be created as layers which can be switched "on" or "off" - i.e. visible or invisible - as required. I create a JPG file for each beat in the bar - one which shows the chord, beat and note positions on the fretboard. All this is also uploaded into iMovie and intercut with the live action and to-camera talk.
I use a medium-priced Sony HD camcorder for the video shots and a Zoom H2 digital recorder for the sound. The Sony is not a good camera for low light, and gives average sound, but I only ever use it in decent daylight and rarely use its sound in my videos - relying on the Zoom.
28.5.2015
I've created a number of instructional videos on my YouTube channel since I started posting stuff there about eight years ago. The first one, which to date has had over a quarter of a million views, was 'How To Play Davy Graham's "Angi"'. This was produced and uploaded in May 2007. The technique I used then has become a bit more sophisticated with the years, and takes advantage of HD video, but is essentially the same, using a mix of:
- live action at normal speed
- live action at slow speed
- animated chord diagrams
For the animated chord diagrams, I create a computer guitar track using the music writing program on my Mac Book Pro - "Harmony Assistant". I start by creating a score of standard notation and tablature - just as I would play it. This serves two purposes: (a) the tab produced acts as a guide to creating the beat-by-beat chord diagrams, and (b) the program can generate and export an artificial guitar track at any given tempo. So, the exported computer-generated sound track is used underneath the computer-generated chord diagrams.
As far as the actual chord diagrams are concerned, I used to use Adobe Photoshop but now employ a similar but simpler (and cheaper) program called 'iDraw". This allows graphic objects to be created as layers which can be switched "on" or "off" - i.e. visible or invisible - as required. I create a JPG file for each beat in the bar - one which shows the chord, beat and note positions on the fretboard. All this is also uploaded into iMovie and intercut with the live action and to-camera talk.
I use a medium-priced Sony HD camcorder for the video shots and a Zoom H2 digital recorder for the sound. The Sony is not a good camera for low light, and gives average sound, but I only ever use it in decent daylight and rarely use its sound in my videos - relying on the Zoom.
