Just for the fun of it I video recorded myself playing a tune. It was recorded using my digital camera, which can also record limited video. It’s obviously not as perfect as a video camera would make it, but it’s fun to play with. The sound is a bit metallic, I think, and isn’t really getting details (but maybe that’s a good thing ) and the video itself is not that great either. But in my camera’s defense - it was almost evening, so the lack of proper light has affected the image, I think.
Feedback on my playing is welcome, but I haven’t been playing that long, so be gentle I’m not all that concerned about variations, different breathing-places yet - but beginning to look into that.
Anyway, the clip was primarily done to show what you can do with an ordinary digital camera (at least some models) - so go check out your model and see if it can record video too I guess you can use it to evaluate your fingering or something - I think my fingers seem a bit rigid - and funny to see how the little finger seems to follow automatically
Bayswater, I love the clip! I think videotaping one’s own playing is a great way to learn. I’ve done that with other instruments and it really gives me a new perspective. I haven’t done it with the flute yet, though. I imagine it will be a humbling experience! Yours is very well done, and the playing is great!
Wanderer, I couldn’t get your link to work. Anyone else having trouble?
EDITED TO SAY: Yeah, it’s working fine now. Thanks!
I listened to both clips, which takes some time with a dial-up modem. Nice playing guys. Wanderer, I see that you are a lefty. It sure looks awkward to me.
I do have two questions. Were the recordings made with the microphone that is built into the camera, or did you use an auxillary microphone? I am curious about how many frames per second and how large the file size is for a one-minute video?
Well I’m not sure how long it is, but the first clip is 2.9M. I just downloaded it. As for the mic, it’s probably just the camera mic. I have a standard (roughly $100) Kodak digital, and the sound is pretty decent.
I enjoyed that too. I’m guessing you perhaps learnt it off the Mad for Trad CD? Must experiment with my camera, so I can see how c*** I play!!!
Re feedback: I wouldn’t put myself up as any notion of expert but I would say it’s sounds a wee touch too fast or perhaps rushed? A jig really has a kinda lazy touch to it with more emphasis on the 1 in 123. Da dede Da dede. But please ignore that as you wish!!!
I’m a righty…i just don’t know how to play properly
I used the camera’s built in mic. On my camera, the video is 1.3 megs for 15 seconds pretty consistently, so a little over 5 megs a minute. I imagine that things have improved a bit, since my camera’s 6 years old–I also imagine the 1.3 meg/15 sec limit was imposed because people still used floppy drives back then and a 128 meg flash memory card was a couple hundred bucks (as opposed to the 1 gig card I got recently for $38.00.heh!)
@ Doug_Tipple
I used the built in microphone on the camera, as well. There’s even a speaker on the thing so you can listen to your recording directly on the camera. There’s a SD memory card in it, which slides into my PC. From there you can copy it to your hard drive. I used Windows Movie Maker (from Microsoft - I think it comes with your windows XP for free) to decrease the size of the movie because the original was very “heavy” i megabytes. With Windows Movie Maker you can set the limit. The clip is 1:01 minutes, 2,85 MB, 25 FPS, 218 kbps (not quite sure on what that is).
@ Flutered
The tune is Tobin’s Jig, and I picked it up from the “300 Tunes from Mike Rafferty” book. I’ll try slowing down the pace and see how that works I would love hearing it played on a cd - perhaps I can pick up a trick or two
I enjoyed that. Nice playing for sure.
I am wondering if the very last few bars of the recording were a deliberate variation or have you been learning “The Big Tar Road”. I thought that the few bars in question were very like the last few bars of the Big Tar…
@ dubhlinn
I don’t know “The Big Tar Road”. I guess the variation was what I could come up with. But it’s very likely that I’ve “stolen” it from another tune
@ dow
Esnips is a free service that let’s you upload a gigabyte (of different) materials. Maybe they had an outage or something - it seems to be working again.
@ Whistlin’Dixie
I don’t really know YouTube - esnips lets you upload 1 GB of files. It’s really user-friendly and I particularly like it because you can upload different types of materials video, audio, documents etc. and decide whether it should be public, private og shared with a group. (I’m not a shareholder - I just like it )
) and the video itself is not that great either. But in my camera’s defense - it was almost evening, so the lack of proper light has affected the image, I think.
I’m not all that concerned about variations, different breathing-places yet - but beginning to look into that.
