I have been wanting to and trying to get some of my playing recorded, but the process takes time and planning, and I just haven’t been motivated enough to get the process rolling. Part of the problem is there are SO many good creators on YouTube making amazing videos of their music. Their skills are better, their video production is polished, and they know what they are doing. It’s Intimidating and it makes it harder to get started.
I want to record some videos so I have samples of my playing. I would like to be hired for background music, play in the lobby (or garden/park) at the hospital, and maybe at some old folks homes AND maybe even busking. I need to have some samples for people so they know what I play and if my style will match their event.
I had someone ask me around Christmas if I play events, but I had nothing for them to see or hear, and I certainly wasn’t ready for Christmas. I’ve since bought some pieces I think would do really well – I’m not sure I have enough yet for a whole Christmas event, but it’s a start. BUT I still have nothing for people to see.
I would like my videos to be good. I studied film after all, so I should have all the skills needed to do this. BUT you also need the right equipment, and it’s difficult to do things at the scale others are without help. Right now, my strategy is to just DO IT and get some samples up without being fancy. If I wait until I can do them to the level I want to, I don’t know if I’ll ever get started. I think right now it’s better for me to just do SOMETHING and have it on this site than to do NOTHING.
Even doing this simply takes work.
Over the past year, I’ve purchased a few minor pieces of equipment in order to do some videos. I already had a pretty good camera, but I needed to get an audio recorder. I bought it but hadn’t had it ‘out in the field’ for testing. Now I have, and it was a good choice. It does very well with external sounds when positioned properly, although it still picks up ambient sounds. I think going forward I might have to change from live, on-location sound to pre-recorded sound, but that takes more preparation and planning.
I’d have to record the songs at home and then add a click track so I can listen to playback on location. Syncing might be a little more difficult with the video as well if I don’t play exactly as the recording. At least with on-location, live sound, the computer can compare the audio from the recorder and sync it to the audio on the camera, and it will be 100% accurate. If I do pre-recorded, there is a risk that the video and audio won’t be 100% accurate.
I’ve started making a list of locations around the city for B-roll video. I want to have peaceful scenes and cut-a-ways for editing purposes. I think what I’ll do is get some on-location shoots done just so I can get something posted and then I can work over time to improve the videos with b-roll and better sound recording.