Video performance - Prelude in C

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FlatPanda
Posts: 95
Joined: Fri Jan 03, 2020 11:56 am

Video performance - Prelude in C

Post by FlatPanda » Wed Sep 09, 2020 3:35 pm

Hi Everybody!

I'm not active on Facebook, I don't have an account because of privacy and other concerns. However, this month's challenge is to put videos about our learning path with Prelude in C onto the Facebook group. Thus, I'm coming with the following question: could somebody post the video below into the PGS Facebook group, please? :mrgreen:

https://vimeo.com/456320329

I think it should go either via the link or opening the link and clicking on the share on Facebook button.

And of course: if you have any comments, please, I'm eager to hear opinions about the vid, either here as a comment, or on Vimeo under the video.

Cheers

EFlatMajor
Posts: 147
Joined: Tue Dec 19, 2017 2:51 pm

Re: Video performance - Prelude in C

Post by EFlatMajor » Wed Sep 09, 2020 4:45 pm

Hi FlatPanda - great video! You seem to have it all nailed down.

I don't use Facebook either. I think most forum users don't.

I think someone asked this same question - what to do with the video if not a facebook member - in one of Phil's youtube videos - and I think the answer was to email it to the support email support@playgroundsessions.com . I am not sure if they will post it to facebook, but they will count it towards the required 30 videos for the release of the next set of lessons.

Probably just emailing the link to the video would be fine.

Please let us know how it goes.

FlatPanda
Posts: 95
Joined: Fri Jan 03, 2020 11:56 am

Re: Video performance - Prelude in C

Post by FlatPanda » Thu Sep 10, 2020 12:32 pm

Hi EFlatMajor - thanks for the kind words :)

I did as you mentioned and e-mailed the support. After explicit consent, that they may post the video on my behalf, they are going to relay it. Thanks for the tip! Additionally, I asked confirmation that this is a semi-official way to do this thing, and yes, it is.

So, in case anybody else is there, who is non-facebook user but would like to participate in the challenge with a video: write an e-mail to the support with the link! And maybe post the link here, so we can enjoy it too ;)

EFlatMajor
Posts: 147
Joined: Tue Dec 19, 2017 2:51 pm

Re: Video performance - Prelude in C

Post by EFlatMajor » Fri Sep 11, 2020 1:54 pm

Glad it all worked out :)

FlatPanda
Posts: 95
Joined: Fri Jan 03, 2020 11:56 am

Re: Video performance - Prelude in C

Post by FlatPanda » Mon Sep 21, 2020 3:35 am

In case somebody on this forum is interested, here is my video for the second week of the challenge :)

I'm still experimenting with how to set up the video, thus the bad focus and flickering, sorry about that (but only because of these I didn't want to re-record everything).

https://vimeo.com/459950760

EFlatMajor
Posts: 147
Joined: Tue Dec 19, 2017 2:51 pm

Re: Video performance - Prelude in C

Post by EFlatMajor » Mon Sep 21, 2020 12:10 pm

Hi FP,

Checked out your new video on my lunch break. It is fantastic. You did a great job with it and on top of that you play the music very well. Kind of depresses me a little as I am on the rookie track and can only play about half of what you can play and also not as well!

Anyway, thanks for including the technical details in the description of the video. I was wondering how you did it and with a Mac, all things graphic are possible.

I use Linux with Intel and although I am sure there is equivalent open source software packages out there, with open source most of the work is actually finding and installing those packages. Plus I should really learn the piece first before thinking about making a video.

I did not see any flickering or blurry parts. I hope you can get this video on facebook as well. It is very well done.

FlatPanda
Posts: 95
Joined: Fri Jan 03, 2020 11:56 am

Re: Video performance - Prelude in C

Post by FlatPanda » Tue Sep 22, 2020 2:15 am

Hi E♭,

I'm sorry, I really did not want to induce any bad feeling, my intention with sharing wasn't bragging or such, just participating in the Challenge on this forum as well... but, to be honest, I'm sure that you are underselling yourself, as almost every PGS player ever does ;) Nevertheless, thank you for the kind words!

I'm pretty sure that you can achieve almost the same video on a Linux-only system. My only and ever Apple purchase was a MacBook Air a couple years ago (never again any Apple product, never!), and I use that with the piano. The only thing, which I did for the video on the Mac was the screen capturing of the PGS and MuseScore music sheets. Everything else, I've done on a Windows 10 PC.

Here is, how it would be possible on Linux:
  • Screen capturing for the music sheets: there are many software available, probably the most lightweight is Kazam: https://launchpad.net/kazam
  • (Music sheet 1) PGS: I think it's officially not supported on Linux, but apparently you made it working ;) Wine?
  • (Music sheet 2) MuseScore: opensource, available on Linux: https://musescore.org/en/download I created my own music sheet for this piece, but as it's in the public domain, you can find ones readily available on MuseScore.com, e.g.: https://musescore.com/user/101554/scores/117279 I wanted to create my own, so that I can include the pedal marking, accents, etc. as I see fit and just re-record the screen.
  • Pianoteq for the audio: is available for Linux too: https://www.modartt.com/try I use the free trial version, and thus far I'm lucky, because in Prelude in C you don't have to use any of the keys, which will be muted in the trial version ;)
  • OpenShot for the editing of the video: open source, available on Linux: https://www.openshot.org/download/ I have to warn you: it includes A LOT of fiddling with cropping, scaling, layouting, etc. I was surprised how much time it consumes, just to align and properly crop stuff. Nevertheless, the sheet music is still not 100% perfectly in-sync with the music in my videos (at least the video and audio is somewhat in sync).
  • Own video recording: this is the most tricky part, if you want to achieve good quality (which my videos does not have, yet). I first used a GoPro Hero 5, the second video is with a Nikon D3300. One could use an HD webcam, or anything similar, suspended above the piano as you play (my piano is next to a shelf, thus I've put the camera on a stick on the top shelf). The flickering I mentioned is because of the lighting: I don't have anything professional, I used a portable LED light, and it's frequency does not match the 60 FPS precisely, that's why there is a running blacker line throughout the recordings in the second video. For the first video, I just used the ceiling light and a standing light next to the piano and afterwards de-saturated the video in OpenShot so that the white-balance is somewhat OK.

EFlatMajor
Posts: 147
Joined: Tue Dec 19, 2017 2:51 pm

Re: Video performance - Prelude in C

Post by EFlatMajor » Tue Sep 22, 2020 3:35 pm

Thanks FP - no bad feelings at all. :) Happy your video is as good as it is, it only motivates me to work harder.

Also thanks for all the additional information - yes, I use PGS under WINE, on Linux (Fedora 32). It works fine at the moment, but with this rewrite of the desktop version of PGS looming, I wonder how long that will be. I am registered as a beta tester but nothing has come through yet, so I have no idea.

Thanks for the list of packages, you saved me a ton of time. I already use MuseScore, but all the other ones would be new for me.

FlatPanda
Posts: 95
Joined: Fri Jan 03, 2020 11:56 am

Re: Video performance - Prelude in C

Post by FlatPanda » Mon Oct 05, 2020 2:30 pm

Wow, this is getting really difficult towards the end, it's a lot of transitions :roll:

https://vimeo.com/465124424

My experiment is pretty sloppy this time around (from 2:40 in the video), but I didn't have as much time to spend on it this week as usual :( Hope it's still somewhat enjoyable!

EFlatMajor
Posts: 147
Joined: Tue Dec 19, 2017 2:51 pm

Re: Video performance - Prelude in C

Post by EFlatMajor » Tue Oct 06, 2020 9:06 am

Great job again, FlatPanda! It is really starting to come together for you.

Let me ask you - does your piano have weighted keys? Your hands press the keys so effortlessly.. For me I struggle, maybe I have to keep building finger strength.. like when I hit a key with my ring finger, my pinkie stretches straight out like it is being electrocuted. This happens on both hands.

Once again a great video - it had a lot of views yesterday so I am sure it made it to Facebook. I think the advanced track people are going to finish long before the rookies, seems like you are close to done.

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