Prelude-10

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Hi Jamie,

Here is Prelude No.10 .

http://www.thesoftwarelab.net/shearer/Prelude-10.wmv


THANKS!
Mark

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Mark,
Nicely done. Your right hand looks very relaxed, and its great that you have memorized the piece. It might just be your mic setup, but I would try to bring out the treble notes over the bass a little more, even though the melody is in the bass for this piece.

I'm working on this piece right now, and I'm having trouble with the change from the open G bass note to the F in measure 7. I'm using finger 3 and flubbing the F.

Robert

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Thanks for listening... yes, my microphone is atrocious to say the least. Next on the list is a mic preamp so I can use a real microphone.

-Mark

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Nice going Robert. And thanks for the opportunity to view.
A question for Mark, or yourself: What would be the minimum equipment for half decent quality to record. At the moment, I have zero.
Keep it up.

-Ray

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Ray,
To make decent video recordings of guitar pieces all you really need is a computer with a USB port and a good Webcam. Webcams have built-in microphones and adequate software. I am using a Logitech Clicksmart 510 Webcam, which is an older model that is no longer available. I suggest you do a search on the Internet for reviews of some current models. Webcams typically cost between $30-$100.

If you want to get fancy with the audio quality, you can use an external mic. I recorded with the Webcam mic for a while, but it was picking up extraneous noise from my computer fans, ticking clock, etc. I first tried using a good quality dynamic mic (an ElectroVoice 670V) plugged into the "mic" port on my computer's sound card, but the audio quality was very poor -- worse than the Webcam mic. This was probably the fault of the computer's crappy pre-amp and electrical noise on the circuit boards. If you want to use an external dynamic mic, I recommend an external preamp.

I purchased a so-called "studio" condensor mic from Samson, model C01U. This is an interesting mic in that it is a condensor mic (supposed to have higher quality than a dynamic mic) with a built-in power source for the so-called "phantom" power that condensor mics need, and a software based pre-amp. You just plug the mic cable into a USB port on your computer, install the software, and you are ready to go. The USB port powers the mic. This mic has a "cardioid" pickup pattern, which means that it is fairly directional, so you can aim it at your guitar and minimize any extraneous sounds in your recording environment. The Samson C01U costs about $80. I recommend it.

If money is no object, you can spend several thousand dollars on true studio grade microphones.

Good luck,
Robert

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Thanks Robert.
I'll look into it the C01U sounds interesting. But it is a mic: how do you record the video?
I'm a real neophyte here.
Ray

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For video, you use the Webcam. The Webcam software "should" allow you to use a separate mic (my Logitech does).

-Robert

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Robert,
Many thanks.
Ray

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Hi Mark,

It looks and sounds absolutely excellent! Congratulations!

Your right hand looks great, what a nice pinky, sitting there so calmly. And the left hand looks great too, I see you picked up all the action cues, and are nailing everything and looking very relaxed while doing so.


I am not sure of this, but if you were sitting in front of me, I might pull your right arm forward about half an inch, to make contact with the bout of the guitar just a bit closer to the elbow than it is. It looks like, if you were to relax your arm where it is, the center of gravity would be such as to impel your hand upward, away from the strings.

This means that there is a slight effort to keep it near the strings, accomplished with muscle rather than weight. It doesn't really show itself here, because of the nature of the piece, but something that had you moving around a bit more might.

I say this also because you have bare arms. That is always tricky. If you are wearing sleeves, you can change that point of contact easily as you sense the need. But with bare arms, (especially in Georgia, where you are, I believe), the arm tends to "stick" against efforts to change position, causing the hand to tense and lower.

Just check this out and see if any of it applies. In any case, it was a great job, and you are on the right track. Oh, I also like the way the right thumb stays so well positioned throughout.

It seems a vast improvement from what I remember seeing at our workshop and private lesson!??

P.S. Sorry it took me awhile to review this, I get caught up in projects sometimes. I give everyone "nagging rights" to e-mail me (as Robert and Mark did), to come here and check on things!



Best,
Jamie

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Hi Jamie,
Thanks for the critique and encouraging words... yes it does get a bit humid down here in ga

I'll play around some more with that arm position, and keep going with everything else...

L8r,

Mark