Hey guy's sorry for the confusion about formats. I meant to say that I'm using over-dubbing in audacity when I PRACTICE playing with the track. That way, I'm recording my takes, and I can listen to them back to see how it sounds. Also, when I make my actual vid, I'll record the sound track in audacity with a real microphone, rather than realying on the really crappy one that's on my camera. I'll then use windows movie maker to put the audacity-recorded sound track over the matching movie.... ---------- -------------- The magnificent YouTube channel of the internet user known as "isaacullah"
I suppose that if you can make a "movie file" (with i-movie or windows movie maker, etc) of your audio file, that should be fine. We'll take your word that it's you playing it! ;) Just besure to make it a movie file before you try to upload to YouTube or, as I recently found out, it won't play in the YT player.
EDIT: I think the preference is for an actual video, if you have the capability. However, I don;t want to exclude anyone simply becasue they don't have a video camera or can't afford one. Therefore, if you don't have any way to record video, we'll accept an audio-only upload to YT. And FYI, take a look at ANY digital "still" camera you might have. Many of them actually do have the capability to take video in addition to still pictures. This is how I do my videos. I have a cheap pentax digital camera, but it has a setting that takes some admittedly low quality but acceptable video. If I want to have good audio quality, I have to record the sound seperately (as I mentioned before) and over-dub it to the video track in Windows Movie Maker (very simple)... ---------- -------------- The magnificent YouTube channel of the internet user known as "isaacullah"
Last Edited by on Mar 20, 2009 11:18 AM
Re: singing. I certainly won't be singing, as I have yet to hone/practice that skill, and I'm not the greatest at making up lyrics. I suppose if you are so inclined, you can sing if you like. Keep in mind, however, that this is a blues HARP competition. I think the judges (Adam and Chris, as well as the forum member voters) will make their judgement based on the HARP content and how it flows with the backing track. So I suppose if you feel that singing will help you with your harp content, feel free. If you think that singing will get in the way, or that you just don't think your singing will be good, then make it an instrumental.
Argh! I do have a digital camera that takes video. How do I merge it with OW's backing track? How can I watch myself as I'm recording. I may take me longer to figure out how to get it recorded than to figure out something to play. And that's a long time. And I'd like to use a condenser mic for the audio. Maybe do an audio only. Not computer savvy enough to get it done.
What would we do without isaacullah at the helm. Big round of applause for his work so far. (clap clap clap). Excellent moderating sir ! It seems like all concerns are covered and I look forward to tossing in my $.02. Now, What is this about logging into the YT site? I'd like to get at this and 'git 'er dun!! If I have to log in please forward the info.
---------- "Keep it in your mouth" - XHarp
Last Edited by on Mar 20, 2009 1:10 PM
Tuck, I do all my videos with my digital camera. Take a short "warm up" video to make sure you are in the frame. You can't watch yourself, but you can do multiple takes if you don't like it. Just play OW jam track in the background and the phone's mic should pick it up too.
Xharp, I'll send you the harpfriends login info. Do you already have a YT user name? If so, I cna send you the info via YouTube mail... We haven't been giving the login info in posts here becasue then anyone could find it and "hack" into the harpfiends YT account. If you don't already have a YT account, I can e-mail it to you if you want (you'll have to be cool about leaving an e-mail address up here, tho)... Thanks for you compliments by the way!
@Tuckster, I do it the way Preston says. I set the camera up, take a "test" vid to see that I'm in frame, and then just start rollin. If you have the MP3 of OW's track playing on your computer speakers so that you can hear it, then the camera's mic will also hear it.
If your camera's mic is crappy (like mine), you may want to consider recordign the audio seperately, and then just over dubbing the video with the better sound recording. You can record it anyway you like, but I take a line out from my computer, mix it into my amp, (same one I'm playing harp through), and then mic the amp (with a real microphone) back into the computer. I use Audacity which will play the backing track and record the input into a second track. Then I take the audio file made with Audacity, and use it as the sound track for the video (replacing the soundtrack captured by the camera's mic), and thereby creating an end video with a better sounding result. ---------- -------------- The magnificent YouTube channel of the internet user known as "isaacullah"
@isaacullah: I did try to e-mail Harpfriends on YT to get the login info, but I kept getting some pop-up that said something to the effect, 'Harpfriends have blocked messages except from private members' or something like that. I'd be grateful if you could send the info to my YT handle, which is SlimHarpMick. Many thanks for all your time on this thing. mickil
BIG EDIT: I just thought, I don't know why we need the login info. Surely if we've got a YT account, we can just post the URL to the video on this forum. That way, you'd have a lot less worries about anyone ever hijacking Harpfriends. Does this make more sense? ---------- 'If it sounds GOOD to you, it's bitchen; if it sounds BAD to YOU, it's shitty' - Frank Zappa
Last Edited by on Mar 20, 2009 3:55 PM
Mickl, the main benefit of posting the vids all to one YouTube channel is the fact that we can make one playlist on that channel, embed the playlist player here (eg, first post in this thread), and ALL the vids can be played "automatically" in that one player. It'll be nice fore folks not to have to scroll thru potentially twenty odd embedded YT vids. That way I can also just embed the playlist player at the top of hte "voting" thread I'll make at the end of the contest, and people can easily and simply refer to the vids in that playlist as the make their votes... ---------- -------------- The magnificent YouTube channel of the internet user known as "isaacullah"
About how many submissions to you anticipate? Since the playalong track is long (5:45, which I'd personally find daunting), 10 submissions will take roughly an hour to go through; 20 submissions, two hours; and so forth. If you think you're liable to get 30 submissions or more, I hereby withdraw the suggestion I made earlier about me and CM perhaps volunteering as judges.
In fact, since the general sentiment seems to be leaning towards having two sets of awards--AG and CM and ALSO a "people's choice" set of winners--I'm wondering whether you really need me and CM at all. My initial suggestion wasn't thought through, and it was in no way meant to displace the desire of HarpFriends to organize and judge itself as a community. I applaud that desire and want to encourage it.
There's another way of working the judging scenario. Harpfriends could select what it feels to be the five best videos, then ask CM and me to take a look and weigh in.
What about we just let it roll and see about the judging later. Lets see how many people participate... ---------- germanharpist, harpfriends on Youtube
I dont think there will be a great number enter. Maybe between 10 and 20, and closer to ten. So we are talking about 50-100 mins. I dont think anyone really gives a toss about what CM thinks of our playing ( maybe a couple ), we are all here because of you, we are blues players, we have learnt off you, and we are interested in what YOU have to say about our playing.
In other words, I recognise all the hours you have put in to teaach us, 170 lessons, thats at least a month solid work.
CM's contibution has been a short burst of pisssing people off and selling snake oil, and he doesnt deserve equal standing on the judging panel IMOP.
Tryharp
Edit : Added next day with thumping head:
Disclaimer : Please take note that this was written whilst well and truly inebriated :-}
@Tryharp- I see no reason for trashing anybody on this forum. CM is not some troll,lurking here just to pi** us off. Granted,he doesn't come across in print too well,but his intent is to instruct. Think of him as Devil's advocate. He's rubbed me the wrong way a bit also, but he doesn't just talk the talk,he can walk the walk. If you watch any of his Y-T vids,you'll see a different guy than the one who posts here. Any time ANY world class player wants to critique my playing,count me in. So,please, let's have some civility on this forum.
At the end we don't NEED either Chris nor Adam (we are the ones organizing this thing). But I would very much like to hear the pros comments (or even their takes on the jam tracks). And I think at the end: the more the merrier.
I understand your dismay: Chris utters his opinions freely (you either like that or you don't). I don't think he is simply "pissing people off"... this is a FORUM: there are many different people with different opinions, characters, views, etc. If you get pissed off by people being different to you that is your problem. As long as he isn't obstructing the forum he is always welcome IMHO.
Back to pros judging the contest: Why should this be restricted to Adam or Chris? We are the biggest harp community on the web we can invite whoever we want. Maybe there would be other pros willing to judge our players (thinking about ricci, shellist,...).
Anyway, as I said above: lets just go on with the competition (i.e. practice our asses of) and we'll see about the judging later - once we can estimate the effort that would have to go into that.
thanks to all that have posted and to isaacullah for getting this going and Adam for your offer of judge.
My 2 cents are that OW's track is great but too long for beginners but I will go with the group's decision.
It is also seems too long for Adam to judge, figuring he will have to listen to his top picks more than once to make a final choice, that gets into hours of focused, listening. I know the original idea was not to have Adam (and CM if he can too) as a judge but what an awesome bonus if we can work it so he stays in as judge.
I agree with some others and think we should vote a top 5 as a community (if only 5 submit then that makes it easy) and see if Adam is willing to make the final ranking of those final 5.
hoping we can work this out in the spirit of learning.
Yeah, HH, the length of the song brings some complications with it. Anyway, we'll know better for the next competition. I think what you say is a good idea. Let's go with that... ---------- germanharpist, harpfriends on Youtube
Yeah--I've been doing a little practicing with this backing track--what a**hole decided to make it so frackin' LONG? ;-) Also--does it really have to be that SLOW?
I just followed the music of James Cotton in "Slow Blues'" thinking that was the proper model--(the track is the same length as Slow Blues)--but that does bring in some difficulties for the harp.
It ain't too late--I could still make another, very similar track--faster and shorter--whatever is needed. We could also still select something else.
I guess my problems with harp players over the years, from the view of being the guitarist, are at least partly my own fault--I seem to be a bitch to jam with!
OW, I think what you have done is brilliant, but a shorter, more up tempo version would be easier for everyone ( if you want ).. ( isacc is in charge, so what ever he says goes )
I agree,this is the first one. If nothing else,we'll learn from our mistakes. Frankly,if OW's backing was simpler,I wouldn't have participated. It's a challenge for me. Maybe I'll learn something. I played with my camera last night and its going to work.The mic is decent enough and picks up the backing track and my playing quite well.
Tryharp: Obviously,CM pisses you off. OK,that's your right. But,please give him some respect. He IS one of the best players in the world. Blues is not his first choice to play,but believe me, he can play blues if he chooses.
Last Edited by on Mar 21, 2009 9:13 AM
I too think OW's track is great, but it does present a huge challenge for solo harp. OW, if you did do another track, like you suggested, I for one would be glad. But, I'm still happy to go whichever way the wind blows. I'm gonna have fun with this however we decide to do it. ---------- 'If it sounds GOOD to you, it's bitchen; if it sounds BAD to YOU, it's shitty' - Frank Zappa
I'm sure Chris can capably play any style he wants, he is very talented re: music. Chris also likes to call a spade a shovel, and accordingly I dont think any of us should hold back if we have opinion about him. You have to realise that our opinions dont hurt his feelings, he has developed an opinion of himself, and what we say about him is not relevant to him, and does not change his opinion.
I would not be harsh with any other member here, but Chris - no problem,
Jeez, Tryharp--were you toilet trained at gunpoint? ;-)
I'll be putting up a very similar, although shorter and faster track this week-end. It may or may not be the one used for the competition--but maybbe it could be used be used to work things out before going into the long slow one--which is more difficult.
A shorter version would be most welcome , this is why I asked about singing in the first place, because playing more than 5 minutes without becoming extremely boring is pretty difficult... making stuff up from nothing is even more difficult.
As far as the judging thing goes... do we really need a judging system for the first tryout? Is it not more fun to record whatever you like ( one or more videos) and let everybody else enjoy (or suffer)
Once everybody had his or hers fun, we can think about a "one shot" (one entry) "contest". I have noticed that there are people who want to enter but this being the first time, not really sure how to do this... if the first time would be an "event" instead of a "competition" it would be lot easier for everybody.....
As for as Chris goes, yes he has a colorful way of saying things, but as he mentioned himself in one of his previous posts, he would approach this in a different way, if I remember well, and he is a much better player than most of us will ever be, so we should value his critique, because frankly, most people wouldn't take the time to do this for us....... I for one would be very happy if he would "evaluate" my playing, even if it means digesting "the painful truth"...
@ Tryharp: I too wrote my most contentious post when I was loaded. Most of us who drink have done stuff on booze that we thought about twice afterwards.
A few months back, I got wrestled to the ground and barred from my local for committing the crime of smoking a fag - oh, and retaliating at the barman when he kept prodding me like a cow. I probably wouldn't have done it had I been sober, as much as a total-all-out-psycho-nazi-facist-right-across-the-board-smoking-ban really f*ck#ng well bl**dy pisses me off. Sorry, got carried away there, but it really does make me fume, if you'll forgive the pun.
As DutchBones says, 'As for as Chris goes,' I pretty much chime with DB on this. I know he has a contentious, unfiltered way of saying things, kinda like Mr Spock telling Captain Kirk that the Ship is gonna blow up in three minutes. Just the facts, nothing else. But, when you read some of the stuff that Chris has said in his defence on this forum, you get the impression that he's a really decent, caring sort of guy. At least I do.
For my own part on here, I don't think I've ever seen him acquiesce, like you just did Tryharp. Maybe that's cos he's never felt the need. But hey, even if he's wrong, I don't care. Folks around me have to deal with my faults all the time.
Am really looking forward to the contest and hearing you guys/gals play. ---------- 'If it sounds GOOD to you, it's bitchen; if it sounds BAD to YOU, it's shitty' - Frank Zappa
Hi guys, sorry, Iwas out doing some field work today, and am just "catching up" with this thread now. (It's amazing what can go down on this forum in just a few hours!) Anyway, putting asside any controversy, and moving forward with the competition planning. It seems that we defiantely DO NOT want to make the pros have to sit thru three hours of submitted vids. They AIN"T gettin' paid by us for this, and that would be too much to ask of anyone. So, I think the idea that we send them the 5 videos with the higest number of forum member votes at the end of the voting period.
As for a new backing track, that's another issue. One thing that I could do is to edit out the first minute or so, which mainly consists of the "non-standard) lead in. I'd edit it so that the track would start at the first or second twelve bar. I could get the track down to 3-4 minutes. OW, if you really think you'd like to do it, I would be totally down with you redoing the track, and making it short and perhaps slightly faster (but not by much! I really like the SLOWWW tempo, it's challenging!). However, in order to keep the competition on track, if you do make a new track, it would have to be done fairly soon. I wouldn't want to switch tracks too far down the line after folks have spent a lot of time working with the current one. What ever you decide, let me know as soon as you can, and I'll be happy to host the track on my website replacing the other one.
So, Adam and Chris (Chris, we still want you to judge!!!!), if you read this. Does that sound like a reasonable solution? Would you both be amenable to looking over the top five vids and then making a decision about them? If I can speak for the other members, we would really love to hear what you think about our submissions. It would mean a lot to us!
"Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit." ~Aristotle
Here's what I think... Chris IS someone of excellence. He behaves the way he does because he's actually giving away a lot of useful info and knows it. Because he's genuine about helping and not for praise which is dishonest... he ultimately doesn't care how you see him. And I believe it's also a filtering system but probably not deliberate on his part. That is, those who keep their ears and minds open enough will benefit. Those who don't... well... too bad!
I think you oversimplified his actions and opinions. Trivialized it in fact. How this is obvious to me is how you're going about "if he's gonna be an ass hole, I'll be an ass hole too".
My question is, if you're gonna do that, do you have anything to offer to us? Like maybe judge on his behalf?
You know what I think about that? If you ask him nicely, I bet he'd listen to 2-3 hours worth of our beginner-intermediate mediocre playing. And he would actually give good individuated advice to every single person.
At this point, I don't know if he'll even bother doing that for us. I don't blame him if he doesn't. Perhaps not because of lacking the free time (although apparently he IS a very busy man) but because what he's giving out isn't being appreciated.
Hate on him all you want, but he's one of us based on 1 fact. That is, Adam has inspired him and had been an influence on him. I think his opinions are very relevant to us. Since he's one of "those" guys like Dennis Gruenling and Jason Ricci.... the ones who have been helped out by Adam.
1. in answer to your question, OK I'll judge instead. ( I'm joking ).
2. Your quote from Aristotle - I read it four times and cant understand it, my head is still hurting from my overindulgence last night - I'll look at it again tomorrow.
3. The rest - Maybe your right in what you say, I dont know.
I do know this, I was wrrr.. wwrr..wwrrr...wrong ( there I said it )to say what I said for a number of reasons, and for me to try and defend what I said now that I'm sober, would be very stupid indeed.
Takes a big man to admit he's wrong (or some serious amount of alcohol) either way, glad "you're back" again.... about the judging.. well.... lets see what CM has to say about that.... ---------- DutchBones Tube
nooo, isacullah, no butchering of oldwailers track. please... (although I'm sure you would do a good job) ..some things are simply not supposed to be done (its a karma thing).
Let's check out what ow comes up with this time.
btw. are there any other people around here that can record jam tracks for the community? ow doesn't seem to mind too much being our jam track jukebox :-)... would be nice if there were others, though...
@Dutchbones: I like your idea of having a "event" instead of a "competition" first...
Everybody: As we are brainstorming at the moment there are quite a few of wishes and thoughts coming togeather... keep it coming. We'll figure a way out to get it all under one roof.. ---------- germanharpist, harpfriends on Youtube
Last Edited by on Mar 22, 2009 4:12 AM
Okay, Okay GH! I won't cut his original track! I guess I didn't think that thru all the way...
Anyway, if OW does get us a short track, we will need to lock it in as quick as we can. I'll have to make some executive decisions.
As for taking away the competion aspect to this. I for one am NOT for that. It's not like anyone will actually win anything anyway. A little spice of competion can be good for us. It's making me, for one, think harder about how I'm playing along to the track. To be honest, if it wasn't a competition, I'd put up what ever crappy jam that I happened to comeup with on my first try. I don't think you guys, let alone Adam or Chris etc would want to see that! Heck, even I wouldn't want to hear myself do that! :) Plus, haveing a "competition" here will be WAY more laid back and frinedly than any where else you might compete. This will be GREAT experience that will help get us ready for that time when it's all on the line and we really will have to "throw it down" as hard as we can.
isaacullah, yes, yes, yes, yes and yes. It's just a bit of fun and a good way to bond our little community. I don't care if I come last, I'm just looking forward to hearing everyone do the best that they can. A contest is a good way for that to happen. If I'm cr*p or anyone else is cr*p, it doesn't matter. We all have to be cr*p at some point. ---------- 'If it sounds GOOD to you, it's bitchen; if it sounds BAD to YOU, it's shitty' - Frank Zappa
OK Sportsfans! Here's another try at getting the right track for this. There is a glitch or two that I can't seem to iron out and I'm out of time to work on it--one at about 2:05 or so that is most noticeable. Zhin has me just about convinced to change operating systems--these glitches never used to happen on Windows XP!
Anyway--I got a little bored with just straight back-up and did an overdub of a light back-ground lead. Just blow your head off on it--you won't be walking on anything important--just the old guitarist trying to earn his keep.
I am indeed on YT isaccullah. I'm over there as XHarp01. Page isn't complete yet but I think you'll be able to send me stuff.
As for the tune length. Let's leave the full thing on there but allow others to send in 'snipits' of the tune as long as its say..... 2:30 long at least???? That way we may be able to solve everyone's dilemna.
by the way, Nice tune OW. Slow blues in E.... Gonna be a blast and a chance for everyone who watched Adam's video on the front porch to practice slowing down and playing 'blues with a feeling'. ---------- "Keep it in your mouth" - XHarp
