Marimba Journal 1

First Experiments with New Camera.

I got an action camera for Christmas.  I am going to be experimenting with different ways to teach with it.  I have been trying to get this blog started for a year now and I've come to realize that I can't wait until I have all of the kinks worked out.  I also can't make everything perfect--at least not while I'm figuring out how to do it, so here are my first two experiments with using a camera in unusual (for me) ways:

#1 Chest Cam:

Lesson #1, the action camera has a shit microphone.  Noted.  I cleaned up the sound as best I could, but it's still not good.  Next one will be better.  I like the steadiness of the camera mounted to the chest, but I was hoping to show more of where the head is looking (for teaching purposes).

For some reason, I'm standing too close to the instrument, that's unusual for me (I think.), maybe I was concentrating on the camera...?

Bonus Points to anyone who can name that tune.

#2 Head Cam:

I've got to experiment with the aim and the camera options.  (I think there might be a camera stabilization setting that I missed--or that I need to turn off.)  Maybe I need a helmet instead of wearing the helmet strap directly on my head.

I'll be really impressed if anyone can say where I got this nice little exercise.  Here's a hint:  I've been working out of this book for several weeks and it'll be showing up in a lot of upcoming videos.  One thing I hope to be able to work out with this is to show rehearsal technique via short clips with voice-over narration.  Kind of like a DVD commentary track.  Coming Soon.