Advice requested on video recording technique

Hi Eddy - Do you mean you want the video to show parts of the score at various points? I can help since I recently made a video like that.

 

Ok, the first thing is to import the video of yourself playing the piano (or talking) into a video-editing program. Then you drag the thumbnail of that video into your timeline. This will probably produce two tracks - a video track and an audio track. You need one more track for the images of music scores, so insert an additional video track. This should then become the top track on the timeline - the second track will be your video, and the third track is your audio.

Backing up a bit... the music score... you will first have to do some cropping of the score in order to show the place in the music you are discussing. It's generally easier to see two or three lines of music in a video at a time. Once you have your score cut into separate sections/pages/images (I'd number them so it will be easy to line them up properly in your video), you will have to import them all into the video-editing program, just like you did your video.
Now back to the timeline in your editing program: drag the thumbnail images (or icons, however your programs displays them) of your music score into the top track at the places in the video where you want them to show. Next, put a split in the video track under your music score image above (a beginning split as well as the ending split). Then you can change the opacity level of the video to go complete black which then allows for the music score image above to be the only thing showing at that time. After the split, your video will once again be showing until your next music score image comes up and you want it to be seen. Again, just put in the two splits, adjust the opacity level, and then go onto the next image point. You can make things prettier by adding fade-in and fade-out points too if you want.

All this is how I do things when using my Sony Vegas editing program. Not sure how other programs work, but I'd think they would be a bit similar since these are basic functions.

 

YT is very limited in what editing facilities it provides. Sony Vegas is reasonably easy to use, though not free. There are other pieces of software which are free but come with time limitations. Eddy, I don't know how you're acquiring the sheet music images, but I find that a screen capture utility is much better than trying to scan them (for example). I use MWSnap, fwiw.

 

Andrew - I've never used MWSnap and didn't even have it on my computer. I do now, though--just downloaded it. I sometimes use the snipping tool to crop or capture things, but it's very limited. Anyway, MWSnap looks real interesting! Thanks for the tip!!

 

I used to use Windows Movie Maker in the beginning too. It is VERY hard to see the music tracks! Eddy, you should just purchase a video-editing program. You'll be glad you did--you can do so much with them. And then you can make good home videos too!

 

It's been a long time since I've used Movie Maker, but I'm pretty sure you can do what you are describing. The only reason Chris brought up the audio track thing is because we both (at least I think he does) record with a video camera and also a regular recorder and then swap out the audio from the camera and replace it with the audio from the recorder. You get a much better sound that way. But if I remember correctly, your audio in your last video wasn't too bad so maybe that's why you don't think you want to change that, right?

When you open WMM and then import your video onto the timeline, then just add an additional track on top for your music score images. I don't remember what exact words the WMM program uses for changing the opacity level. Maybe someone else here knows...?