The Circle of Fifths- Making the Video
It's the second blog of February and it's time to complete the story of how my first music parody, The Circle of Fifths, became a fun YouTube video. Make sure you check out that video and consider shopping on my website and/or donating to the website.
In yesterday's blog, I left off by saying that my choir teacher gave me some advice on making it a video. One thing he mentioned was that there are arrangements of songs people put on YouTube. I could find and use an arrangement that someone made of The Circle of Life. It wasn't until a year later that another friend of mine reminded me of that same thing. That was in November of last year. Since I had just finished my November video and my December video was going to be a bunch of bloopers, I had a bit of time on my hands to prepare for my January video. I felt that starting a new year with a funny video would be perfect, so I started looking for an arrangement of The Circle of Life from The Lion King. Eventually I found one that had a decent range for my voice and modulated(changed keys) at the end just like in the original song.
Due to the holiday season and the fact that I was sick during the first week of December, recording the audio was scattered throughout the month. By the beginning of January, I was considering having a harmonic echo in the song. For example, the main part would sing, "It's the circle of fifths!" and then a second voice would sing, "oh the circle of fifths". But after I recorded and listened to it, I realized that even though it sounded pretty to me, it might be too much for a person listening to the parody for the first time. Especially if they don't know anything about music theory. So I deleted the harmony I had recorded and moved on to making the video for the song.
As I said in yesterday's blog, I was working on this video so much, critiquing myself with any mistakes I had made, and trying to understand what was wrong when I faced a technical difficulty that I was surprised by how well the video did. I'm getting better at editing though and I'm learning new things each time I put in the effort to edit without criticizing myself. In the video for my song, Peanut Butter and Jam, I had learned how to match individual pictures with the music. That knowledge played a vital part for my January video as I made sure each picture of the circle of fifths lined up with the music. In the video for my song, Free, I had learned about how to use filters like making sure the video had the right hue and lighting that I wanted. I used this knowledge in my January video to touch up and brighten the video. It may not be a perfectly edited video, but I've been getting better at editing and there are people who like this silly parody! If there is something that you are trying to accomplish but all you can see is the imperfections of it, take a moment to step back and breathe. You may be doing better than you think you are.
I hope you enjoyed reading this blog. Remember to watch this parody if you haven't already and click the other links as well! And whenever life gets you down, remember what you want to do with your life and keep on dreaming!
