Stepping On the Clouds: How to Play Southern Gospel Style

Click HERE to go to the original blog post with free downloadable Midi and Sheet Music.

     In the past week, the final piece of the puzzle dropped into place.  Music Notation 4 was the finishing touch.  In the original Grace Notes, there were multiple elements with each new song:

• The actual video, playing the song on piano (Yamaha DG-640 back then)
• A How To video, with sheet music and animated keyboard showing what keys to play
• A free downloadable Midi file of the song
• A free downloadable version of the sheet music

    That took a full toolbox of software (plus a keyboard).  Over the years, the Yamaha quit working for me, and was replaced with an M-Audio Hammer 88.  It's a beautiful keyboard with a great feel, but has no built-in audio.  Strictly a Midi controller.  It came with Ableton as the DAW.  The main computer was my Swiss army knife, but Ableton didn't play well with the other installed software.  It took getting a dedicated laptop to make Ableton and the Hammer 88 work consistently.  And even then, I wound up needing an external audio driver (Also M-Audio, as are the speakers.)  Ableton creates the initial Midi, Notation Musician cleans it up a bit.
    Originally, I used the Flip line of digital video recorders, and later a more sophisticated digital camera.  Eventually, cell phones improved to the point I now shoot the videos on my phone.  Nothing special, just a slightly outdated Android.  Got a cheap mini tripod from Amazon that has flexible legs.  It can wrap around handy furniture or fixtures so I don't have to worry about getting an odd angle or knocking it off a shelf.  Bandicam was my screen video recording software.  Did a good job then... does a good job now.  I've kept it through at least three computers, and it just keeps on working.
    For regular video editing, I use HitFilm Express.  My needs are simple.  I mainly use it to replace the live piano audio from the original video (with all the household noises, barking dogs, etc...) with a WAV audio file generated by Ableton.  I sync the audio and video by the simply watching my fingers on the piano, and aligning the audio to match the movement.  It's like having my own private sound studio, and easier than you'd think.

    The How-To videos were made using Midi Sheet Music, a freeware program that hasn't been updated in years and isn't compatible with Ableton's exported Midi files.  It converted Midi to sheet music, plus could play the sheet music notation with an animated piano keyboard.  And it divided the single-track keyboard into 2-track treble/clef sheet music.  Those were the only things it did, but it did them all-in-one and was dead-simple to use.  It wasn't pretty, but it did the job.
    Now I use Notation Musician to output PDF files of the sheet music.  It also splits the Midi files into two tracks.  Didn't have to have that feature, but it makes the sheet music look cleaner.  I can play the midi files and follow along in the sheet music onscreen, but lacks the animated piano keyboard.
    Lastly, I use Midiano to actually play the song (with the animated keyboard) for the How To video.  It animates the sheet music across the screen, has a gorgeous animated piano at the bottom, and drops played notes visually down the screen to show which keys are coming up in sequence.  Tons of customizing available.  Absolutely free.  Midiano is a sparkling example of brilliant design.  It's a fabulous learning tool, with more features than you can shake a stick at.  Did I mention free?
    I highly recommend Midiano.  Download my midi file (or any Midi file), load it into Midiano, and you can experience a whole new way of learning piano music.  It even waits for you to hit the next notes, before moving on.  You can see it in action in the video above.

    There's more here and there, but these are the basic tools I use.  Music Notation 4 was the last big piece.  With it, I can include the sheet music, and can replicate everything the old Grace Notes blog used to provide.  Since it's been so long between posting the actual 'live' piano video, and then today doing the how to video, I'm putting the new video here on this page.  Going forward, all four elements will be on a single post, so you don't have to search for every separate piece.

    

Music Notation 4 Sheet Music Print Function, and Making PDF Files Work With Google Blogger

     I mentioned in a previous blog the limitations inherent in Google Blogger.  It's great with images, and video, and linking to URLs.  Other files are kind of left hanging out to dry.  There's a workaround on Google Drive Direct Link Generator.  Makes it just a few easy steps.  I'd prefer that Blogger could natively handle the files, but this is almost as easy.

    With that said, the bigger problem has nothing to do with Blogger.  I've been looking for a way to convert MIDI files to Sheet Music.  I play by ear, and haven't read sheet music in about 50 years so writing my own would be more effort than I really want to do.  For years, I used "Midi to Sheet Music", and it was great.  Super simple, but anybody who wanted to learn my arrangements by music notation could do so.  When it quit working, there wasn't much of an alternative out there.  MuseScore had potential, but I didn't like the way it played the files, and it didn't seem to understand my "southern gospel" twang.  Music Notation played my stuff perfectly, but the free version was crippled so as not to print the notation out.  You had to buy the full program to be able to output the sheet music, and it was $90.  

    That's where I've been stuck for the last two months.  My son and his wife unknowingly funded the project when they sent birthday money last week.  Bought and downloaded Music Notation 4, and spent a few days exploring it.  Does more than I need, but the important part is that it DOES WHAT I NEED, and does so extremely well.  It's absolutely worth the cost.  If you click the link, it will take you to Notation Software's website.  If you decide to buy it, be careful to choose the correct program.  They have two, "Notation Composer," and "Notation Musician."
The former is a more complete program, and much more expensive.  The latter, Notation Musician, is the one I got.  For the record, I have no affiliation with Notation Software, and make no money for recommending them.  :^)

    A few weeks ago I posted my first new piano music video in years, and included a link to the midi file (thanks to the Direct Link Generator above).  Now I've got the sheet music for it:

Stepping On The Clouds Free Sheet Music

    I'll edit the original post with the video, so as to have the video, midi, and sheet music all in the same blog post, but wanted to include it here as a technical example of the link working properly, and how well Notation Musician handles the conversion process.  

    As an added bonus, it splits the left and right hands for me.  Not that I'm reading the notes, but watching what's being played while listening to it, it sounds like a fine job of separating the track into two.  Might not be following "The Rules According to Hoyle"... but well enough for someone to learn the song from it.

One more related link - If I choose to make a "How to Play" video like like the original Grace Notes blog did, Music Notation would work but Midiano includes an actual piano keyboard on the screen, so you can read the music and watch the keys all at the same time.  And speed or slow the playback as desired, which makes a great learning tool!!  
    (NOTE:  Today I figured out how to put an image and link on the sidebar, now you can click on the image and go directly to Midiano!)

VLC Media Player Transfer VHS to Computer

     In the last post, I described the steps that took me from failing with OBS, to succeeding with VLC.  In this post, I included the step by step images that actually worked for me, and a portion of the resulting video.  Portion, because the test video recorded for well over an hour.  When I played it back, the entire duration played fine.  Audio stayed synced.  Image quality looked great (for a plus-or-minus 30 year old VHS tape).  It was satisfying, gratifying, after the entire journey from "Why isn't this working?" to "Look, Mom!"

For the record, here's VLC's official site.  VLC is completely free, and a very "swiss army knife" of a video player.  Versatile, fast, and lightweight.  I've used it for years, but even so didn't realize it could capture video until a year or two ago.  It's sort of 'hidden', unless you explore the menus.  And VLC could do with some actual documentation.  But I can't complain.  It's free, works great, and solved the problem.

    Quick note about the video recording - I played with some options that should have shown the video as it played, while recording.  Nothing worked exactly right.  If I chose the "Play" option and recorded from there, the video was visible while recording, but would only record AVI, which has a size limit.  Ultimately, I had to follow the steps, but take it on faith the video was recording correctly.  Once I hit the "stop" button, it finalized the file.  Only then did the finished file play.  As you see, it worked, I just couldn't see the actual video while it was recording.

    I still strongly recommend visiting "How to Record Screen with VLC."  By the time I found this site, I had a lot of the puzzle pieces.  This was the website that put it all together and showed a wide variety of ways to record.  But for a quick visual shortcut, the images below shows the process that actually worked for me.

Above you see VLC's startup screen.  

Next, under the MEDIA menu, select "Open Capture Device"

Here, under the Capture Device tab, make sure "DirectShow" is selected for Capture Mode.  I'm using AV2HDMI for the capture hardware that connects the VCR to my computer.  For me, the Video Device Name was "USB Video."  The Audio Device name was "Digital Audio Interface (2 USB Digital Audio)."  Your devices may be different, depending on your capture device and your computer setup.

Where it says "Play" near the bottom, click the dropdown arrow and select "Convert."

The "Convert" popup should appear.  Source was automatically set for "dshow:\\", I didn't have to choose that.  I did not select "DeInterlace."  Thought it might be needed, but it worked fine without.  I did try the "Display the Output", but still couldn't see the video as it was recording.  The recording worked, with or without trying to display the output, it just didn't seem to make any difference either way.  Under "Profile", I selected "Video - H.264 + MP3 (MP4)."  There was a higher numbered Codec for H.265.  I tried that, but it embedded the audio in a way that my players and video editors could not use, so I went back to H.264, which works just fine.  

The only thing important here is that the "Browse" button is highlighted. Click on it to open the save window.

From here, you select the target directory you want to save the video to, name the video, and type ".mp4" at the end of your filename.  Adding .mp4 seems to be all you need to tell it what format to save in.  There are other options, but mp4 is the only one I wanted.

Now you're back to the "Convert" screen with your destination file selected.  Click Start.  

Now you're on the recording screen.  I know, it's blank.  That's all I could see.  But the red dot was depressed, and the counter was counting up.  At this point, I took it on faith, and went to eat supper.  How did the video turn out?  Check out the clip above!

    For the record, I (accidentally) recorded an hour and 13 minutes for the test video.  Left it running, and forgot it was on.  Most of the video is very old children's cartoons recorded from broadcast television.  Rather than bore you with all of it, I took the first six minutes because it was me... playing 30 years ago.  It's like a window into the past.  And a chance to see how my playing then compares to my playing now.

    Honestly, I think I played better back then.  Still made mistakes, but my playing was more certain, and felt more 'full of joy'.  I've learned a lot since then, and can play things now that I couldn't back then.  But it seems to be missing some part of what I loved about the piano.  Food for thought.  Maybe I need to simplify, and get back to just having fun with it.