Yesterday I spent the whole morning setting up the living room.
That meant:
- clearing stuff off the piano, taking the cover off and lifting the lid;
- setting up a t-bar on a microphone stand, putting in pencil mics and connecting them to a pre-amp;
- placing a proper camera on a tripod, positioning an iPad (as a second camera) on top of a box, on top of a stool, and then angling it via use of a laptop riser stand (in the featured image for this post, you can see a reflection of the iPad in the piano’s music rest);
- collating music books and hymns, printing copies (because books are cumbersome and prone to closing themselves when you least want them to);
- bringing down a stool from upstairs that doesn’t creak when I sit on it and shift my weight;
- disentangling the living room’s extension flex to serve the iPad whilst it finished charging;
- connecting my laptop to the pre-amp and my husband’s computer speakers (the very top of the laptop is just in view behind the piano and tripod).
Oh — and I did a few practice runs before hitting record.
Before Coronavirus, yesterday had been fully booked; playing the piano would have been off the cards. As for spending most of the day setting up a recording studio in my living room, that would have been out of the question.
So, why did I do it?
Short answer: because right now, I can’t write. Continue reading Why am I making piano videos during a time of global crisis?