Violin Playalong Concert Uploads

This first video will use just one piece (Twinkle variation A) with everyone playing together. We'll call it a "Playalong Concert".  Basically everyone films themself playing along with a particular piece then uploads the video to me here. I then edit all the videos together onto one screen. I hope that it will be very motivating for students spread around the globe to see themselves playing music as part of a group. Children in particular always like to watch other children, but I encourage students of any age to participate. We'll use Twinkle variation A slowed down so that as many students as possible can participate. 

I tried this out on my family recently (with Lightly Row) and here is the result. My husband just started learning violin about 4 months ago.

I plan to put the video we make onto Youtube and onto this website so it will be freely viewable. You'll be able to send these links to your friends and family.

I know that some people are careful about their children's online privacy so I want to let you know my plans. The image of each child is fairly low resolution and I won't be using surnames but if you have privacy concerns about your child's participation please contact me and perhaps we can make it work.

I would like everyone to be able to participate and I have quite a lot of beginners so the piece I'd like to do with you is Twinkle variation A (Froggy Froggy Stop Stop Twinkle). If your child can play this piece, great! If they don't yet know the fingering they can still participate by just playing the Froggy Froggy Stop Stop rhythm over and over again on open E and it will sound just fine. This is called "jamming on the E string" and is what the beginners usually do at Suzuki events so that they can participate.

Let's have a deadline of 21 June for your uploaded videos. Upload your video using the link below. On 22 June I'll start putting all the videos together. That will be exciting.

I am expecting videos taken on phones and ipads, no need for professional quality. I just want to encourage everyone to take part.

Here is what to do:

• Tune the violin
• Get headphones and set it up so you can play the Twinkle variation A track (with the violin playing) slowed down to 70% speed. I want the video to record the sound of you playing but not the backing track.
• Choose where to stand. A plain pale background with good lighting is ideal but work with whatever you have. It is helpful to find something to rest the phone/ipad on (maybe the back of a chair) so that it stays steady. Hold your phone/ipad "landscape" (so the longer dimension goes across and the vertical dimension is shorter). Experiment with how far away to be. It is nice to see their bow arm movement and isn't necessary to see their legs. 
• Start the video recording, wait a few seconds, start the music track playing into your child's headphones. They will hear the introduction playing then film them playing along to the track. When it finishes can they please bow and stand back up. Wait another few seconds then stop the video.
• Watch the video together and check you are both happy with it. This is all just for fun, I am not expecting perfection! Then browse to this page on your phone/ipad. Click "Select Files" (in the form below), select the video you just took and click "Submit".

Try not to leave it till the last minute, send me your video soon!

Note: video files are large and will take a while to upload, 1-10 mins depending on your connection. Once the upload reaches 100% please click "Submit" which will send the video through to me. This page should refresh then if you scroll back down here you should see a message saying "thank you for your upload". If your video doesn't manage to reach 100% uploaded then something isn't working so please contact me and I'll take a look. This form will allow you to upload one file of up to 512MB.