It’s still June and I’m releasing the latest video for the Monthly guitar riff video challenge. Look at me sticking to a schedule!
I used the same extended drum track this month as my previous (May) entry for this monthly guitar challenge I’ve set myself this year. In an attempt to keep pushing myself however, I decided to test my skills in regards to the video capturing process. You don’t see them all in this month’s video, but I did capture the exact same recording from eight different angles using eight different video devices. That was honestly a challenge. I wanted to make sure each camera was not in sight from any of the others as I recorded (excluding the camera mounted to the guitar’s headstock). It’s probably the closest I’ve ever come to having an audience as I played guitar to be honest.
One thing I did discover was that all video cameras were not created equal. Some of the cameras I have at my disposal are not dedicated video cameras, but they have video capabilities. Video is clearly not their prime purpose. For the sake of recording the details, here are the cameras I used during this experiment.
- iPhone 6
- Huawei Mate 8
- Huawei Mate 10
- Huawei MediaPad T3
- JVC Everio
- Nikon coolpix 820
- Nikon coolpix 7000
- 4K Ultra HD
The last one is my very cheap ‘GoPro-style’ camera that was mounted onto the guitar’s headstock.
Many of the camera angles I ended up with didn’t prove to be of use. but four of them were used in my video’s new intro scene. So that was a win. The most surprising result—for me at least—was that the highest quality video recording devices I seem to have are phones. The iPhone and Huawei Mate 8/10 cameras were easily the highest quality results.
My lighting is still terrible. Perhaps I will have a chance to try to improve on that before July’s video.
Anyhow, in regards to the riffage this month, I wanted to experiment with the gaps in-between the music. I also wanted to experiment with the left and right channels of the riff. The guitar playing itself is very basic—it is me after all. But I sure did enjoy recording the riff. My wife didn’t even hate the riff! She still didn’t want to hear the rest of the riffs I’d recorded this year, but still, that small amount of positivity was welcomed.
So, six months into the year and I have six different riffs that I haven’t listened to back-to-back. I’m thinking I should do that. Maybe even put the six riffs all together—in order of release—before I attempt the July riff. Just to see if these riffs have any chance of combining into one song at the end of the year. That was the initial goal after all. Surely there will be enough decent riffage to put together one halfway decent full-length track. Maybe even enough for three to six collaborators to solo over. That, would be insanely cool. It would also be ridiculously difficult to capture correctly on video. But that’s the other part of this challenge. I’m becoming more accepting of the video process now.
So, here’s the latest riff. If you missed the previous entries, you can find them using the 12riffs tags below (or using the link I just added there like an SEO powerhouse)!