Learn to play piano - with Shotcut!

[jonray]

Hi all - I’m a piano teacher. Most of my pupils hate learning their scales. So I came up with these 4 instructional videos to encourage them to practice.

Made 99% with Shotcut (see below* why it wasn’t quite100%)…

Video #1:

Video #2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azlB8nu4NiQ

Video #3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15HCRoH44Sk

Video #4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmxYzmG8KRM

I created the backing tracks in Cubase, and the graphics in Serif’s PagePlus. Took a long time!!

To create the moving red and blue bars on the piano keys, I created HTML files using @elusien’s webvfx framework to enable the animation, and applied them in Shotcut via the Text:HTML filter.

Getting the speed of the moving red and blue bars was tricky - I had to make MP4 exports of every scale at all 10 speeds - so that’s 240 exported MP4s (over the 4 videos)!

Then I assembled the audio clips and video clips in Shotcut, carefully syncing them, and creating custom transitions. I used AutoHotKey to automate some of the tedious operations.

I also made use of @elusien’s “Textflow” text effect for the “Speed xx” mini-intros (for example at 0:59 in Video 1). I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Elusien his great work with webfx and HTML!!

*I would have loved to have made this entirely with Shotcut, but I encountered an “audio sync” problem which meant that although the audio and video looked perfectly synced in the preview pane, on export the audio was not synced. This problem was discussed in the thread HERE but I have not had time to post a proper bug report as yet.

I tried the workaround of advancing the audio track by 6 frames which nearly solved it, but found that after about 10 minutes into the video the sync problem re-occurred.

In the end I had to import the exported videos from SC and the audio tracks (separately) into Movie Edit Pro, and export from there, to get perfect synchronisation.

[geers2u]

Thanks for sharing. I appreciate the effort you put into helping others. Merry Christmas.

[vansloneker]

I looked at the first clip and it appears to me as very professional. Well done!

[jonray]

@geers2u and @vansloneker - Thank you both for your kind comments, and I appreciate the 4 folks who hit the like button as well.
These videos will of course revolutionise the teaching of piano scales throughout the world, and become a “must-go” Youtube option for every piano teacher in the universe…
Joking of course , back to reality, 28 hits on Youtube so far but 20 of them were ME (for checking things were OK…), so it may take a little while to take off. Perhaps when the word gets around in the piano teaching community…

[geers2u]

You reached me because I use Shotcut for all my Youtube videos and at 79 years old am interested in learning music for the first time in my life (I chose art in high school instead of music). Until 2 weeks ago I didn’t know the difference between a chord and a cord. I find that the selections of music for my videos is limited on Youtube because of copyright infringement. So I have decided to learn how to make my own music. Learning the scales has to be one of my first steps. Thanks again for all of your tedious effort.

[jonray]

@geers2u

at 79 years old am interested in learning music for the first time in my life

Wow, @geers2u - what a great aspiration at your age - hats off to you. I’ve taught several pupils in their 80’s over the years and they have gained a lot of enjoyment of learning a new skill. Good luck - hope you find the scales videos useful!!