Holiday tune

[Doug Young]

With December upon us, it's that time of the year again. I've arranged a Christmas tune every year for a number of years now. I didn't think I had time for one this year, but this idea snuck up on me over Thanksgiving, so I thought I'd share some holiday spirit, You Tube style:

Good King Wenceslas

This is a little different than my previous you tube efforts, since my wife got involved and helped create the "set", with the added bonus that our Christmas decorations are up earlier this year than usual. For those into recording, this was also an interesting challenge, since instead of recording in a quiet treated room, I'm not only in a completely untreated living room, but sitting beside a noisy fireplace...

Gear stuff: Kathy Wingert Model E, "high strung" in DADGAD, Zoom H4n audio recorder with a pair of Schoeps mics, Canon HFS-20, Sanyo Xacti video cameras.

Happy Holidays!

[stamper]

Very nice, Doug. I pretty much didn't need to see that high-strung guitar either.

[Bob1131]

Nicely done, Doug! I enjoyed that!

[mesa]

Beautiful Doug...super clear video too.

[barefooter]

Impressive. Everything about this is so nicely done.

[rickwaugh]

Fabulous, Doug. That has to be the nicest arrangement of that I think I've heard. Very different, but that melody is still there. Love the addition of the arpeggio sections, to take it somewhere else.

Thanks for breathing life into an old chestnut.

[Doug Young]

Thanks, Rick, glad you enjoyed it. I like to look for new possibilities in tunes, and the high strung guitar kind of leaves no choice but to go down different paths!

[Doug Young]

I had a couple of requests for tab for this. I'm on high-string guitar, which I imagine most people don't have handy, but it does pretty much work on regular DADGAD-tuned guitar, and the high strung's a cool thing to try out if you haven't. Here's the tab:

Good King Wenceslas Tab

Merry Christmas

[orsino]

Excellent Doug. An innovative arrangement. I especially like the melody on the bass strings starting about 1:25.
That little guitar should be called the "Christmas guitar". Just the perfect instrument for the holiday classics.
Happy holidays to you and yours Doug.

[ronmac]

Thanks Doug, for sharing such a great tune and arrangement.

Wishing you and all your family and colleagues at AG a wonderful Holiday Season!

[john miller]

Thank you for sharing, doug....Solo

[RobertMessore]

Thanks for sharing!

May I ask what video editor you're using? I just started making some videos for youtube with a Sanyo Xacti, and a friend who knows a lot about digital multi-media told me that because it's recording in mp4/Quicktime, he was concerned that perhaps the only video editor that would let me even put together the video with external audio without losing quality is Quicktime Pro. And apparently Quicktime Pro is pretty bare bones when it comes to editing let alone it's not available for Linux which is what I run at home.

I'm new to the AGF so I hope it's not considered gauche to ask production questions when someone posts a video.

[shawlie]

Beautiful arrangement and fantastic playing - what a pretty sound you make!

[Doug Young]

Originally Posted by RobertMessore

May I ask what video editor you're using?

I use Final Cut Pro. It likes Apple Pro Res format, so I just convert the Xacti original file to pro res using Mpeg Streamclip, a free format converter that runs on windows or the Mac. Each camera tends to be different, I have to import the Canon using Final Cut, the Xacti can be just copied over, then converted. I also have a Panasonic, which uses an avchd format that is non-standard, resulting in it running at 2X speed, unless I import with iMovie and then convert it! So getting video into a common format in an editor is a bit of a hassle.

I'm new to the AGF so I hope it's not considered gauche to ask production questions when someone posts a video.

I'm always glad to share tech details, and like hearing what other people do, too.

[K-vegas]

Very nice video. The quality (as already mentioned above) is excellent. Well played.