As promised, here are some video clips from my clinic on solo playing at the Louisiana Music Educators’ Association 2010 State Convention.   This was the first time in a long while that I’ve recorded my playing on video, and it was quite interesting editing the footage and working with a new (to me) piece of technology.  I used a Canon Vixia HF R10 with a Sony ECM-MS907 microphone, and overall I was very pleased with the results.  I plan to post a bit more in the future about using this device, and I also have some other video recording projects in the works.  One thing to point out on the video that I will definitely fix in the future is the background hiss.  I put the camera in the very back of the conference room, and turned the microphone levels to the maximum.  In hindsight I realize this wasn’t the best configuration, and in the future I’ll move the camera much closer and turn the levels down.  As for my playing I was also pretty happy with things.  Were the performances perfect? – nope – but musically I think they were effective, and I hope that the demonstrations gave a general idea of how each piece is supposed to sound.  This was not my first presentation of this type, and the more of these I do the more I realize how difficult the whole “talk for a while then perform” thing can be. Just remember that when you watch a really good clinic/demonstration, a tremendous amount of work and preparation has usually gone into it, even (and especially) if the presenter seems totally at ease and makes things look easy.  NB: These videos are produced in HD format, so if your internet connection will allow, dial up the resolution all the way to 720p by going directly to the actual YouTube video (click on the link at the top) and using the menu in the lower-right portion of the player window.