When I decided to embark on this project, I realized that one of the less obvious benefits might be the improvement of my skill with electronics. I’m not a complete technophobe, but my husband likes to joke that my mere presence in a room is enough to stop all the appliances functioning correctly.
My computer mysteriously malfunctions for no reason discernible to the IT staff at my workplace, every watch I have ever owned has irremediably died on my wrist after a month or two, my so-called smartphone behaves anything but intelligently, and even the milk frother on our espresso machine refuses to work the way it’s supposed to unless someone else operates it. Embarrassingly enough, I actually had a little trouble setting up this website.
This said, I was very proud of myself today, because I figured out how to operate my Flip Camera, with which I’ll be recording myself, without breaking it or anything else. I even figured out how to download and operate the video editing software that came with it. It took me positively forever, but I did it. So my schedule over the coming weeks will look something like this: drive to university (or walk, if I’m feeling virtuous), warm up, play scales and etudes, work on Bach for a couple of hours, then make three takes of the Bach movement of the day, go home, listen to and edit videos, post them to YouTube, then write here about how it went. (The reason I can do keep this up for 36 consecutive days is that it’s the summer break here; it would be much harder during the semester when I’m teaching and rushing around doing a million things.) For the rest of the day, I’ll work on my other writing projects, and maybe go back into my office for another practice session in the evening.
I’m excited about this project, but also experiencing abject terror at the thought of having to post a video of myself on my YouTube channel every day. What if I don’t get any good takes? What if I sound mediocre? What if I look…(horrible thought!)…silly? Well, I suppose I need to prepare myself for any and all of these eventualities! With luck, I’m going to start recording tomorrow, so watch this space.
Miranda Wilson 