Carolina in my Mind

I was sitting on the back porch yesterday, and I really felt like an old-timey granny just watching the wind in the trees.
I guess that's what Carolina is like, according to James Taylor.

Flutegirl Membership Benefits:

* Stream or download MP4 videos for all the songs for use on a computer or phone.

* Download AVI videos for all the songs for use on older equipment.

* Practice videos, scales.

Snail Mail $25 CASH ONLY
(US or Canadian or € 25 Euros) :

Penny Will
P.O. Box 71
St Thomas, Ontario, Canada
N5P 3T5

Please include your name and email address

penny@flutegirl.ca

EWI Goodness

The play-along videos at flutegirl are ideal for any Electronic Wind Instrument Player. Members can stream and download all the play-along videos with backing music only.

What is an EWI?

EWI stands for Electronic Wind Instrument. These digital instruments don't produce any sound out in the real world but can be used with headphones or used to send a signal to a sound system and then mixed with other sounds via a mixer. You can also connect your EWI directly to a computer via MIDI and use your system as a sound module.

There are many advantages to EWI's including:

• No external sound, so you can practice at any time without disturbing others.
• Many different instrument sounds. Electronic Wind Instruments usually have dozens to hundreds of different sounds, from traditional to bizarre.
• EWI's are by default tuned to C; you can change the instrument key with the flick of a switch. That means you can play the Bb or Eb part without transposing the music.
• You can change the fingering system on your EWI. I mostly use a combination of flute and recorder fingerings, but you can adjust these to find the right fit for your playing.
• Easy to record. You can simply plug directly into your recording device, so it doesn't matter if you have noisy neighbours.

I have an Akai 4000s that I have used for many years and recently got an Aerophone Mini.
Akai 4000s has 100 onboard sounds, whereas the Aerophone Mini has 6 onboard sounds but connects to an app on my Android Tablet to give me 30 sounds.
I got the Aerophone Mini because I wanted something I could put in my backpack and take over to my parents' place to do mini-concerts every day.
My mother has Dementia and is pretty far gone, but it's incredible how she comes right back to life when I play. Sadly my Mom's awareness wears off after an hour or so, but at least I get her back for a while.  
I was carrying my Akai 4000s, but it's a big instrument and runs on 4 AA battery batteries. The Aerophone Mini can run on either 4 AA batteries or use the USB connection on my tablet.  

So, in my backpack, I can put my Chromebook to play the Flutegirl Videos, the tablet to charge my Aerophone Mini and also produce the beautiful sounds and also, of course, my Aerophone Mini. I leave an amplifier at my parents' place, and then I'm all set to perform.

Other Resources

Alistair Parnell has the best EWI lessons on YouTube. He covers everything from setup to tricks and tips that will help you get the most out of your EWI.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMoSH4YH1-U

Another fantastic resource for all things EWI is the Patchman site. https://www.patchmanmusic.com/ in the Wind Controller Forum https://www.patchmanmusic.com/forum/, you can talk with other EWI users and find even more resources.

Video Format

Two different containers,
same product. 

This is my analogy for video formats. Let’s say the cask is for .avi (AVI) format, and the mug is .mp4 (MP4). Both AVI and MP4 are video types, but they are within different containers. One is generally better than the other in certain instances.

MP4’s

MP4’s are the type used by HTML 5 (the coding language of the Internet) and are used for streaming videos. YouTube uses MP4 format, and so do I for streaming the videos on pennywill.com. The next bit is subjective, but I have noticed the blacks are much blacker in MP4 video, though I don’t think the sound is as good. This is the best format for watching movies and is used by Netflix and can also be shrunk down for phones and tablets without losing much clarity. Phones seem to play this type of file better, but sometimes I get warnings that they may not play. They do, but it may be the file size or aspect ratio that is concerning my phone.

AVI’s

AVI videos play better on older equipment. I think the sound is better, and they seem to look better with a 4:3 aspect ratio. That’s why I use the AVI files when I’m performing. I can pop them onto a thumb drive, and they will play just fine on practically ancient laptops or tablets. When I’m practicing every morning, I use AVI files because that what I started with and I am nothing if not a creature of habit.

Video Player

Whenever I’m playing on old equipment, I’m usually running Linux or even Windows XP, and my goto video player is VLC. It’s free, and it has excellent features, like speeding up or slowing down the video, random, and repeat. I also like using software that works the same on different operating systems and devices. When performing, I don’t want to have to remember all kinds of other commands and functionality.

There are many other types of Video containers. I don’t use those on flutegirl.ca because my videos are small and, so I don’t really need to worry about more efficient formats.