Video tutorials for MuseScore 2

• Oct 13, 2013 - 18:37

I'm not sure whether this is the right place to discuss documentation for MuseScore 2 - if not boot me back into the Technology Preview forum :)

It seems to me that the basic UI for MuseScore 2 is now stable enough for us to start thinking about replacing the existing Video tutorials for MuseScore 1.x with new ones using the MuseScore 2 UI.

First and foremost we are going to need replacements for Katy Wardrobe's suite of beginners' videos: MuseScore in 10 easy steps.

I have the technology to record the screen capture (with sound) and edit the final videos, but I can only speak English well enough for voice overs, and it seems to me, with the expansion of user nationalities that it would be very useful to have voiceovers in different languages.

I always write a script before I do the English voiceover on my videos, so that would be available for you to translate into your native language - this will provide some consistency throughout the different language versions.

If you would be willing to provide a voiceover in your native language, please contact me, either here or through my MuseScore account.


Comments

In reply to by ChurchOrganist

My voice, to me, does not like.
But, they say, is good. I can offer my candidature (when this project will be more mature) for the Italian, if you deem it appropriate.
Maybe you could collect samples, both male and female, to choose the appropriate ones?
I think we can talk about it yet...

Ok guys, now that MuseScore 2 Beta 1 has been released we need to start work on the new tutorials.

I have made a list of headings for the first 10 videos as follows:-

1. Finding your way around.
2. Entering notes
3. Adding another part
4. Copy and paste
5. Lyrics
6. Dynamics, articulation and phrasing
7. Pickup bars, repeats, voltas and codas
8. Drum Parts
9. Score Formatting 1: Layout
10. Score Formatting 2: Style

Does anyone have any additions, insertions, or alterations?

In reply to by ChurchOrganist

So I gather from the deafening silence that these headings are ok :)

I now have a draft version of the first video using Microsoft's Hazel Desktop Speech Synthesiser as the narrator.

There are few more editing tasks to do then I shall be posting the draft somewhere visible for you all to comment on.

I'm aware that we need to maintain a high standard here - maybe we should hold a competition to find the perfect voice-over artist?

In reply to by ChurchOrganist

An question we often receive via support is how to create sheet music. For some it's not clear that software needs to be downloaded and installed. So I guess in the 1. Finding your way around, some attention needs to be given to mentioning that one needs to download and install the software from musescore.org.

Well I now have draft video for the 1st tutorial with narrative courtesy of Microsoft Hazel.

I feel the my own regional accent is not suitable for these videos :)

It ended up being a bit of a saga which I won't go into now, but the draft of the first video is here:

http://youtu.be/X4L0MvlnAyA

This is an unlisted link at Youtube specifically for your testing. Please post comments here - they have been disabled on Youtube.

Suggestions for improvement welcome :)

In reply to by ChurchOrganist

I just watched the first video now. I know I'm late to the party... Here is my feedback.

I will try stay at the level of the content because esthetically... this is just not my style. According to me it undermines the content quality . Still, I understand that it's just a matter of taste... and I don't have the monopoly of good taste...
I do appreciate the music of the intro. (but the bouncing ball... really?)

So the content,

1/ The part about downloading and installing is not useful. Or it needs to really cover download and installation, at least on windows (and another video could cover it on Mac), or it's not worth and the video can start after MuseScore is launched. Here is a good download and installation video in my opinion http://www.techsmith.com/download-camtasia-studio-thankyou.html
Also going through Google to get to MuseScore.org is probably a bad idea since depending on one's configuration one might end up on bogus site that wouldn't provide the official installers but wrappers that would install toolbars, malware etc... together with MuseScore.

2/ The part about the UI is ok. There is too much pause after the palette.

I applaud the effort, and anyone is free to create videos and put them on youtube. But I really think a professional or someone used to this job should take care of making the videos that millions of people will see on MuseScore.org frontpage.

In reply to by [DELETED] 5

Hehe - Thomas particularly asked to include downloading and installation.

IMO there are too many variables here - OS, browser etc to be able to do this completely successfully. All you can do is give guidelines.

I take your point about the professional - I would be quite happy for a professional in that field to edit any video material I produce to make it better.

In reply to by ChurchOrganist

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/

So, CC-BY allows the right to remix, tweak, and build upon your work even for commercial purposes as long as they credit you for the original creation. Others can then distribute with a different license.

CC-BY-SA adds the restriction that others must license their new creations that derive from your work under the identical terms of the original. Commercial use is still allowed.

I'm trying to envision the trade-off in practical terms. Will you personally be the licensor or would you donate the work to the Musescore.org project and it will become the licensor? I think if the latter, CC-BY-SA may be more appropriate. If the former, isn't it just personal preference?

In reply to by ChurchOrganist

I am currently writing the script for the second video tutorial which covers note entry.

What is the collective opinion of the best time name system to use?

Should it be the English - minim, crotchet, quaver?

Or the US - half note, quarter note, eighth note?

Which one is the most internationally recognised?

I would say that in the UK most musicians are bilingual on this, understanding both systems.

In reply to by ChurchOrganist

My overall comment is that while this looks nice, it takes a very long time to actually get around to entering notes. I don't see why a tutorial on entering notes needs to deal with closing MuseScore Connect, opening the Inspector, editing titles, entering special characters, etc. For that matter, I'm not so sure it should be dealing with key signatures or time signatures either. I think you are missing a tutorial between 1 & 2 that covers that stuff - or it could be rolled into #1. Either way, this is the kind of thing a lot of people will want to skip as being relatively self-evident. But note entry is more mysterious, and it would be nice to have a direct link to a tutorial that covers that specifically. So I think what happens at right around the 2:40 mark is where this tutorial should *start*.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

Indeed, but of course in the 1.3 videos key signatures and time signatures were covered in the setting up the score video.

By opening with My First Score now, the dynamic has changed.

So maybe as you say Marc, we need an intermediate one to take care of this rather than incorporating it into the Entering Notes video.

I was actually quite concerned about the length of the video which is over 6 minutes, and My original aim was to keep each one to less than 5 if possible.

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