File:Ghost Ship (Round) - Original Song ~ Violin - Katy Adelson.webm

English: Here is an original song called, "Ghost Ship." I wrote it a long time ago when I was a kid (summer of 2001). I was amazed at how people could play through the melody for a song like, "Row, Row, Row Your Boat," starting at different times to form harmonies (also called a "Round" in music), and I wanted to write my own boat song that could work the same way. I remember it ended up being a lot harder than I thought it would be to come up with it, but I ended up with this semi-dark and mysterious sounding song.

Free sheet music: https://www.katyadelson.com/GhostShipSheetMusic

It's a very simple tune that would be fun for beginner violinists who want to play music with their friends, or for anyone wanting to play something that's simple to play and easy to put together. Everyone only needs to learn the melody, and the harmonies form when you start playing the song at different times. If you have two people playing, you can repeat the A and B part if you want. You'd most likely want to play it without repeats if there are three people playing -- otherwise one of the parts will always end up being doubled-up on and played at the same time.

2001 was when I was beginning to learn how to use the notation software, Harmony Assistant. The software has come a long way since then, and at the time I could only use the free trial version (meaning, I couldn't save anything...). I was able to record the sheet music's playback audio on a cassette tape. I'm glad I've become fairly okay at transcribing music as an adult because I can write out a ton of the music that I came up with a long time ago. Some of it sounds pretty bad, but I think some of it is okay. I'm glad I have it because, back then, I wasn't bogged down by music theory and worried about making sure my music was "technically correct." I just wrote out whatever I thought worked without having any idea why it worked.

And I wrote a TON of music that summer. :o Back then, I didn't know how to change the key signature, so all of my tunes are written in A minor / C major, lol. I might transcribe them to a different key later in life because it's difficult to put C major tunes into a fiddle tune set. For some strange reason, it's common to find tunes in A minor, but it's very rare to find tunes in C major. I'm guessing it might have to do with the violin's resonance and open strings leading to tunes sounding better and played more easily in D, G, and A major.

As for calling it, "Ghost Ship," I was imagining an old, damaged, abandoned ship floating out at sea (like one of those big old frigate ships with lots of sails from back in the 1600s). It had been through a lot, but the crew decided to leave, and the ship is now just a forgotten memory floating along, eventually going to sink or wash up on shore somewhere... The song took on a completely different vibe from "Row the Boat," so I named it after something that sounded eerie.

Also, it wasn't as cold as it looks in the video. It was a fairly warm day -- about 50 degrees Fahrenheit. The lake is still frozen solid, but the snow was melting at the time. It quickly turned extremely cold again, so I wouldn't go out there right now with my violin like that. :o It's bad to put your violin through extreme elements and temperature swings, so please note that it's a lot warmer than it looks in the video... I color corrected it to look more blue and cold. =)

This video was an opportunity to practice the Luma Keying video editing technique. I learned that it's a bit difficult to do since I'm so pale, and the bow hair from the violin was tricky since it's white, but it was something fun to experiment with. =) Hopefully it doesn't look too cheesy, but I guess I'll find out what people think!

Thank you for watching! =)

~ Katy

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Video Credits: I used some stock video from https://www.videezy.com/

Lake Shore With Rocky Mountains in Background 4K: https://www.videezy.com/nature/3746-lake-shore-with-rocky-mountains-in-background-4k

Moving Clouds Free HD Video: https://www.videezy.com/clouds/2667-moving-clouds-free-hd-video

Software and equipment used:

Full list of all my basic violin equipment: http://www.katyadelson.com/about/violin-equipment-and-recommendations/

Software used (for Macintosh): Garageband for attempted sound mixing Final Cut Pro for video editing PicMonkey.com for the ending cards

Plugins for sound effects (I have A LOT to learn in this department!): East West plugins – Goliath Virtual Instrument, Stormdrum II

Camera: Canon 70D + 18-135 mm kit lens Sony RX100 V

Microphone for audio recording:

Blue Woodpecker