music Archives - Karen Commins https://www.murderatmadisonsquaregarden.com/tag/music Atlanta Audiobook Narrator Tue, 04 Aug 2026 17:29:31 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1.3 https://i0.wp.com/karencommins.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/cropped-Favicon.png?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1 music Archives - Karen Commins https://www.murderatmadisonsquaregarden.com/tag/music 32 32 124504007 My Life as a Musician https://karencommins.com/2022/09/my-life-as-a-musician.html https://karencommins.com/2022/09/my-life-as-a-musician.html#respond Mon, 26 Sep 2022 15:30:50 +0000 https://www.karencommins.com/?p=12378 When I'm away from the booth, I'm an amateur musician on flute, piccolo, piano, and most especially HARP! This post is chock-full of videos and resources.

The post My Life as a Musician appeared first on Karen Commins.

]]> When the Professional Audiobook Narrators Association (PANA) recently asked me to create a video about my music for its current Get Outta the Booth campaign, I couldn’t start fast enough!

I thought about my life as a musician on multiple instruments, from second grade until now. I created this 14:50 Director’s Cut of My Life in Music.

[This post contains video, click to play]

Due to PANA’s limits on Vimeo, I needed to edit the video so it lasted no more than 7 minutes. This 6:50 Harp Explainer video is the result.

[This post contains video, click to play]


Out Takes

Of course, with any video project, some clips get left on the digital cutting room floor. I thought it would fun to include them here and pretend they are the DVD extras!

Starting in college, I turned away from music for a while. As shown in this :40 segment, someone special brought me back to it.

[This post contains video, click to play]

I forgot to mention in the video that I arranged “Weekend in New England” for every part in my high school band so I could play the oboe solo. Alas, we only played my masterpiece one time. I’ll never know if it was shelved because my teacher didn’t like Barry or my arrangement needed help.
This :11 clip shows the piano’s soundboard looks like a harp. In fact, the piano’s soundboard is called a harp.

[This post contains video, click to play]

In this :56 clip, I show the harp’s note range on the piano keyboard.

[This post contains video, click to play]

The pedals change the tone of the strings. These 2 clips demonstrate a C-flat and C natural scale are played on the same strings.

[This post contains video, click to play]

[This post contains video, click to play]

You may have noticed that I’m playing the harp with only 4 fingers on each hand, as I discuss in this :30 outtake.

[This post contains video, click to play]

I had to cut The Sound of Music for time. Even if I could’ve included this 3:33 take of the whole song, I would have needed to trim the very end because ad libbing isn’t my strong suit. 🙂

[This post contains video, click to play]

I love music so much that I listen to it all day in my office. As you’ll learn in this :59 piece, I’m NOT playing Barry Manilow! (shocker!)

[This post contains video, click to play]

 

Resources

Naturally, I can’t write a blog article and not share some links with you!

Accessories

  • MisterStandman.com
    • This talented master craftsman in Idaho custom-made the gorgeous wooden music stand you see in the videos with my flute. He also made a book stand for me with an Eiffel Tower in the frame, and I just received his stand with a harp in the center of the frame and finished beautifully to match my harp. I love the Victorian Lyre pattern, but he has many other designs. Click on the thumbnails below to see the full-size images.
Harp with stand Harp stand close up "Fleur-de-lis Eiffel Tower bookstand
  • PageFlip Butterfly foot pedal 
    • This wonderful Bluetooth device allows you to turn your digital pages with your foot! You can move forward or backward through the piece. It works great when I play my flute or piccolo. When I play my harp, I may need to make a pedal change on the harp, so I’ll swipe the page with my hand.
  • Vekkia Music Stand Light
    • This clip-on light has 19 LEDs and 9 levels of brightness.

Apps/Skills

  • Alexis Skill for SiriusXM
    • When we moved to this house, I was thrilled to discover that it is wired for sound. We connected an Amazon Echo Dot to the control center. With this skill, I can summon Alexa to start playing SiriusXM.
  • forScore
    • This iOS-only app is well worth the $19.99 cost! I store my music for all my instruments in it and play using my iPad. I can annotate the music, which is extremely helpful as I adapt piano music for my harp.

Music sites I use

  • FirstFlute.com
    • This is a membership site where Sir James Galway teaches a series of video lessons.
  • Imslp.com
    • You can download public domain music here.
  • Musicnotes.com
    • You can purchase all genres of sheet music. It also has an app that plays the songs with adjustable speeds, so you can listen to understand how it should be played and/or play along with it.
  • Scribd.com
    • This subscription site has books, audiobooks, sheet music, and more. I’ve enjoyed finding and playing a number of musical pieces on this site. I particularly like the books of songs from a particular decade.
  • SiriusXM Escape Channel Playlist
    • Since I listen to this channel all day outside the booth, I often want to know the title or artist of a song. This site not only gives me that info, but it shows all the times the song was recently played.
  • Storyblocks.com
    • I subscribe to this site so I can download royalty-free music to play underneath audiobook credits and as the soundtrack for my videos. I also download images and videos that I use in my articles and videos. If you find something you like, go ahead and download it. I’ve discovered that some things get removed over time.

My articles with a musical theme

My harp videos (same videos in both places)

 

The post My Life as a Musician appeared first on Karen Commins.

]]> https://karencommins.com/2022/09/my-life-as-a-musician.html/feed 0 12378