a video of myself, my dad, and my brother performing O Christmas Tree (1800s German “O Tannenbaum” tr. “O Fir Tree”) in a jazzy style.

Recorded on December 25th 2011 in Delta, BC, Canada.

Neil Peters – tenor saxophone
B. Peters – drums
Geoff Peters – piano

The piano we used is a Steinway Grand that was made in the 1960′s. We are so lucky to have this amazing instrument in our family! It is an honor to be able to share it with you.

Please check out some of our other vids on our channel, please subscribe, and remember to support live music in your own community too!!

Find me on iTunes:

itunes.apple.com/us/album/one-dance/id359501126?i=359501404&uo=6

or on CDBaby:

www.cdbaby.com/cd/geoffpeterstrio

and more free jazz music from me is on my band’s website at:

gpeters.com

Technical notes:
Audio Recorded on a Sony ICD-SX712 in uncompressed 44.1khz 16 bit WAV, using the built-in microphones on the unit. Audio was processed “mastered?” using Audacity (free program).

Video recorded with a Sony Cybershot DSC-HX7V in full HD 1080i 60i 24MB/s, daylight white balance.

Video was synced with audio using Pluraleyes by Singular Software, and edited using Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5 (both fully licensed / legal copy). Computer used was a Windows 7 Dell PC (Intel i7 and USB 3.0 for a faster workflow). No color correction was done to this video.

Thanks for watching!! See you next time

This has been a Birds in the House Production.
Please visit them at: birdsinthehouse.com

(c) 2011 Geoff Peters

Join Geoff Peters ( gpeters.com ) for some “tinkling of the ivories” on Christmas Day 2011. Geoff improvises and doodles on the Christmas Song while his family enjoys the festivities at their home on Christmas morning, in British Columbia, Canada.

The piano is a beautiful Steinway grand that was purchased by my grandfather in the 1960′s (made in New York). I am so lucky to have this piano in our family.

Merry Holidays and Ho Ho Ho Happy New Year to everyone!!!

Love and kisses,
Geoff

Recorded on a Sony ICD-SX712 using the built-in microphones, and audio was processed (mastered?) in Audacity on a Windows Dell PC.

Song For Mom (Composed by Joel Frahm)

www.joelfrahm.com/

Performed by jazz duo:

Neil Peters (alto saxophone)
Geoff Peters (piano)

My dad, Neil Peters, learned this song from his amazing and incredible awesome saxophone / jazz combo instructor Joel Frahm when he attended the Centrum Jazz Workshop in Port Townsend Washington this past July 2011.

From what I heard from my dad, and the recordings from the camp, I highly recommend the Centrum Jazz Workshop in Port Townsend. Top world class faculty, an amazing jazz immersion experience and a focus on real musicianship and creativity. Maybe I’ll go sometime!!

www.centrum.org/jazz/

The piano I played in this video is a beautiful Steinway Grand that has been passed down through my family. It was purchased by my grandparents in the 1960′s and is in excellent working condition. I love this piano!!

Recorded on a Sony ICD-SX712 (ICDSX712B) Digital Voice Recorder using the on-board stereo microphones that come with the unit. This is a fantastic recording unit that is perfect for recording live music. It records in professional uncompressed 16bit WAV format which is ideal for mastering.

How to buy this recorder:

store.sony.ca/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=20153&catalogId=100803&langId=200&productId=8198552921666290102

I mastered this audio using the free software called Audacity, which is available for both Windows and Mac.

audacity.sourceforge.net/

My mastering consisted of applying some dynamics compression using the “Dynamic Range Compressor” effect in Audacity. I used the following settings:
Threshold: -14 db
Noise Floor: -80 db
Ratio: 3:1
Attack Time: 0.2 secs
Decay Time: 1.0 secs
(Make up gain unchecked)
Then used the Amplify Effect to -0.2 db.
Trimmed beginning and end of track, and added fade out.

My dad, Neil Peters, has been passionate about the saxophone for the last 15 years. I really love playing music with him. Thank you so much Dad for sharing your beautiful music with me and everyone!!

My jazz band’s website (where you can hear more music from me) is at:

www.gpeters.com

We’re also on iTunes. The album is called Quiet Night and it’s by the Geoff Peters Trio.

Thanks a lot for watching, and please subscribe, like, and comment this video!!

All the best,
Geoff Peters
Vancouver BC Canada

gpeters.com

Video notes:
Recorded with a Sony Cybershot DSC-HX7V with manual white balance set.
Edited using Adobe Premiere CS 5.5 on a Dell computer running Windows 7.

Some adjustments were made to the color and tones in this video using the Fast Color Corrector. Some of the shadows were darkened and the midtones decreased in brightness, to give a more natural look.

Free MP3 download:
The Mp3 of this video performance is available for free at:

www.gpeters.com/tracks/2011/

Blue In Green by Bill Evans / Miles Davis

performed by
Neil Peters (alto saxophone)
Geoff Peters (Steinway piano)
Recorded on Fathers’ Day June 19th 2011, Delta BC Canada.

Camera: Sony Cybershot HX7V on Cloudy white balance setting, using in-camera audio (including the non-defeatable Automatic gain control). It would have sounded better if we had used an external audio device with manual gain control.

Rae K. (tenor sax) and Geoff P. (piano) perform an improvised version of You and the Night and the Music, composed by Arthur Schwartz and lyrics by Howard Dietz.

Rae’s Blog:

raekang.wordpress.com/

Geoff’s Band Website (free MP3 downloads):

www.gpeters.com

Audio recorded with: Sony Minidisc MZ-NH700 and a Sony ECM-MS907 condenser microphone

Video recorded with: Sony DSC-HX7V

For a free MP3 download of this performance, please visit:

www.gpeters.com/tracks/youtube7/

Geoff P. (piano) and Rae K. (sax) from Vancouver Canada perform the jazz standard There Will Never Be Another You by Harry Warren and Mack Gordon.

Geoff’s website: www.gpeters.com (with free MP3 downloads)
Rae’s blog: raekang.wordpress.com/

Audio: Sony Minidisc MZ-NH700 and a Sony ECM-MS907 condenser microphone

Video: Sony DSC-HX7V

For a free MP3 download of this performance, please visit:

www.gpeters.com/tracks/youtube7/

In this video I review my new favorite album, Gabriel Santiago. Check out Gabriel Santiago on iTunes!

Hi there, I’m back with a jazz piano medley just in time for Christmas. Here are two of my favorite holiday tunes: O Christmas Tree (O Tannenbaum), a popular and traditional Christmas song of German origin, and Christmas Time is Here (Vince Guaraldi) which was made popular by the Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack.

For a free MP3 download of the music part of this video, please visit:

www.gpeters.com/tracks/youtube6

Discussion about the lighting used:
This is my first piano video after taking the Art of Camera lighting course at Langara college ( – thanks to my very knowledgeable teacher Thomas Fillingham) For this video I bounced a 200W Soft White incandescent bulb through a diffusing gel into the ceiling in front of the camera, and slightly to my left. This gives a very soft light that makes my skin look almost flawless. That’s because bouncing the light off of the ceiling softens the light a lot, and also the diffusing gel softens it even more. From observing lighting used in movies and TV shows, I find that generally a soft light (more diffuse) is used more often to illuminate feminine subjects, or for fashion photography. whereas “Rembrandt” lighting with more dramatic shadows is used for masculine, edgy subjects. One thing I will try for future videos is to use a “rim light” to separate my outline from the background. The Rim Light shines from behind the subject to make the hair and shoulders have a “rim” of light around them.

Note about the camera used:
I used a Canon T2i with a Sigma 30mm 1.4 lens. Settings were ISO 800, F2.8 (I think) and 1/60 shutter. I recorded the video in 30fps 1080p, and set the white balance manually to an 18% gray card. To determine proper exposure I also used the gray card and my reflective meter in the camera (but a separate light meter could also have been used).

Note about the recording equipment:
I used two SM57′s positioned at equal distance from the soundboard, inserted into the top of the piano, recording in stereo. Recorded into Logic and some dynamics compression was applied. I also used a wireless lapel mic to record my speaking parts, and I applied some soft vocal compression to my voice to make it more clear. During the music performance, I muted the lapel mic, and similarly during the speaking parts I muted the piano mics.

I synced up the audio and video using an excellent piece of software called Pluraleyes. Highly recommended: it has saved me hours of tedious work of lining up audio tracks with video tracks.

The font I used for the text at the end of the video is Helvetica. It’s a professional font that is used for artsy purposes as well as heavily used in commercial printing. Fortunately it comes for free with Macintosh OS.

Thanks for visiting and hope to perform piano for you again soon.
Wishing you and your family all the best for the holiday season.

cheers,
Geoff

Here’s the latest joke of the day as well as a jazz improv by Jason (acoustic bass) and Geoff (piano).

Afternoon in Paris by John Lewis performed by PDAMCA Adult Week combo. www.pdamca.com Thanks to Phil, Ian, Don, and everyone who took part in the camp for a great week! Thanks to my wonderful dad Neil Peters for recording this concert. (Recorded using a Panasonic DMC-ZR3). http Jerry writes: Thanks Neil for recording this, thanks to Geoff for posting, and special thanks to Don Thompson for creating this arrangement for us and to Don and Ian McDougall for their direction. Great camping with you. BTW, that’s Tim K. on soprano, Ian C. on trumpet, Paul on trombone, Alexander K. on drums, Rick R. on bass, Geoff P. on piano, and Jerry S. on guitar.