Sunday, November 16, 2008

They're Standing By Others with Music

In church this morning, we got to watch a snippet of a cool video, which also happens to be online for your own viewing pleasure:
It's a montage of musicians all around the world playing "Stand By Me," and it was made by an organization called Playing for Change, which is a foundation that's "dedicated to connecting the world through music by providing resources (including but not limited to facilities, supplies and educational programs) to musicians around the world. A documentary about the movement is coming next year, and a guest column by founder/director Mark Johnson may be found here.

And being the wonky musician type, one thing kept occurring to me as I watched the video: It must have taken a lot of preparation to get everyone used in the video to play in exactly the same key (especially considering the different tunings in different parts of the world) and tempo; either that, or some very clever editing techniques were used. (And the fellow musician sitting next to me in church--a bassoonist--was somewhat disappointed that her instrument didn't make it into the video. The saxophone was nicely represented by a guy in Italy.)

Anyway, it's a cool video. Give it a look, and feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments.

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