Recital video: how to add score to video?

ShiroKuro · 2026-05-03T10:30:12+00:00

I know this has been discussed here before but can I ask again? I would like to try adding the score to my video when I make my PT video. I want to set it u...

ShiroKuro

thepianoplayer416 It's be easier to have the pages in separate imaes, use a photo editing program to break it into separate lines. Save the image of each line into a separate file

I will have each grand staff as a separate image, and then click through it like slides.

Also I don’t know how to use musescore, and I don’t want to deal with overlaying the staves at specific spots on a video editing timeline, those are two learning curves I’m hoping to avoid.

mel_lem

ShiroKuro yes, your video with the score edited in

ShiroKuro

mel_lem yes, your video with the score edited in

Do you my video with the piano hands and the score?

That’s the part I don’t know how to do 😅

mel_lem

ShiroKuro 🤣 you will have the piano playing video soon, and perhaps the score video afterwards?

And then putting them together in either iMovie or Splice?

I have tried iMovie before, I think it was harder to use than Splice for this purpose.

ShiroKuro

mel_lem you will have the piano playing video soon, and perhaps the score video afterwards?

The piano playing video may take a while, I’m hoping to get a fairly good recording so I will probably have several recording sessions over many days during the next week and a half…

I have tried iMovie before, I think it was harder to use than Splice for this purpose.

Yeah the thing I’m not keen on with regard to iMovie is that I’ll have to do it on my iPad and generally, having a mouse makes everything easier. We’ll see…

KevinM

iMovie on the mac is not useful for doing this either.

ShiroKuro

KevinM ugh. Good to know!!

It’s such a common presentation (score over hands), it ought to be easy.

I wonder if most people like use musescore for their videos. …

WieWaldi

ShiroKuro Then I would have two mp4s, the piano video and the score video. And then combine them using a split screen method, either in Splice iMovie .

To me that sounds easier than trying to paste parts of the score into a video timeline in an editing tool.

Erm. no.

Putting each image to the right place in your video timeline is easier. You save one step of workflow; maybe two. And you can adjust the timeline positions as often as you want. No need to record a one shot powerpoint presentation with the right timing in a single run.

ShiroKuro

WieWaldi video timeline

I’ve worked with video timelines before, but I no longer have access to the software I’m comfortable with. And even with the program I knew, I found working with the timeline to be a huge pain in the rear.

So to my mind, the problem is the tool I use.

What app do you recommend?

WieWaldi

ShiroKuro I use Davinci Resolve on a PC. Shouldn't be difficult by any means.

ShiroKuro

WieWaldi I’m skeptical 😅 but I’ll check it out. Thank you for the recommendation!

iternabe

ShiroKuro So regarding the score part, I think I can use the PC snipping tool to make a screen recording and save as an mp4.

First I would “cut up” (digitally) the score and put each grand staff onto one slide in PowerPoint. The listen to my recording and I scroll through the PowerPoint, using the snipping tool to capture just the score. Then save as mp4.

Then I would have two mp4s, the piano video and the score video. And then combine them using a split screen method, either in Splice iMovie .

To me that sounds easier than trying to paste parts of the score into a video timeline in an editing tool.

What do you both think? ( @mel_lem and @iternabe )

That should work. It is more straightforward if you only do this once, or occasionally. But if you do this often, whether doing multiple retakes of the same pieces, or record new pieces frequently, then you will realize the process of cutting up the score image (to individual systems), creating the powerpoint, and screen record, are the kind of repetitive overhead that can be eliminated by importing the score into video editor and manipulated as overlay.

ShiroKuro

iternabe then you will realize the process of cutting up the score image (to individual systems), creating the powerpoint, and screen record, are the kind of repetitive overhead that can be eliminated by importing the score into video editor and manipulated as overlay.

This makes a lot of sense.

For the record, I do things in powerpoint all the time, so the cognitive burden is very low. Whereas, it's been a long time since I've dealt with editing a video in a timeline, and my memory of it is that it was a huge pain in the rear. So the cognitive burden for that method is high. At the moment.

Maybe these programs that are being recommended here are easier/more user friendly. Hopefully!

Anyway, first I have to get a recording of the piano part that I like.

~~Maybe I'll decide that I don't want to add the score because I don't want people to see all the notes I'm dropping!~~

mel_lem

I just saw something cool on instagram

I am going to find out how to make the transparent background of the notations.

iternabe

mel_lem how to make the transparent background of the notations.

It can be done quite easily in Photoshop:

Import/paste the score to a new layer
disable/delete background layer
adjust level to make white washout (especially for scanned score image)
use magic wand tool to select all white area (uncheck "contiguous", increase "tolerance" if necessary), then hit delete
save as png

One potential problem with transparent score is it can blend into dark area of the background. This can be mitigated by adding shadow or semi-transparent grey backing in the video editor.

ShiroKuro

@mel_lem that insta video is very pretty!!

mel_lem I am going to find out how to make the transparent background of the notations.

I can do that quite easily in powerpoint. 😃

iternabe One potential problem with transparent score is it can blend into dark area of the background. This can be mitigated by adding shadow or semi-transparent grey backing in the video editor.

I had thought of changing the score to white, but my background would be mostly the piano's music stand but in the middle, there's an iPad with the score on it, so that part is white, so white overlay score wouldn't totally work.

It's fun to think about though!

BartK

I have done a video with a score above, Paul Barton style, but it's a lot of work so I don't do it often.

I use a fully free software stack (on Linux but it works on other platforms too):

GIMP for image editing
Audacity for audio
Kdenlive for video editing

Kdenlive is powerful enough to make professional-quality videos but the learning curve is quite steep so I wouldn't recommend it for casual editing. The process is similar to what @iternabe described above.

ShiroKuro

BartK the learning curve is quite steep

I’m looking to avoid anything with a steep learning curve! 😅

thepianoplayer416

There are things you can fine-tune in the editing process. I use a movie editor regularly. When I overlap an image on top of a video, I can adjust the transparency of the white background of the music to allow some of the original video to show while the notes would be clearly visible.

The background of the score doesn't have to be 100% white or transparent, can be somewhere in between. Here I dropped it down from 100% to 72% to allow the video to show through while letting the notes stand out.

ShiroKuro

thepianoplayer416 that’s very pretty!

mel_lem

ShiroKuro I saw this and immediately thought of showing this to you

Can you imagine the workload to produce something like this? Very clever use of the angle and the background though.

« Previous Page Next Page »