Viral Sessions - Lark In The Morning / Out On The Ocean

VIRAL SESSIONS - Lark in the Morning / Out on the Ocean (pandemic online St. Patrick's Day Session)
VIRAL SESSIONS is a spontaneous initiative started by Jan Gałczewski (Beltaine, Sprinkle Blizzard Ariadne's Thread, Duo G2) and Jakub Goldfinch Szczygieł (Beltaine, Sprinkle Blizzard, Balsam, Balonique), Polish folky musicians, to bring their Irish Trad artists friends together, professional and amateur alike, to record home videos of playing music collaboratively.
In this case it is about two Irish jigs that form a mighty collaborative work for the virus-troubled St. Patrick's Day 2020! As it all started from a video call of Jan and Jakub, the concept of playing together online grew larger and larger by the hour. As most of us are now quarantined and out there in countries under pandemic lockdown, we figured we need some project to cheer people up and, most of all, bring us all together. To make it even more challenging, the idea arose in about 48 hours before St. Patrick's Day. The participants had about 24 hours (!!!) to make the videos, which were then edited and mixed into this mighty project.
We are blown away by the people's enthousiasm and input! This is terrific! Thank you so much from our hearts! Enjoy the togetherness! Next time we should make it even bigger, don't you think? ;)
Jan Gałczewski, Jakub Goldfinch, Ewelina Grygier, Katarzyna Sałapa, Adam Rorian Kryński, Anna Kopec, Martyna Golińska, Alexander Dmitriev, Łukasz Potoczny, Liz Jones, Krzysztof Rogulski, Adam Sznabel, Doro Habasińska, Olena Yeremenko, Michał Górka, Aneta Dortová, Michał Zajączkowski-de Mezer, Anton Korolev, Vanessa Medecin
Special thanks to Vanessa Medecin for extraordinary help and support!

[@markkavanagh4457]

I was in BallyShannon, County Donegal 25 years ago, two of the best Irish trad musicians in the bar where I was playing were both from Krakow...this is fantastic, and I'm very happy to see, the music from my country that I love and play being enjoyed by the people of Poland 💚🤍💛 🇬🇮

[@charliechua1877]

whoever is unliking this video clearly has no taste. You guys are just fantastic! It's so fun watching you!

[@markkavanagh4457]

Probably a loyalist Orangeman, they are tone deaf generally... this is great music..

[@georginabird9354]

Absolutely brilliant ❤❤❤❤❤ thanks for sharing xxx

[@annabober4642]

Jesteście wspaniali!😊☘💚

[@ViralSessions]

Dzięki! :)

[@Stu-pm1jg]

Fantastic! Thank you for doing this - Happy St. Pat's - Slainte, na zdravi, na zdrowie!

[@ViralSessions]

Thank you! Na zdrowie! :)

[@mariuszszymanski3561]

Po prostu MEGA !!!! :)

[@ViralSessions]

Dzięki! :)

[@MacKenziePoet]

This has filled all of us with hope and admiration!

[@guenterstoye3436]

einfach schön danke dafür

[@ViralSessions]

Thank you! :)

[@jonathaneyken1176]

Amazing!

[@michaellaber6574]

One year latter! Still awesome.

[@mariapalmer5671]

Two years later . Definitely still awesome.

[@briandonovan1725]

I'm with you Jakub. Starting off a set at the session can be scary. You did great.

[@macfourie]

Fab stuff! Well done!

[@katieengland190]

Beautiful!

[@ViralSessions]

Thank you!

[@laviniaburke3160]

I had no idea there are so many people in Poland who like Irish music!

[@freelancellc]

I was just thinking the same thing. Bravo

[@akaeda-chan4846]

Lovely! ❤

[@WildBoreWoodWind]

Maith sibh, who knew the Poles were such fans of our music - Bhi se sin iontach!

[@kinga2321]

Świetnie! Oby tak dalej!❤

[@ViralSessions]

Dziękujemy! Nowe odcinki już wkrótce :)

[@simoncairns6398]

Bravo 👏

[@dencar777]

Hup!!!

[@pojopojopojoman]

Can the principals of Viral Sessions please give some idea of the technical steps involved? I play Irish flute in a couple of sessions, and I am a computer professional, but not in the area of music recording and editing. I assume that the basic material is from people recording themselves on their cell phones, but as to sequence of recordings and timing and editing, I don't have a clue. Many Google searches have found nothing useful.

[@ViralSessions]

Hello! And thank you for your message! Here is how we proceed: First step, we produce a pilot track (like a skeleton: one melodic instrument, one harmonic instrument, one rhythmic instrument). Second step, we send it to the participants and ask them to record themselves (audio-video) and to forward their recordings to us. Third step, we extract the audio files and mix them altogether. Fourth step, we synchronise video files and audio files and realise a montage of the video files according to both narrative and effects. Fifth step, we render it and post it! The only tools you need are a simple DAW software, good headphones… and of course you need to be ready to put a crazy amount of time into it! Haha!

[@pojopojopojoman]

@@ViralSessions Thank you for all that good information! We might be able to give it a try! Let me ask you one follow-up question: the "pilot track" already seems to be combined from 3 people in different locations, so do you do the whole process in miniature for the pilot track? Something like: first flute player records, sends to bouzouki player and bodhran player; each records and sends their video back to the flute player, who edits all in his DAW to make the pilot track. Then he sends *that* out to everyone. Do you do something like that?

[@ViralSessions]

@@pojopojopojoman Yes, it's more or less the same process. We are thinking about making an informative video about that process. Would you say it would be useful?

[@BobBouzouki]

@@ViralSessions Congratulations on the video. It is really nice. My band and I are currently in the middle of doing the same thing ourselves. I have created the pilot track and sent it out to everyone and am waiting for the videos. I am currently looking at what software I can use to put the videos together. I've been looking into free software such as Hitfilm Express, Lightworks, Blender, Shotcut and others. I see you mentioned DAW in the comments. When I type that into Google it comes up with a whole other list of software. What software would you suggest using?

[@BobBouzouki]

I managed to find a program that does what we need. It's called VSDC video editor. I'm curious to hear which program you used.

[@lindaj5492]

Fantastic! Please someone tell me what is the extraordinary stringed instrument at 2:22?

[@GoldfinchWhistles]

It's a nyckelharpa, a scandinavian instrument from Sweden played here by the great Olena Yeremenko. :)

[@lindaj5492]

@@GoldfinchWhistles Thank you! I hope you and yours have a safe and happy holiday 🤗

[@GoldfinchWhistles]

@@lindaj5492 You too! Take care, have a great 2021! :)

[@JohnHillEU]

What is the instrument played by Olena Yeremenko? at 2:20

[@ViralSessions]

It's nyckelharpa :)

[@itsmimanu2010]

viral sessions = poland ajja

[@ellieconnolly8723]

Play

[@Kitiwake]

Part B of "Out on the Ocean" strictly speaking, is played differently second time round.

[@patrickcoyne8624]

Ummmmm No....... That sounded like a kiddies beginner session,Timing was odd lark in the morning a jig that almost played a like a polka. A Plus effort for spreading irish music. Sorry but honest opinion

[@jasiekg2874]

It's a video of non-irish musicians playing a few irish tunes just for fun. Mixed from a videos that's been sent by internet. They never played together. It's not an all-reland competition. Let's leave dilema of how much of polkas are in double jigs (for your information it's a double jig not a jig ;)) and vice versa for the Irish. Competition is not music!

[@diatoforever]

Amazing!