When I first heard Greensleeves, I fell in love with it and loved to play it with my flute. Add words about Christ’s birth and “What Child Is This?” became one of my favorite songs.

Asked to Sing “What Child Is This?”

Last year, I was asked to sing “What Child Is This?” for a little music program during church study time. After much practice and looking forward to singing it, I got a cold and was unable to sing. There is nothing more disappointing than spending the time to memorize and sing a song and then not being able to do it.

Deciding to Make a Music Video

I recently learned how to make a better music video, so I decided to make one of me singing “What Child Is This?” Music audios are prerecorded in a studio. Then, the video is filmed and they are combined in the editing process. Since I don’t have a recording studio or a videographer, I thought you might like to know how I was able to make this video.

Preparing to Record the Audio

Since I don’t have a fancy microphone, I used the Smart Recorder app on my phone. I found a beautiful orchestral recording on YouTube. It was very different from the normal piano accompaniment. There is a long introduction and for the second verse, the chorus transitions to high B-flat. I was able to reach this note at the end of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” which I recently sang in a choir. How could I sing words that could be understood when the note is so high? I turned to my favorite voice lesson on singing super high. It is shared below for those who want to learn to sing high.

Recording the Song

To record the song, I first brought up my recording app. I pressed it to begin recording, and then I went over to YouTube and turned on the video with the beautiful orchestral version. Then I sang the song over and over so that I could choose the best parts when I was editing. I did best singing the high part after I did the above voice lesson. Below is the video where I got the pretty music. Be sure to check out their channel for more beautiful music.

Videoing the Scenes

Someone asked me who my videographer was and the answer was, “Me.” For any distance shots, I set my Nikon D5200 on a tripod and hoped that the autofocus would do its job. For the close-up shots of me walking or turning, I held my Moto G Stylus cell phone out at arm’s length. The last verse didn’t come out well and had to be redone a week later. It wasn’t easy recording the video due to the cold 50 degree temperature of the day. The special cat appearances in the video were all unplanned. 

Editing the Video

My editing software is called Vidoepad. To make this video, I first edited the audio that I wanted to use. Then I chose the videos that I wanted to use. The singing parts had to line up with the audio so that my lips formed the words at the correct times. This is a bit difficult to do and I wasn’t perfect. Hopefully, I will get better with practice. Then I added the transitions between the scenes. The video was made into an MP4 so it could be uploaded to YouTube. The actual upload took over four hours.

Making the Thumbnail

ACDSee Photo Editor was used to get the picture of me from one of the videos. I used Canva to get the free manger image and made the thumbnail without text. Last, I used Photoscape to resize my image and add text. 

Watch the Video

This video is a little different than the others on this page. I got a copyright ding and can’t embed the video. I could put my thumbnail and add the link. Click on the picture to be rerouted to YouTube to watch it.