It was a beautiful autumn afternoon in the Okanagan and as I walked home from school lost in a daydream, a strange idea crossed my mind: wouldn’t it be great if I had a sound track for my life. Perhaps I am closer to this than ever before.
In Hawaii while at university I was often annoyed by others’ “soundtracks” blasting from radios on campus. Once at a concert as I heard the mc announce, “Aloha, Ladies and Gentlemen, and welcome to the Dan Molino Show, starring DAN MOLINO. Then as Dan bounded on to the stage,and his theme music played. A light bulb went on in my head and I realized that what I wanted wasn’t a sound track, but “walk in music”.
I recently heard about a way to do this that I will be exploring in the near future. Right now I can just here the theme from Chariot’s of Fire playing as I enter the room, perhaps at a seminar in your city. Or maybe, this is the place for that gospel music idea I mentioned the other day. Now I’m hearing, “Put your hand in the hand…”.
So how do you do it? How do you cue the music, cause the volume to rise, then fade if you are your own sound man? Consider Kelly Duro’s Virtual Soundman
(http://www.handsfreemusic.com, 530/246-7043).
This is is a device that hooks up to an iPod and allows you to play music on cue at anytime during your presentation. Apparently you just hook the iPod (with the music you want to use on it) up to the Virtual Soundman, plug it into the same system that your microphone is using (house system or a sound board) and you are ready to go.
There is a cleverly designed tiny remote that fits in right your pocket that starts, stops, fades, skips,etc. Ladies, you may need a pocket for this! The thing is so small, I’m told, that your audience won’t even know you have it. Yet you have total control of the music.
So besides “walk-on” music and naturally, “walk-off “music, what can you use it for? Suppose in your workshop you have an assignment where participants are working on a learning exercise. Here you could introduce a little classical guitar music to help set the mood, tie into a theme, etc.
Check it out. What do you think?
Genealogy Education 
Having spent most of my life in audio production and adult education I have a number of other ways that this device can be used in genealogy presentations. The one that sprang to mind was the ability to add clips from oral histories. It has always brought chills to me when I hear a voice from the past and when I have been presenting a genealogy lecture. Although like the “shomaker’s kids” I have far too few recordings, the ones I have help make a point in a way that jumps out material in a usual presentation.
Gordon, what a great idea! I love it. And I guess the spin off would be to call up some leadiing authority on an aspect of something you are teaching and record a brief explanation of a point, with permission of course, and play it as part of your lecture.
Thanks for the insights. Hope you come by often!
Ken