I’m learning how to make a website: sometimes it seems breathtakingly fast, sometimes frustratingly slow (so, like a lot of learning). A lot to absorb, and a lot to decide. And the pressing temptation to try to get there quickly, when you know that really it would be better to take more time. I’m reminded of a very, very good book The Practicing Mind by Thomas Sterner where he has one sentence that kind of permeates everything I do (practising the piano especially, but here website design): “In order to focus on the present, we must give up, at least temporarily, our attachment to the desired goal. If we don’t give up our attachment to the goal, we cannot be in the present because we are thinking about something that hasn’t occurred yet: the goal.”
It’s taken up much of the week but I’m happy with the way the site is starting to look. More importantly the functionality seems fairly good: page architecture, menus and submenus all developing nicely. There are a lot of films and they all appear to work. Curiously the choice of an MP3 player plugin took a while, partly because I was planning for potential Woocommerce integration. I’m still concerned that its functionality is limited, and will have to spend a little more time there.
Another great advance is that I’m starting to have a feel for designing column and section placement that transfers over to the mobile version without too much tweaking. There are probably still some issues on the mobile version, but they will get ironed out in the end.
So, with luck, I can get back to real work this week – editing music and film, practising for recordings, advancing the print project. I could do with a solid week on the RL8 edit, but if the Winding practise reaches some sort of conclusion then everything will get put aside for recording this and the other pieces I want to batch with it. And that will take as long as it takes.
The website has really taken shape – looking good!!
Chris, congratulations on the web site. I think it’s attractively and clearly laid out. Great job! I especially like the accessible manner in which the recordings and video are made available. I don’t recall seeing the “bird’s eye view” technique of videoing the hands on the keyboard before, but for me it’s very effective. So much is communicated by actually seeing the way the keys are being touched. So thanks again, and best wishes as you embark on this new adventure.
Matt
Matt,
Thanks so much for your positive feedback and encouragement.
I’ve been writing and practising for the last week or so and haven’t had time to work further on the web site. There are still a lot of issues to be resolved and I look forward to continuing when time allows. (Not least the very long opening credits sequences on many of the films, which comes from when they were just isolated occurrences on YouTube.)
Great to hear from you and hope all good in Oregon.
Chris