Category: Uncategorized

Capturing and Publishing Family Stories For Fun!

November 14, 2025 / Greg Dixon

American Thanksgiving and the Holiday Season are coming up soon.

Consider giving your family and loved ones a Story Production to capture personal and family stories as a lasting gift.

We are not getting any younger, and sometimes the opportunity to capture personal stories passes us by.

I have some regrets in that area.

Collaborate with me to capture and preserve the stories, photos, video, and audio in Google Drive folders.

I can conduct interviews and facilitate family storytelling sessions. You never know what will come out of the woodwork!

Then we organize our content into various story productions in different formats. Simple photo and video montages are good for presenting at memorials, weddings, anniversaries, and other special occasions.

A personal or family website is perfect for sharing stories publicly.

It is also possible to have the family update and expand the content over time, making the website a living legacy.

A Life Vault is a multimedia portal that supports multiple levels of access, allowing you to share only certain stories with family and friends.

The stories can also go into books that can be printed or viewed as eBooks and Flipbooks.

Let’s start with identifying and capturing the most important stories.

I am offering a third off the package price with the coupon named 𝗚𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗧𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗸𝘀. Learn more about the offers and see sample 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 at:

https://www.sharedvisionspublishing.com/storyproductions

𝗚𝗿𝗲𝗴 𝗗𝗶𝘅𝗼𝗻
𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗩𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗨𝗻𝗹𝗶𝗺𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗱 M𝘂𝗹𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗮 𝗣𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴

Discuss with Greg Dixon

The Four Steps For Publishing Family Stories Book

This free Flipbook will help you get started capturing your family stories.

Read Flipbook

Playing Music For Fun with Greg Dixon

October 17, 2025 / Greg Dixon

Girl playing a toy guitar. Playing Music For Fun

My first attempt at music was playing a chair with drumsticks in elementary school with friends who wanted to start a band. The first song was This Diamond Ring, by Gary Lewis and the Playboys.

I played percussion in school orchestras and drums with a band called Elygra (Argyle backwards) through High School.

Later, I played drums in many hobby and semi-pro bands.

I also sang in the Singspiration Singers choir for twelve years.

At some point, I started playing bass with groups and duos. I know enough to tag along as a musical faker.

I also sit in on jams on bass and drums, usually not knowing what the other players will play next.

Many people marvel at how we do that!

The Basics of Playing With Other People

It is much easier than it looks and does not take years of study and practice.

If you listen to music and can tap along on a table, you’re on your way to being a drummer. This is almost innate for most people.

I use a few simple note tricks to accompany the bass guitar.

Say a song has three chords: G, C, and D. These are the root, 4th, and 5th elements of the key of G.

I will play a pattern that plays these notes. Playing in different keys is a matter of starting the pattern on the root note.

With both drums and bass, rhythm and feel are a big part of it.

Piano and Guitar are more challenging as the finger positions change with different chords and key positions.

Still, you can start simple.

Playing Music For Fun

I am working on a book, program, and presentation to help people who love music get started in playing music.

There are many things you can do on your own and many opportunities to explore with others and work your way up with new skills.

All of the great musicians you love started with simple learning a few things, learning more, and experimenting.

Playing music can be a lifelong joy for you.

Stay Tuned!

Greg Dixon, Chief Cheerleader
Singing For Fun

Simple Photo Presentations to Refresh Family Memories

December 29, 2024 / Greg Dixon

One of the easiest story projects you can do yourself or with my help is to create a slide presentation with photos and captions identifying the people and events.

I have created dozens of these presentations for birthday parties, weddings, and memorials.

The most recent was a tribute to Rocket Norton at the recent Rock Beats Cancer benefit concert. The five-minute presentation is mostly photos with some video.

See Rocket Norton Tribute

A happier project was to put together family photos for my son’s wedding. He grew up in North Vancouver and his bride grew up in the Maritimes with the wedding and reception in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.

The photo slideshow with a music background started with baby photos of each and pictures of activities as they grew up separately (with many interesting parallels).

I included photos of parents, grandparents, siblings, uncles, aunts, and cousins with captions for the names, relationships, and events. It was an excellent way for each family to learn about the other family.

We looped the video on a large TV at an Aunt’s house between the wedding ceremony and the start of the reception. Many people watched and commented on relatives they had not seen recently.

We also projected the video as part of the reception.

We used Google Drive to collect the photos from both families.

I used PhotoShop to crop and restore the photos, though Canva and other photo editors will work for this.

Today, I will use Apple FinalCut Pro to assemble the photos with transitions, captions, and music. Any video editor would work for this.

I can put it together for you. I will need the photos and notes about each photo for the captions sent by email or uploaded to a Google Drive folder.

The finished presentation can be embedded on a web page or played on most modern televisions from a USB Memory Drive.

Memory Refresher for Seniors

A great use of these family presentations is for seniors and others who are experiencing memory loss.

The photos and videos with captions and possibly a voice-over can be a fun way to refresh memories of family members and events.

Digital Photo Frames

There are many ways of presenting these photo presentations, including inexpensive digital photo frames for your loved ones.

See Digital Photo Frame Example

Tabletop Books

The photo presentation could also be adapted to a create a tabletop book.

There are many services to create these including VistaPrint, Walmart, and others.

Creating a book available for your family members to order from Amazon would also work. Publishing books on Amazon is one of my main services.

I am working on a Story Projects book and workshop series for creating Story Productions like these for people who want to do it themselves.

Let me know if you want me to help with your family story productions now.