Practice Tip 11: Record Yourself
Should you record yourself practicing an instrument? What does recording yourself do? How often should you record yourself?
I am terrified of recording myself practicing my flute, and I resist doing it, putting it off as long as I can. But I always record myself when I am nearing the end of learning a piece if I will be performing it. Once I get over the fear, and record it once, it becomes so exciting. I can fine tune my playing problems by myself. You (usually) improve with each recording.
Record Yourself note card or large matted print.
First of all, you can play and just concentrate on playing, not criticizing yourself while you’re playing. You can be in the moment. This can mimic a performance, helping you get ready for the feel of performing. Save the critiquing for listening to the recording.
Listening to yourself after each recording, you can quickly identify problem spots. Whether you have “pointy notes”, need phrasing improvements, lack dynamics, have rhythm, tone or intonation problems, you’ll hear this. You can pinpoint your problems and “iron” them out objectively yourself. It’s fun to rerecord and hear your progress.
Recording yourself can also help you keep track of your progress. You can improve pretty quickly using recordings with practice sessions. If you can bring yourself to record yourself earlier in the process of learning a piece, it would be fun to see how drastically you have improved.
Recording yourself is a mental exercise to practice mentally preparing for a performance. And you will be better prepared for playing for an audience.
This process will help you will sound like what you want to sound like instead of what you think you sound like!
If you are recording with a video (which I usually don’t do, but should once in a while), you can see the feel you portray to an audience. I have a terrible habit of making faces when I’m not satisfied with my notes.
HAPPY PRACTICING!
Becky’s Note cards come with writing on the back, leaving more room in the card for notes. Purchase an assortment for great music teacher gifts. You can also request large prints to frame for your music room. To see all of Becky’s music lesson folk art with humor follow this LINK.