Recording as a practice and critique tool

[bil]

I know this is probably old news to a lot of you, but I've learned recently that recording to listen to and critique my own playing is proving helpful. As I play back my recordings, I notice things that I don't hear while I'm playing, but must be very noticeable to anyone listening. Mind you, that's usually just my dog, but he is my audience after all.

Mostly what I notice is extraneous noises: nails hitting the sound board, bumps, and especially string squeak. I know I can't eliminate squeak entirely, but when I listen to recordings by most of y'all on the forum, I don't hear much if any of that. Is it a playing technique, or is it a processing technique that's responsible? As for the bumps and nail noise, I just need to be more careful.

A big thing is tempo. Until I hear the playback, I'm not real aware of speeding up or slowing down as I go. Listening to myself is really helping me to maintain pace.

Bottom line for those of you for whom this may be new information: record yourself and listen to it. You'll be amazed at all the stuff you'll hear (or maybe not!). And you don't need anything fancy to record with. I'm using an iPad with a free App called Voice Record. You can use the iPad mic or an external. I'm using an iRig Studio mic.

It's amazing to me the things I've learned from participating in this forum. It's really cool that an amateur like me can get advice and playing tips from the stuff the really accomplished players post here.

[ljguitar]

Hi bit…

Yup - recording one's self is extremely useful.

Video live performance is even more revealing.

[Mr Fixit eh]

Yes, recording is a great tool. I'll just point out that to get the most benefit, you have to think about what you want to sound like, analyze, and do some problem-solving to improve.

steve

[TBman]

I was just doing this last night. The tune I'm working on had a regular note, then a quick grace note then a pull off, but I wasn't sure that I liked it so I recorded myself doing it that way, and then another way. Also used it to make some versions of the full tune, as written and then with my changes. Home recording is a great learning tool.

[sublro]

Originally Posted by ljguitar

Video live performance is even more revealing.

I don't doubt it for a minute, and i'm curious, what types of things has video recording brought to your attention when you've done it? Need some ammo to convince my gigging partner....

[Toby Walker]

Videoing yourself is equally, if not even more beneficial. When you SEE your mistakes you can also observe things like hand and finger positioning.

[min7b5]

This is something I'm very passionate about, and a very important part of my life as a practicing musician. I talked about quite a bit in day 30 of my thirty day youtube series here http://youtu.be/sSenR7Pv5UE

[Toby Walker]

Originally Posted by min7b5

This is something I'm very passionate about, and a very important part of my life as a practicing musician. I talked about quite a bit in day 30 of my thirty day youtube series here http://youtu.be/sSenR7Pv5UE

That's a GREAT series.

[Pitar]

Originally Posted by bil

I know this is probably old news to a lot of you, but I've learned recently that recording to listen to and critique my own playing is proving helpful.

...

Yep. Another way to monitor it is to play with headphones. You hear everything you do/don't want to hear and that saves a lot of recording time. But, recording will capture some (considered) gems if you're just noodling around with melody composition.

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by Toby Walker

…When you SEE your mistakes you can also observe things like hand and finger positioning.

Hi Toby…

And priceless facial expressions…