Recording while practicing

[erick86]

Recently, I've started recording some of the pieces that I'm trying to polish up, just using my phone.  I have been greatly surprised at how awful it sounds first and second time around.  I suddenly hear things that i wasn't even aware that i was doing, like inner voices that are lost, phrases that are choppy, etc.  I thought i was playing it well before i started recording myself.  Then all the details became blindingly obvious. 

Anyone else use their phone regularly to record and critique yourself?  Give it a try!  It's a bit time consuming, but i haven't found anything else that will expedite progress faster during my practice time than being my own adjudicator.


Eric

[bronnestam]

I often use the virtual pianoware Pianoteq while practicing, and it has the splendid feature of automatically recording all your playing in a session. Then you can listen to it again in the history list ... sometimes it can be annoying, like when you don't play pieces through at all but work with single bars or finger exercises, but it is certainly gold when you need to evaluate your playing overall, just like OP here says. I hear so much ... one other great feature is that you can change the speed of your recording - let's say you played it pretty slow, and then you increase the playback speed with 1.5 to the "right" speed ... and that will reveal a lot!

[outin]

I use either the digital camera or an Olympus recorder to record my practice. The recorder has such a sensitive mic that I can hear every little detail and dynamic (going wrong). I used to record quite often but since I am already overly critical about my playing I just hated everything and got frustrated. When I record less frequently I can better hear the progress...Everything still sounds like crap to my ears though

[hfmadopter]

I used to record myself back in the 1980's a fair amount. You never sound as good as you actually feel you sound, it's very revealing ! However, when it all comes together its also rewarding. Back then I recorded to tape. I have to record some pieces now and don't really look forward to it, I keep putting it off and all I have to do is hit record on the digital piano these days. For some reason now that I'm older I find recording myself worse than playing to a live crowd, I tighten right up but I'll get there. I need to record these pieces to claim my name to them ( make a record that they exist and are mine).

[keypeg]

One cool thing about recording is that when you listen back a year or two, you realize how much you improved.  What sounded "pretty good" back then, you now cringe at things you would never do now, but that also tells you what you didn't hear and couldn't do.

[kriatina]

I have noticed that recording my pieces when I think they might be perfect,
assists me a lot to listen to my pieces with a certain distance, which is enough,
because it assists me to refine my playing and continue to learn better...
... and be more critical about my own playing,
especially since I have no teacher to rely on...

[rmbarbosa]

I record in my Roland digital piano. One thing that surprised me a lot is that the recording allways sounded a little slower than the speed I thought was playing. I dont know why...
Another thing: when I record and listen, the first time I listen seems to me quite horrible... but later I realise it is not so bad...
I dont know why this happens to me...
sorry for my English...

[hfmadopter]

I record in my Roland digital piano. One thing that surprised me a lot is that the recording allways sounded a little slower than the speed I thought was playing. I dont know why...
Another thing: when I record and listen, the first time I listen seems to me quite horrible... but later I realise it is not so bad...
I dont know why this happens to me...
sorry for my English...

Check out your manual on the speed issue. Some digital pianos record tied into the timing of the metronome. If that is the case with the Roland you might need to bump up the metronome speed, even though you are not recording with it.

[rmbarbosa]

Thank you... I`ll try it