Ear Trouble?

[pianorahrah]

So...I usually have a very good ear when I listen to other people's performances. I can tell where they rush, where the tone or touch is not good, where they don't play legato and where they don't play musically. However, I just can't seem to hear myself. Other people tell me what they hear of my playing and I accept the feedback but I just can't hear it! Is this is a scientific thing or just me?

[georgey]

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[iansinclair]

There's a perfectly good -- and, when one thinks about it, moderately obvious -- explanation: when you are listening to someone else, that's exactly what you are doing and what you are paying attention to.  However, when you yourself are playing, most of your thinking is going into controlling your playing, and you are only hearing enough of it to keep track of what you are doing.  You are not listening in the same way at all!

So yes, recording one's self can be very helpful, absent usable feedback from qualified people.  It can also be a bit disconcerting...

[pianorahrah]

There's a perfectly good -- and, when one thinks about it, moderately obvious -- explanation: when you are listening to someone else, that's exactly what you are doing and what you are paying attention to.  However, when you yourself are playing, most of your thinking is going into controlling your playing, and you are only hearing enough of it to keep track of what you are doing.  You are not listening in the same way at all!

So yes, recording one's self can be very helpful, absent usable feedback from qualified people.  It can also be a bit disconcerting...

I see. Thanks for the answer! Is there any way I could focus on listening and paying attention to what I'm playing?

[iansinclair]

Not really.  Contrary to what the folks who make computers and smartphones and whatnot would have us believe, humans are remarkably poor at multi-tasking -- which is what you are asking for.

In fact, one of the minor -- and under appreciated -- things which allows truly great musicians to be so great is their ability to concentrate on just one thing: the music they are creating.  Truly spectacular things can happen around them, but they'll never even notice them!

And I think we are all aware that even a minor lapse of concentration can cause some very strange things to happen to the music we are making... 

[timothy42b]

The difficulty hearing ourselves is almost universal.

I speculate that one of the things that sets the prodigy and the virtuoso apart from the rest of us is that they can hear themselves, and apply feedback and correction, much earlier than us.  It may be an innate skill or one that they just get the knack of early in their development.

I work on this by playing very short phrases and listening to my recording immediately.  I try to align what I thought I heard with what the microphone heard.  I am making progress but still struggle with this.