Does anyone have suggestions where to place the phone and other set up advice? Thanks!
Just an aide-mémoire, in audio form.
That's it exactly. Just to jog the brain.
Yes for recording.I'd put it closer to the teacher to capture their input as opposed to the sound of the piano. Then review it immediately afterward. It's more about the information than the output of the piano.
This is why I recommended portable recorders specifically for this purpose. They are extremely easy to operate, inexpensive and small. Set it once, forget about it, get on with your lesson, and it does its job. Portable recorders are designed with a discrete function, and they do that one job really well. Most work with commonly found battery sizes, commonly found memory cards, use standard audio file formats. Little need to worry about your files when you upgrade something. None of these proprietary charging ports that change every few generations like certain phones do. You might even want to use your phone for other things in lesson, like taking a picture or making notes, which would be disruptive towards recording the lesson in a fluid manner. At some point your teacher would be discussing tone and touch qualities, and teaching you how to hear them. The mics on a portable recorder are more adept apt picking these things up, as compared to a phone.