Recording Your Practices

[Seafroggys]

Quick question here: How many of you record your practices (if you have the ability to easily record practices), and if you can't easily record, how many of you would if you could?

Ever since I bought my first microphone I've been recording every single one of my practices, and then listening back to them as soon as I'm done to see what I need help on or if I accidentally developed a cool idea I can write down to use later. This is very inefficient use of time, as I just had a 20 minute block of practice just now and thus I spent 20 minutes of my time listening to me practice. So really, you spend double the time just so you can further critique your own ability.

I just want to know people's thoughts on this, and whether or not they do it themselves.

[GooseFilms.net]

I've done it a few times, but honestly, if I practice 3 hours a day, why, oh why, would I want to spend another 3 hours listening to myself?

[Seafroggys]

That's exactly my point. Yeah, hearing yourself is good, but is it really feasible?

[wesm9787]

The only reason I would want to record myself is if I was working only on my timing, in which case I would go back and listen and see if I was as on-time as I thought I was. I've realized that there are times when I play along to a song and record it, and I think I'm dead on and I go back and listen to myself and realize that I was really off during certain parts. So I guess the only thing I'd use it for is to compare how well I think I'm doing to how well I'm actually doing.

[Patrick323]

just record yourself once or twice a week and not even for your whole practice. record a bit for each exercise/song you're doing, i'd think that'd be enough to see any problems (because they'd probably be present in one form or another throughout the entire exercise/section of a song)

[fishbulb]

I know portnoy records everything he does, but he is a professional. Listening back to interesting or challenging parts can be beneficial, but the whole performance? Seems redundant to me.

[Seafroggys]

yeah but its hard to go find the 'challenging' aspects, especially if its been a long session and you can't remember when you did something, or oftentimes, if you did it.

[samualbc]

I've done it a few times, but i wouldn't sit through the whole session. It's a good idea to keep some videos so you can track your progress over the months/years

[Seafroggys]

I'm thinking of doing it maybe once a week maybe from now on. Or just record every practice anyway but listen to random recordings later.

[DrummingBen]

I record myself maybe once a week with a shite digital still camera just to see how I'm doing for maybe 10 minutes.

[DxRocker]

Recording yourself and listening to it is imo a vital part of practice.
But be reasonable, you don't need to record every hit you make.
Choose some strategic moments to record. Work on some stuff and when you get it up to speed or whithin context or whatever, then record a couple bars and see what it says. That should do it in general.

As with bands though... Normally, I record every single practice a couple of things at least. Has been some time now though, got some pc trouble.

[some jive turkey]

Recording yourself is educational. Most of us are probably our own worst critics.

But you have to pick and choose what elements of practice you record. There is an exercise in Master Studies where you try to make your right hand strokes sound as even as your Left. To me, this seemed like the perfect thing to record and play back for a critical listen.
Another suggestion is record yourself playing along to playalong tracks, such as the drumset soloist.

[dairyairman]

my band records all of its practices on a minidisc player. i usually burn a cd of the practice and listen to it off and on over the next couple of days. i critique everything, but especially my own playing. i can usually hear all kinds of flaws that i never notice during the practice.

[jcreamer89]

Once I get a laptop I will record myself playing, along with songs or somthing I am specifically working on.

[ringworm]

everytime i set up to record, i cant get in the zone, nothing is inspirational or moving

everytime i neglect to record something, i play my best and hate that i didnt capture it :(

i tend to try too hard when the red light is on for some reason?

[Little Android Man]

im going to right now... i have actually never.

im thinking i will work my hands on the snare first, work on the stuff my drum teacher gave to me for lessons tonight, and then play along to 1 or 2 songs.

[MyShrimpDied]

It's best to record yourself when you're jamming or improvising instead of when you're just doing exercises. This when you can listen to how consistent your time is, whether you're speading up/slowing down/ on fills, how good your grooves feel, and any off rhythm notes that you need to work on. Jam for 5 minutes maybe and listen back to see what you need to work on.

Recording technique and coordination exercises is pointless, if you have a metronome and are able to tell when everything is on beat, then there is no real need to listen back to it.

[Massik Kretal]

I'm gonna start recording my band practices, we're jamming for new material, and it would be nice to remember everything just in case.

[TTTSNB]

I personally do it all the time, but not generally my entire practice session. I just record licks I'm working on, and also generally just jam around on the kit a bit to see how my playing overall is improving.

[Drummer300btx]

i've done it a few times, when i had the means to easily do it. i no longer have that convenience and i dont really mind not listening to it so meh.

[fishbulb]

everytime i set up to record, i cant get in the zone, nothing is inspirational or moving

everytime i neglect to record something, i play my best and hate that i didnt capture it :(

i tend to try too hard when the red light is on for some reason?

If you do it more the anxiety will wear off and you should play the same regardless of if you are recording or not.

[Seafroggys]

Yeah I just hit record and forget about it, I just play whatever comes to mind. Now if I hit record for the sole purpose of playing something particular (like when I've recorded solos for the competitions) then I get anxiety.

[oops]

Record 2 things. As you play, if you find something you play that you really like, record it.

As soon as I get my rig set up, I'm going to record one practice session a week, and listent to. Probably not even a long one, just 20 minutes or so, so I can see what I think of my playing.

Then over a couple of months, I can play different bits back to back, and see if my 'touch' or 'feel' have improved.

[ringworm]

If you do it more the anxiety will wear off and you should play the same regardless of if you are recording or not.
im a weirdo :)

i plan sometime on getting some compact recording gear

something as simple as possible, i am afraid that the technology has passed me by, i used to be up-to-date on new products and lingo, but i walked away to get some lunch, and came back to products i cant even pronouce :)

[jversluis88]

I prefer video-recording myself. That way I can hear and see. It's usually just a matter of my step-dad not being home cause I'm not supposed to use his digital camera.

[Sunshine]

We can, but we don't, but we probably should as a band...
We always come up with really cool ideas but can never remember them by next practice ><

[Caleb3221]

My main band (the one that's going to make me a rockstar by next week, watch out) records every practice just to hear what we can work on, and sometimes it gives us a salvadgable recording to put on the interwebs to keep our adoring fans interested or something like that I guess. I don't generally record my practices completley, but I often record myself doing specific things(playing a specific part or working on a solo idea or something like that)for the sake of hearing how I sound and what to correct.

[TravisBarkerrules]

I did this with my guitarist writing songs and It just ate up space on my computer. Then again when I record **** I use a **** load of memory. Damnit, I cant stop cussing today sorry.

[Patrick323]

lol it's not like you couldn't have used the delete button, then you wouldn't of had to apologize. it's not like we're seeing the words as you type them, in real time.

[Seafroggys]

man I still fall into habits. Not that I ever fell out of them anyways.

I'm listening to each of my practices still, but I skip through some of the boring stuff now. Of course, I'm still tweaking my drum sound so that could be another reason.

[CasB]

I sometimes record practices with my band, to get the new material on tape, so I can listen it again, to find out how fscking great it is :p And it gives me the time to figure out what breaks and beats sound good on particular parts...

[coffee_spiders]

I recorded myself once, just out of curiousity, but under the circumstances of which it was done...not a very good sound.