Recording

Hi I just wanted to throw this question out about recording piano practice. My last real teacher always said I should record myself - it really shows up things both technically and musically. I did a recording of practicing certain passages through MIDI yesterday and it did show up everything thats audibly wrong from a musical point of view. But it's quite a different kind of playback to what you get with an external recording with noise and accoustics. When I found what my problems were on playback it was quite a challenge to make those adjustments through re-recording and for it to sound organic and without contrving the music. In other words I wanted to make sure that the corrections didn't interfere with my inner rhythm and musical sense of direction when playing. I've read that performing artists say that playing for recordings is quite different than playing in a live performance and actually dislike the recording aspect of their work. All of this raised some questions for me: Do you think recording too often can stifle musical creativity and later hinder sponteniety in a concert performance later. Is there a golden rule when and what to record? Can anyone tell me if they record their practice often and has it hindered your performances in a concert - ie loose the sponteneity? Is a MIDI recording too "critical" - ie it's not a proper accoustic but digitally accurate? How do you assess your performance with a microphone recording to pc or video recording? If anyone has any recording experience I'd like to know. Obviously a lot depends on the quality of the recording equipment as to how playing is represented. Cheers

Thanks for your questions, which pose many interesting problems: I have practiced on an electronic keyboard with the sound turned off completely. The thump of each key on the keybed tuned my ear into my own rhythm much more than it normally would be. I heard many small inaccuracies that normally escaped my attention. It was really useful to me to do that. Similarly, I highly recommend recording oneself. The microphone doesn't lie (except sometimes, more on that later). My usual experience is quite sobering - we all suffer from the problem of not really hearing what we do, not totally objectively. The recording is like a cold bath. It's all about hearing better what one is actually doing - whatever works is useful. However, be careful when using a cheap machine that has a limiter, where you can't set the record level. Then your dynamic differentiation will often be drastically distorted. The machine tells you you are not doing a change in dynamic when actually you did it. Watch out for this phenomenon. And finally, record yourself but don't overdo it. Don't get lost in it. You have to play and it is fundamentally a subjective experience. Too MUCH objectification and it's sterilized... If you don't throw your spirit into the performace, why bother? I just added something to my email signature which sums it up nicely: A musician's prayer: "Lord, let my voice be thy voice..." All z best, AFF

Thanks Alan what an interesting reply! I too have heard the rhythm from the knocking of the thumps and had the same useful experience. I actually "painfully" recorded myself in several passages at a time through the internal electric weighted piano's track recorder (yamaha P250 stage piano). I was horrified how uneven I sounded on the Chopin Barcarolle. Yet on Op10.2 how accurately even I sounded! I couldn't figure it out. So I did another recording from the track recorder and at the same time from a laptop webcam near the internal speaker. The Barcarolle didn't sound as bad on the webcam recording. But after listening to a fairly straight tempo on the track recording playback I decided I needed to go for a natural rhythmic lilt from the legato LH in sweeping "one" movement whilst faithfully keeping a steady tempo. The RH to appear straight but allow it to undulate freey to give the impression of improvised phrasing (but not too pulled around). This way sounded better on a track recorder. It tricks the ear to sound like a straight tempo but not so much that it was trying to be digitally perfect which is impossible. This digital recording experience actually taught me to think that, that was my goal in achieving what I wanted in this piece. I don't know how right I was to "change my tune", but I'm now trying to synthesise the feeling and somehow feel it naturally. It's me the pianist working with me the teacher (through recording) and I've confused myself as to how my musical feelings (my intuitive musical instincts) could have been wrong in the first place! It feels like the time you go to your teacher thinking - I've really thought about this and I've listened hard and I can't imagine I will be slated this time when I play to them. And then they completely turn your ideas on its head. Suddenly you think how could I have thought I was right -there's so much work to be done. Do you know what I mean? I wondered what you meant by setting a dynamic limiter? I might have to look in my manual. All I did was press record on track 1. I did notice that some dynamics didn't seem as sensitive as I was sure I'd done. I'm having a bit of a nightmare wondering whether I need to change things or that my recorder is just too "perfect". On the other hand it made me listen even closer to how several notes were going down evenly or not. When I made a concious effort this did improve to a cleaner sound. This ties in with your comment in Honing about trying to get hands together a 100th millisecond tighter than the last time. Anyhow a few days off and a couple of nights rehearsing the music in my inner ear away from the instrument seems to have brought back my spirits. Cheers

The limiter I refer to is in a normal tape recorder or digital recorder, not the recorder on the electronic keyboard. When you set the recording level yourself, if it is too high you get distortion. A limiter automatically lowers the sounds that are too loud, but then your fortes get all distant and empty, your pianos incredibly loud and full... AFF