Showing posts with label practice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label practice. Show all posts
iServalan Music School The Power of Recording Yourself Music Tips for Advancing Musicians
iServalan Music School
The Power of Recording Yourself
A short, high-impact practice habit for string players and pianists that accelerates progress, sharpens timing, and cleans up intonation.
Today’s focus: simple phone recordings ➜ rapid feedback ➜ smarter practice.
Listening Back Reveals What Playing Hides
- Fresh ears for intonation: You’ll immediately hear notes that are consistently sharp/flat (especially at string crossings).
- Timing awareness: Spot rushing/dragging once you’re not busy playing.
- Technique check: Weak fingers on piano, heavy thumbs, lazy bow arm, tip-of-bow drop-off — they all show up on playback.
- Faster progress: Build a fix-list every session; you’ll improve in a fraction of the time.
How to Record Without Overwhelm
- Practice normally for 10–15 minutes.
- Pick one short passage (30–60 seconds) you want to check.
- Hit record on your phone, then listen back immediately.
- Note one win + one fix to guide your next practice.
Tip: Phone audio is compressed (lower ambience/reverb), but that’s perfect for hearing pitch, balance, and articulation clearly.
For String Players
- Open strings first: If they’re out, everything else will be out.
- Bow contact: Keep the hair perpendicular; listen for scratch vs. core tone.
- Weight map: Are you too heavy at the frog? Too light at the tip?
- Gear matters: Old bow hair or harsh strings = harsh playback. Try the same tune on one string, then another, and compare.
For Pianists
- Finger equality: Which finger is always soft (pinky) or heavy (thumb)?
- Directional accuracy: Missed notes often come from approach angle and excess force.
- Acoustic vs digital: Acoustic pianos must be tuned regularly; digital is set-and-forget.
Today’s Practice Challenge
Record one verse of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” (Suzuki Book 1). Then write:
- 1 win (what sounded good)
- 1 fix (what needs work)
- 1 plan (your next step: e.g., slow string crossing, open-string tuning, bow-weight drill)
What’s Next
Tomorrow: Piano & Cello — whole-bow control, relaxed tone, and clean phrase endings using Twinkle as our canvas.
Members get structured lesson plans, bonus practice trackers, and access to iServalan’s full music school archive.
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