Getting Students to REALLY Listen to Themselves

Technology has made it so easy to evaluate ourselves as performers.  I record myself a lot.  Listening to myself on a recording feels like looking at my face with a magnifying glass.  There’s more there than meets the naked eye.  I always catch mistakes, weird movements that are affecting my playing, or some other problem.  It’s just impossible to focus on doing your best playing and catch every little thing you could improve.

I record my students for the same reason, and I encourage them to record themselves at home if they are able.  The biggest error that happens that kids can identify through the recordings are stops and starts in their playing.  Often students will think they’ve performed a piece perfectly, not realizing until they hear themselves that they are stopping for an extra beat every time they breathe or have to change hand positions.  Or we get so used to making the same error that we don’t catch it until we are listening to ourselves and watching the score.  Listening to the recording gives them the opportunity to self-evaluate and find their own errors, and I’m a big fan of self-discovery in learning.

Back when I started teaching, we had tape-recorders, which were pretty low quality.  Today, there are some really great options.  I have Garage Band on the iMac in my teaching studio, and I find the recording quality pretty good and it’s really easy to use.  Apple also offers Garage Band as an App for iPad.  On the notebook PC that I use for outside lessons, I’ve been able to use the web cam function.  And for recording “emergencies”, you can use the video function on a smart phone or iPhone.  All of these things came pre-loaded on the equipment, so I haven’t had to invest any money to do this.  There are also other apps you can download for Droid, though the quality isn’t as good as the other options.

Given the ease of access and use of all of the recording options I’ve listed, it really just makes sense to get kids listening to themselves play early on.   Once recording becomes a habit, lessons tend to be geared toward questions related to something a student heard or saw.  And students that are directing their learning are more engaged and likely to be happy with their progress.

BY THE WAY… I have streamlined the pricing and sign up for student subscriptions to LessonSpark.com so I am extending the “Grand Opening” promotion to "lock in your subscription rate for life" until May 31,2011.  Anyone that signs up between now and the end of May will never pay more to use the service as long as you remain a member.  This is in addition to the 30 day free trial.

If you haven’t checked it out yet, please do! It's full of tools to help teachers and students get the most out of lessons. And, we've taken care to make sure the site is COPPA (Child Online Privacy & Protection Act) compliant.  If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me!