Three Benefits of Recording Yourself
There are several reasons to record yourself when practicing your instrument. The intent of recording doesn’t always have to be for public consumption, but can be utilized for ones own personal growth. Here I will discuss the benefits of recording yourself.
#1 HEARING WHAT YOU ARE DOING RIGHT & WRONG
You don’t need to have a full studio set up to record yourself, all you need is a cell phone, and most people have those now days. Setting up a phone and pressing record allows you to capture where you are in your current musical path. Recording each practice session and then looking back over that footage allows you to see and hear what you may be messing up. While playing an instrument you won’t notice the subtle mistakes you are making, but when recording yourself you should be able to pick up on them. Making corrections after viewing your footage is the best thing you can do for your career.
# 2 CORRECTING POSTURE
A great benefit of being able to film yourself is that you can see how you are standing or sitting while practicing your instrument. For drummers this is a huge win. Many drummers slouch while performing and this over time can lead to major back problems. Being able to view how you are sitting at the drums can allow you to correct the improper way of playing. Sitting up straight with your throne at its correct height will help furlong your drumming career. For singers, filming themselves while practicing their bands songs can help them visualize what they will look like on stage. A singer can practice how they want to interact with the audience and how they will portray themselves. Filming yourself while practicing and paying close attention to your bodies placement will help musicians in their long term goals.
#3 PERSONAL GROWTH
All musicians want to get better at their instrument. I don’t personally know any good musician who is content with where they are in their current abilities. We all want to see growth on our instruments. And recording is the perfect way to do so. You can upload your practice sessions to YouTube if you wanted, and if you don’t want others to see it you can make it private. The benefit of uploading to YouTube is you get to see how you were at that stage in your playing. With YouTube you can know the date that you uploaded your performance, and you will be able to see just how much more efficient you have become with your instrument. We all feel at times that we might not be growing in the direction that we want, but recording allows everyone to hear and see their growth.
