To this day, few things bring me to a more relaxed state than spending time sitting and listening to music, and making that music my singular point of focus for however much time I have. When I was a kid, it was with the cassettes I made by recording my favorite songs off the radio. As I got older, I got into the CDs my parents had, like Michael Jackson's 'Thriller.' I would throw my headphones on and immerse myself in a different world for the length of the album.
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The advent of file-sharing services like Limewire and Kazaa meant that an 11-year-old kid with no money had access to more music than ever before. My brother and I became MP3 hoarders and discovered a ton of music during this time. I would burn bootleg copies of my favorite albums onto CDs and would even print out the album art to put in jewel cases to pretend like I had the real thing. Eventually, my parents bought me an MP3 player that could fit hundreds of CDs onto it. I started accumulating more music than I could even listen to, but I was in heaven.

Recording yourself gives you a 3rd person perspective that you just can’t access while you’re playing. It’s like watching your playing from the outside; you notice things you’d never catch in the moment. And the best part? It doesn’t have to be a professional recording to make a difference.

These days, everyone has access to great video quality. The camera on your phone or laptop is more than enough to capture what you need to analyze your playing. I got into recording myself very early on when I began learning to play guitar, even before I fully knew what I was doing. I started out with a cheap computer mic shoved in front of my amp as I tried to record covers of my favorite songs. It didn't sound great by any stretch, but it was fun and extremely satisfying to put together my own recordings.

As I progressed, my parents gifted me a Tascam DP-01 digital multitrack recorder (pictured right) for my bedroom. That meant I could literally roll out of bed and start recording before I even had my bowl of Apple Jacks. With that recorder and a drum machine my uncle gave me, I wrote my first songs and began my songwriting journey.

Recording felt natural to me. I didn’t have to push myself to do it; it just clicked. I wanted​ to do it everyday.  And if I listened back and sucked? Well, I knew exactly what to work on.

I encourage you to spend at least a small portion of your practice sessions recording yourself and critically analyzing how your playing sounds and what you could improve on.  Be kind to yourself, though.  Telling yourself you sound bad is not constructive.  However, if you can recognize areas for improvement, that's a huge first step!  You can start chipping away and turning yourself into the player you want to become.

I hope you found this lesson helpful.  If you’re interested in going into topics like this more, please contact me to schedule a free 30-min Zoom lesson!