Practice Habits: Record Yourself

If I was allowed to give one and only one piece of advice to all piano students, it’s this:

Record yourself, listen to the playback immediately, and ask yourself: Is THAT what you intended to play?

Paying attention to everything…

• Are the notes and rests accurately played?
• Does your tempo unintentionally speed up or slow down?
• Are there any hesitations?
• Are there unintended accents?
• Are the dynamics, phrasing, and articulations what you meant to express?
• Can you think of some others?

And if THAT was not what you intended to play, do something constructive with what you just learned. And do so immediately by experimenting with a different way to think about the music and your musical intentions… and how to move your body (choreography) in order to achieve your desired goal.

BTW, if you are an imperfect human being like me, expect to hear things in the recording that you did not notice while you were playing. While this can be quite the humbling experience, I can’t think of enough superlatives to convey how critically-important such feedback is to building your self-awareness and elevating your standards of what it means to play like a real musician.

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Gentle Reminder: The quality of your performance is absolutely determined by the quality of your study and practice habits. In other words, the gift is not talent. The gift is love. If you love what your are doing, the discipline will follow!

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