Record Yourself – it's one of the best ways to learn & improve

[john]

Recording just about everything you do on your sax is valuable and will help you to improve your playing because we can't listen very well while we're practicing and so what happens is we are slow to change and improve, somethings we miss certain bad habits altogether and never improve on them.

Everyone's most likely to have some type of recording device, a digital recorder, an iPhone or app, or just an old fashioned tape recorder!

Recording yourself practicing should be an absolute minimum and if you get really energetic and creative you can set up your own home recording studio to accomplish this an so much more.

For example cutting your own tracks with a pre-recorded back up band, or creating your own backing tracks (this is what I like to do).

If you have something to record yourself get it going! If you don't and have any questions just let me know and I'll try to help.

Rock on!
Johnny

[Nick]

Johnny,

When I practice in front of some kind of sound reflector like a piece plexiglass or a wall, I can better hear myself than playing out into the open room. I then tried to record myself on an AudioTechnica AT 2020 USB condenser mic, to my PC…then played back on Bose speakers and the sound was inferior to what I heard from the sound reflector. What do you feel is the most accurate “read” on my sound, the wall or the recording? Or maybe the more appropriate question is, How reliable is the sound reflecting back off a sound reflector? Here I’m thinking my sound isn’t half bad, then the recorded playback gave me an inferiority complex!

[john]

When you record yourself you’re putting several things between your original sound source, which is the sound coming out of your bell. and the final output which is your speakers. In your case you put a mic, a computer, and speakers. A variation in any of these things will alter your sound, either positive or negatively. When you blow into a wall or plexiglass you are hearing your sound directly from your bell, so this is the real way to judge.

If you still want to record yourself but didn’t like your sound with your current set up then you’d need to make upgrades somewhere in your chain of electronic equipment. At least you’re liking what’s coming back off the wall though and that’s good!

[Nick]

Man I’m glad to hear that. At least I can feel I made some positive progress on my sound. I’m going to look into some upgrades on studio equipment, and have looked at your threads on the topic. Thanks very much (again) for the help. There’s a lot to learn!

[Randy]

One of the dynamics to the sound we hear while playing a saxophone is that the bones (jaw, skull and eardrum ) all receive the sound waves we hear from the horn so when it reaches the eardrum and we hear that sound it is a very different sound then what is produced out and away from the bone structures. Singing is very much the same. We are often surprised by what we think we sound like. The other part of recording is you can really fine tune your sound, articulation, breath control by listening to yourself. Johnny is right record as much as you can and save those old files then go back in 6 months and listen to the old you will likely be pleased at your progress!

[Nick]

Thanks RandyVan!
Nick

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