We all know we need to listen to ourselves, right? We tell our students to listen to themselves more closely, and our teachers tell us to listen better. We can try all we want, but when playing a new piece that consumes most of our attention, it can be hard to hear everything that is going on in our playing. In auditions or performances, we tend to have a heightened sense of perception compared to our typical practice, which leads us to hear more of what is going on (for better or worse). This could be due to nerves or just the excitement of performing.
There are a lot of articles out there that link nervousness and performance anxiety to the idea of practicing with less attention than performing. If we slack off in practice and all of a sudden pay close attention when performing, it makes sense that we will hear more things (including more mistakes), and that will make us nervous, scared, and even angry. To really hear what is going on in your playing, try recording yourself. A recorder can act like an unbiased listener that tells it like it is, and if you know the red light is on you will play differently, as if someone is actually listening. This is a good idea in general, always play as if your favorite musician is listening!
An exercise I learned from Tom Booth at SMU is the "down the page method". The idea is to get a recorder, a legal pad (the extra long pad of paper), and an excerpt or a couple lines of an etude. You record a take, and immediately listen back. Write as many comments as you can using only one line on the sheet. Continue this process until you are all the way down the page. This can take a while, but the listening acts as built-in rest for your face so you don't get too fatigued.
Notice as you get towards the bottom of the page, your commentary will likely change from missed notes and rhythms to more subtle qualities such as tone quality, phrasing, centering, and pitch. Even if you miss notes towards the bottom of the page, the unconscious shift in your attention is the beginning of improving your ear so you eventually hear all these details while playing.
If you have ever taken an unsuccessful audition and asked for comments from the audition committee, you probably have received some that were a surprise to you; "I didn't realize I was doing that!". Many of these things can be easily fixed by first knowing how to play the excerpt (through lessons, listening, etc), and then making sure you are actually doing what you intend, or in other words playing it the way you believe it should be played. Weird things happen in auditions or public performances, and recording yourself doesn't necessarily guarantee a mistake-free performance, but it can at the very least bring your attention to the mistake in the practice room, rather than on stage where it is a surprise and can lead to even more mistakes.
Set up your recorder next time you practice and try to find at least three things (good or bad) that you only hear on the recording and didn't catch in performance. This will point you in the right direction of what you are not hearing and consequently need to focus more on when practicing. It could be anything from too much vibrato, unclear multiple tonguing, and unsteady rhythms to surprisingly good phrasing and clear articulation.
Comment below with any other creative ways you like to use a recorder to supplement your practicing!
There are a lot of articles out there that link nervousness and performance anxiety to the idea of practicing with less attention than performing. If we slack off in practice and all of a sudden pay close attention when performing, it makes sense that we will hear more things (including more mistakes), and that will make us nervous, scared, and even angry. To really hear what is going on in your playing, try recording yourself. A recorder can act like an unbiased listener that tells it like it is, and if you know the red light is on you will play differently, as if someone is actually listening. This is a good idea in general, always play as if your favorite musician is listening!
An exercise I learned from Tom Booth at SMU is the "down the page method". The idea is to get a recorder, a legal pad (the extra long pad of paper), and an excerpt or a couple lines of an etude. You record a take, and immediately listen back. Write as many comments as you can using only one line on the sheet. Continue this process until you are all the way down the page. This can take a while, but the listening acts as built-in rest for your face so you don't get too fatigued.
Notice as you get towards the bottom of the page, your commentary will likely change from missed notes and rhythms to more subtle qualities such as tone quality, phrasing, centering, and pitch. Even if you miss notes towards the bottom of the page, the unconscious shift in your attention is the beginning of improving your ear so you eventually hear all these details while playing.
If you have ever taken an unsuccessful audition and asked for comments from the audition committee, you probably have received some that were a surprise to you; "I didn't realize I was doing that!". Many of these things can be easily fixed by first knowing how to play the excerpt (through lessons, listening, etc), and then making sure you are actually doing what you intend, or in other words playing it the way you believe it should be played. Weird things happen in auditions or public performances, and recording yourself doesn't necessarily guarantee a mistake-free performance, but it can at the very least bring your attention to the mistake in the practice room, rather than on stage where it is a surprise and can lead to even more mistakes.
Set up your recorder next time you practice and try to find at least three things (good or bad) that you only hear on the recording and didn't catch in performance. This will point you in the right direction of what you are not hearing and consequently need to focus more on when practicing. It could be anything from too much vibrato, unclear multiple tonguing, and unsteady rhythms to surprisingly good phrasing and clear articulation.
Comment below with any other creative ways you like to use a recorder to supplement your practicing!
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