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I’ve used headphones to hear things better and control the playback volume vs. my playing and that makes sense to use headphones to allow recording just myself, though that seems a better fit when going down the “learn from the recording” path. The lower hanging fruit of the technique seems to me mainly a simple way to infuse variety and energy into a long practice session, highlight rhythm issues and maybe pick up some variable practice ideas.
On the “alternative learning technique” side there seem to be all sorts of options. I wonder how much there’s a possibility to help train myself to hear more/better — in real time even… perhaps — by having something like a yardstick I am comparing myself to, by playing at the same time with carefully set volumes. I’ve heard there’s a tradition of teachers playing along with students in lessons with the intent for the student to learn through imitation. Perhaps even better is do they-play-then-I-play imitations of short segments. No doubt if I record my listen-then-imitate examples I’ll find all sorts of “The pro just played Y, and you played X, and you did it again exactly the same way the 2nd time too. Quit playing X!!!”
I’m also still waiting to do a complete start on a new work to try out the imitation-of-a-recording technique to see if it seems to help me to listen for more a “professional” kind of phrasing/sound/etc. and possibly reduce the list of adjustments my teacher ends up suggesting.