Noa Kageyama
Forum Replies Created
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Hi Ann,
So a few thoughts. From cheapest/easiest to more involved/expensive.
1. iOS app: I did find an iOS app that allows you to turn off the dynamic compression/etc. that iOS applies to enhance voice. It’s a free app called Twisted Wave Recorder. There are paid versions too, but the free one does the trick. If you go into settings, turn off “Enable iOS processing”, as in the attached screenshot. This should help a bit.
2. External mic for iPhone: There are a couple mics designed specifically for the iPhone that you could try – the Zoom iQ7 and Shure MV88. I think you just plug it into the bottom of your phone and click record and it just works. I haven’t tested either though, so I’m not sure how the quality compares to other options. I’m sure it’s way better than the built-in mic though. Both are in the ~$100 range.
Keep in mind that your headphones are also going to affect the sound too. So whether you’re recording with the built-in mic or an iphone plugin mic, the headphones you’re using can change what you hear quite a bit.
If you’re just recording to hear yourself from day to day, and the priority is convenience, and the ability to very easily and quickly listen back to a particular recording without having to work very hard to find a particular day’s recording, and it’s not super important to capture all of the fine details, this might do just fine.
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3. Recording device: If, on the other hand, the priority is to capture better sound, and you don’t plan on listening back as often, or it’s not a big deal if it’s difficult to find a particular day’s recording that you’re looking for, then an external device like a Zoom H1n, H4n, H5, (or Denon or Roland etc.) can get you a nicer sounding recording, at ~$100, $200, ~$300 or less. You can even find sample recordings of pianists and guitarists (usually) on youtube, testing out these various external mics, so you can get a sense of how much better the recording quality might be.
The problem with these, is that it can be hard to keep track of recordings and find anything and keep things straight, as the devices I’ve used have these really difficult to navigate folder structures, and no easy way to name each file, other than the default date/time that’s automatically given to each file.
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4. Mic + laptop: It seems like the most complicated option, and it does have the most moving parts, but at the end of the day, if you’re not using a phone to record, I might argue that using an external mic paired with a laptop is actually the easiest way to record the highest possible level of audio. It requires having 1) a laptop or computer near your instrument, and 2) a piece of software to record with (there are free apps you can use that work just fine), and 3) getting a USB mic like the Audio-Technica AT2020USB for $150 that plugs directly into your computer (easier and cheaper, but there aren’t a lot of USB mic options) OR an XLR mic like the Audio-Technica AT2020 for $100 or the nicer AT4040 for $270 plus a preamp like the Shure X2u for $80 or Focusrite Scarlett for ~$130 (more pricey, but better quality and options are unlimited so you can upgrade mics over time).
I know that might seem like a lot of moving pieces in this setup, but because you can record on your computer, it’s easy to label and store recordings and quickly cut off the silences or quickly jump to different parts of a recording or jump from one take to another to compare how they sound, etc., once you get the hang of it. Also, especially if you go the XLR mic + preamp route, you can buy a really nice mic if you’d like, so it would enable you to capture the best possible audio out of of all of the options above.
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At the end of the day, I think it’s all about balancing convenience and ease of recording with how high-quality a recording you really need to capture. It might be that the easiest solution is to record with your phone on a day-to-day basis, and if you want to capture a higher quality recording every so often, to use a Zoom device to do so. Note too that you can go down a whole rabbit hole in terms of where to place the Zoom recorder relative to your piano – e.g. inside, pointing towards hammers, or in the bell x inches away from the open lid, etc., etc. – as location of mics can make a huge difference in what you hear!
Hope this helps!
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Hi Stephan – sorry for the delay! The one thought I had, which might help to address some of your concerns, is to try doing this through headphones, while recording yourself on a separate device. Playing with a recording can be a great tool, but you’re right that it can obscure a little bit what we actually sound like, so if you’re recording yourself on a separate device, you can listen back to see what might be happening. Perhaps you’ve already tried this?
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Good question. Any chance you recorded the 5-min segments as well? The other possibility is that the differences that you thought you heard may not actually have come across as clearly as you thought. Do you know what I mean? Like how you think you’re phrasing something really clearly, and then when you listen to a recording, you realize that the idea was coming across, but not nearly as clearly as you thought it was. Might be interesting to compare the practice segments with the practice performance segments. Of course, maybe you’re referring more to technical gains, which would be a different thing too…
Might also be possible that 5 minutes is too long an interval now? That perhaps there needs to be more interference during your practice to practice getting it right with more interference or space between attempts?
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It’s a good idea; I ought to create one someday. I think there may be some other teachers who have done something along these lines, but I can’t recall…
I’ll add it to my list of things! Though I have to confess that I may not get to this for a while. ????
But remind me about “PracticeLabs” in about a month – this might be slightly related to what you’re describing.
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1. You certainly can review your notes from the previous day, and doing so will probably help you record a better first take – but an additional challenge would be to see if you can remember them without a review as well (the self-testing effect). =)
2. Whether you listen back to the recordings or not is kind of a judgment call. It’ll depend on whether you can afford to do so time-wise of course, but also whether you think it’s necessary. You might already have a sense of what needs work without having to listen to the recordings, in which case there’s no need. But the thing you’re listening for may also be something that requires more careful listening. If it’s a subtle rhythm thing that you’ve been working on for instance, you may have to hear the recording in order to know for sure if it has improved. Whereas with something less subtle, it may be pretty clear whether it’s better or not just from your awareness during the runthrough. Often, you may have enough of a todo list from the first recording, that you don’t have to listen every day. Only when your original todo list starts to get shorter, or if there are specific things you want to check on in the latest recording to see if it’s truly been addressed.
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Great observations. FWIW, the need for a long warmup is pretty common of course – but it does seem to be something that one can train themself to be less dependent on (though I don’t know if there’s any data on this).
For instance, I’ve mentioned Met percussionist Rob Knopper before, and one thing he did before the audition is start every day with a cold runthrough of his list. He’d do a short 10-min or so warmup, sit for a moment, and then record a runthrough. He did this every day for months in advance, and noted that it feels awful at first, but you do start to get comfortable being uncomfortable, and are able to play closer to your best when this starts to feel more normal. As in, the sense of ease that exists when you’re completely warmed up, comfortable, etc. may not be there, but the ability to play the way you want regardless may be improved.
Maybe see what happens if you do this on a tiny scale for, say, 30 days? Like do a minimal, but still effective warmup, then record 20-30 seconds of something, and then practice like normal? And see if your confidence in the minimal warmup and your playing (on the recording, not necessarily how you feel) increases over time? It’s possible the warmup itself may evolve, as well as your mental script, pre-performance routine, etc. over those 30 days (which is just an arbitrary number too, of course).
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Great observations, Steve. A couple thoughts:
1. In terms of identifying goals, have you tried recording and listening back with the aim to identify a bunch of problems you’d like to find solutions to, but only being able to select a limited number (say 3) to work on? That way you’re forced to prioritize and be more choosy? I think the recording might also help with establishing a shopping list of problems, without having to keep adding to it as you go through the store, as it were. Start out with a recording a couple/few times a week, and use that to determine which problems are most worth your time to address. Especially if they happen consistently. The other random things that pop up while you’re practicing may or may not be “real” problems that you have to worry about but just flukes. But then if they do happen in run-throughs, and are things that you do worry about/feel uncomfortable about, then it might be worth adding them to the list.
2. Another thing to experiment with is limiting the number of repetitions you’re allowed to do to solve a problem vs. limiting time. So instead of 5-min chunks, you might allow yourself to spend however much time you’d like, but only allow yourself a maximum of 10-12 repetitions to try to solve a problem. There is some research which suggests that you might actually make better progress when each repetition is more precious.
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@tricia-snell As Carol Dweck said in her TED talk, you can’t do it…yet. The “yet” is important to remind ourselves!
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@ebuze A recording buddy sounds like a great idea. How is it going with listening back? Have you tried a listening rubric? Where you listen back, but only for one thing in each pass? Like rhythm only, or attacks only, etc. I wonder if that might make listening back easier or less aversive/overwhelming? Or, you could allow yourself a treat only when listening back (aka temptation bundling). Like you’re only allowed to drink your favorite kombucha or eat chips/salsa while listening back to recordings?
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Hi @MaggieM Curious to hear how you’re working on the rhythms. It might be that if there’s a way to make this like a game in some way, or apply some interleaved practice to this, it might be easier to do little tiny “doses” of rhythm practice in shorter blocks of time throughout the day?
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@ellenjohansen Interesting…I wonder if you are feeling pressure to either practice effectively or be too productive or improve too efficiently? That can sometimes suck the fun/joy out of the thing that you ultimately want to enjoy.
For instance, I picked up a new hobby 5-6 years ago, and for the first year, I tried way too hard to improve and get good at this new thing using all of the learning strategies that I knew of. Which made this new activity feel more like work than play. At some point I just gave myself permission to do the activity and just show up without any pressure to be good at it, or improve as diligently as I knew I could if I applied all the right strategies and focused on it 100%. Basically, being ok with not being the best student ever made it easier to stick with it and enjoy it more.
I wonder if focusing on having fun with piano, without the pressure to improve or have really structured plans/strategies for improving might actually be the best way to approach this at the moment?
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3/6 is a good start! Yes, helps to start smaller to make it easier to build up a new WOOP or goal or habit. =)
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You probably already know this, but if you have difficulty avoiding phone/computer after 11pm, there are apps that can help with that, by locking you out (sort of) at scheduled times…
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Yay, that’s great! Yep, sticking with the same WOOP for multiple weeks can be a great strategy!
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Yay for recording! ????
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If you can, try to nap or get a bit of sleep between practice sessions to try to enhance memory consolidation! It’ll be helpful on a number of levels. Wishing you all the best in the next couple weeks!
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Nice, Dorico. =) I wonder if it might help to just keep Dorico open on your computer, so there isn’t that tiny extra little speed bump of having to launch it and wait for it to open to the right file?
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Yes – WOOP is a simple enough concept, but not actually so easy to put into action sometimes!
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Yay!
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Sounds like a good plan!
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Sounds good – nap will help with maximizing learning in the practice session too.
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Yay!
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If you’d like to explore rhythm a bit further, here are a couple videos to give you some ideas:
Jason Sulliman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwDB7aBcWfw
Molly Gebrian: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KBAnSOjWmU
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Sounds good! And maybe plan a reward for yourself at the end of the week if you are able to stick to your plan successfully some percentage of the time? Not 100%, but like 5/7 days, or 4/5 days or something like that?
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Yay, new WOOP! A quick thought in terms of the O and P. Ideally, the obstacle is something internal that you have control over. So something like awareness of finger tension might be easier to control, perhaps?
And with something like this, do be careful of doing too much! It might be helpful to plan to take regular mini breaks, instead of being tempted to keep at it and accumulate more tension/fatigue.
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@nora and @celestemcc – I’ll explain this more to the full group in the next monday digest email, but there’s a free room you can use to meet with each other right here. It’s in the sidebar called “Meeting Room”, and you’re welcome to try it out anytime you’d like.
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Hi Celeste – not sure if you question elsewhere in this thread was regarding this or your exchange with Nora, but if it was related to this, I do think you could set a smaller goal for the master class. As in, instead of thinking of “play well” as your goal, which is rather general and big and probably has lots of connotations in your mind that create pressure, is there one thing, that you could focus on? Like, if you could focus on only one thing, but that thing would probably give you the best chance of playing well, what would that thing be? Releasing tension in your back, or using a juicy vibrato, or keeping left hand fingers light, or focusing on singing throughout, etc. (I’m just making up violin stuff, as I don’t know how to play the guitar, but hopefully you get what I mean!)
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Yay, awesome that you found each other. In Monday’s weekly digest, I’m hoping to send out some more info about how to connect with each other. As in, you can connect via zoom on your own, or if you don’t want to pay for zoom, etc., there’s a free meeting room here on this platform, where you can meet online.
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Yay! Glad you connected. I actually thought you were already good friends for some reason!
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No problem! Let’s check in next week and see how this modified WOOP worked out. If it works, it works! (and yay for figuring out how to post in the forum too ???? – I should have posted instructions ????)
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Yay! WOOP win. ????
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Generally, yes, I think one’s plan will relate more directly to one’s wish, but in your case, I think this can work, in that the goal is to gently make playing/practicing more closely associated with positive feelings and joy, and your plan seems to nudge you in that direction, if I’m understanding it correctly.
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The nap is a great idea – that will actually help with making your practice stick better too!
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Yay for recording! ????
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I haven’t written about it yet, but there was an interesting study mentioned in the podcast episode with Robert Duke, where they limited the number of repetitions that were allowed, and that group did better than the group with unlimited repetitions. I’m oversimplifying the issue, but maybe experiment for a few days or a week with limiting yourself to x number of repetitions in one piece? And compare how that one comes along relative to other pieces you’re working on?
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For future reference it can be a good idea to alternate between physically challenging and less physically taxing passages/repertoire during (within) practice sessions. Hope that helps with the arm!
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Will be curious to hear how the routine goes – in particular I’m curious to see how much willpower it takes to get off email once you begin. I find it really tough to do – unless I snooze a bunch of emails to disappear from my inbox and show up later. Somehow that feels like it makes the emails not exist (until they reappear, at least) ????
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Sometimes it can also help to think about starting something, and doing it for just 2 minutes, rather than thinking about the entirety of the task, which can be demotivating. Probably not a new tip, but sometimes it helps to apply things to ourselves, that we tell our students. ????
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Yay! Small is good! Makes it easier to build bigger over time. =)
And in fact, I’ve found it really helpful to set an expectation that one doesn’t have to have a perfect week for the week to be a win. For instance, you could set an expectation to succeed at the WOOP 3 out of 5 days, or 4 out of 7, etc. and gradually build up to 6 or 7 out of 7, for instance.
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Ha, maybe just put your pencil away somewhere hard to get, like in a different room, instead of pushups. ????
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Hi Nora,
Yes – the Obstacle is something internal, that you have control of. So it might be that the obstacle is losing patience, or getting discouraged, or telling yourself the story that you’re not capable of ever getting it up to tempo.
And the Plan might be something like…If the voice in my head says maybe I can’t do this, I’ll remind myself to adopt a growth mindset and tell myself that I can’t do this “yet”. Or if I lose patience and am tempted to give up, I’ll take a break and come back to this later. Or if I get stuck, I’ll take a slow-motion video, and see if I can identify something new that I haven’t noticed before.
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Hi Ann – the Outcome step is where you visualize how it will feel or what would be different if you did accomplish your goal for the week. Like a sense of accomplishment, or progress, or reduced stress. Or, drawing from my current situation where I’m procrastinating on doing laundry, if I accomplished my goal for the day, the outcome would be that my kids will be happy to sleep in freshly washed sheets tonight. ????
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There was a study some years ago which found that participants who listened to a model recording before practicing did improve faster (at least in terms of overall tempo and accuracy) than those who didn’t listen to a recording, so there could be something to the idea of imitating a recording in the early stages. Have you listened to Keith Underwood’s podcast episodes? He gets into this a good bit too, and you might find it interesting.
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Ha, yeah, I remember a study which found this sort of effect with golfers – that watching pro golfers’ swings, helped boost the participants’ performance. I want to say that the effect lasted for something like 24 hours, before fading. But don’t quote me on that number!
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Hey Bill,
Actually, the old habits thing is good – as in, the goal is to retrieve the desired new habits on the first runthrough, instead of needing a few minutes to “recalibrate” to the new habits. I wonder if it would be possible to do even a mental runthrough or two before your recording, to remind yourself of some of this, before doing the actual runthrough?
This goes back to our previous exchange about habit correction and protocols like old way/new way and amplification of error. I’m working on setting up a workshop for this in March – will let you know when there’s a date.
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That would be great; one thing I’d love to do somehow is create an archive of documents that teachers have created for their own studios that they’re willing to share. This platform allows for that; I just haven’t really “unlocked” the feature thus far…
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Oops, sorry for missing this. A couple thoughts:
1. The habit issue is an interesting one. There are actually some protocols for rapid habit correction that can be interesting to try. I’ve written about them a tiny bit on the blog (e.g. amplification of error, old way/new way), but haven’t really done a deep dive. Molly Gebrian is coming out with a book in 2023, and she does do a deeper dive into this. You might be interested in checking this out when it’s released.
2. Yes – keeping track of problems/solutions on paper is not ideal after a while. I know folks will use various online systems like spreadsheets, etc., but that can have its own downsides as well…
3. That sounds like a perfect balance of referring to notes and practicing retrieval (first runthrough without referring to notes, but referring to notes after the runthrough, before you start practicing).
4. A master solutions file sounds like a terrific project. Sounds like the sort of thing that would work well if structured as a database…
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In case you may have missed it, cellist Astrid Schween describes her warmup routine here: https://bulletproofmusician.com/astrid-schween-on-cultivating-routines-curiosity-and-800-different-spiccatos/
I have to confess that I forget the specifics of her routine, but it’s near the beginning of the episode!
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Good question. It seems to depend on the musician – some like to do long easy bows with scales, or different types of articulation exercises, dividing up the bow into different segments, etc. I wonder if it might help to supplement on-instrument warmup with an actual physical warmup away from the instrument? Whether some yoga flows, or something that gets the blood flowing more generally in your body, so that your body is more physically warm before you begin your instrumental warmup?
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To your question about “is that 1 problem? 4 problems?”, one thing to keep in mind, as you get to the polishing stage of things, is WHY these things are problems. As in, why is it important to keep up the energy? Why is important not to rush them? Why are non-flubbed trills important? Meaning, what is the character or mood and what are you trying to say, that requires these things to be a certain way? That might help to organize not just your problem-solving, but also what you listen for and how you think/focus during performance.
Yes to goal-based rather than time-based practice!
And yes, effective practice is definitely more tiring. =)
