To Record Or Not Record Your Piano Performance - The Exaltation Or Peril For the Beginning Pianist

Speaking from personal experience, I would much rather play for a live audience then have a recording made of my piano performance. Something about turning on a recording device puts my nerves on edge a bit. My mind keeps turning over the fact that the recording can be heard again - and again - and again, whereas a live performance is heard once and gone. It is but a memory in my mind.

I have, however, found the recording of my piano practice sessions at once eye or ear-opening and productive. Oh, and did I mention, humbling? In my undergraduate days I carried with me to nearly every practice session a cassette recorder. I practiced in what I thought was a careful and diligent manner, then recorded my efforts hoping to match what my mind told me I had just mastered.

Often the recorded "performance" of that practice session's goals was in reality far from the lofty piano sounds my mind had created. That little recorder, though, did not discourage but encouraged me. I continued practicing the piano and worked to discover more creative ways to shorten the practice time needed. Finally I heard in reality what my mind had been playing long before the fingers could create the sound.

It is with this background that I have used a recording device in my piano teaching. It has been met with mixed results for my students. Some students enjoy hearing themselves play and are amazed at their progress. Other students are appalled at their lack of progress and their shoddy playing.

The students who find the recorded lessons helpful are usually those who follow good practice routines and who diligently and carefully prepare repertoire within their abilities. These students accept the level of their playing prior to hearing their recordings. They have a sound scape in their mind that is close to their actual abilities and skills.

These students are usually pleasantly surprised by the quality of their playing and are eager to accept feedback. They more quickly make changes and want to record themselves again and again to hear the improvements they have made. These students mirror their teacher's experience with a recorder as a device to learn from and design ways to improve their piano playing.

The students who find the recording of their lessons stupefying at best and simply awful at most are those who have attempted to learn pieces beyond their current abilities. These students "hear" themselves playing on a much higher level than in reality they are. The recording points out flaws on the most basic level - note inaccuracies, incorrect rhythms, and great flexibility in tempo to compensate for lack of the technical skills needed to play the repertoire they have chosen.

These students sadly realize they have not been applying good practice techniques to repertoire more suited to their abilities. Hence, their goals and their ways of achieving those goals have to be redesigned. This is difficult for many beginning adult pianists. However, once the student has overcome the shock of actually hearing the sounds they are creating in real time, they are usually eager more open to pursuing their goals in a more appropriate manner.

To record or not record a beginning pianist's lesson? It is exaltation for some and peril turning to discovery and skill building for others. Recording is a wonderful tool for a beginning student of the piano.

Dr. Jeannine Jordan is excels in teaching the adult piano student. Her students play songs in a day. If you are an adult who has always wanted to play songs on the piano easily join Dr. J at Play Piano Today for a free tutorial and play the piano!

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