How Depressing Is It...

stasz

Platinum Member
To record yourself playing along to your iPod and listening back to it. Just did for a couple of songs, and my playing sounds terrible and out of time. Kind of a reality check. If you're ever feeling good about your playing, record it and listen back, and see how good you feel then
 
Really? I sound about the same. Aside from being a little tinny. Maybe it's because I was playing along to my Zune rather than my iPod. I'll try it with my Nano and let you know. ;)
 
I don't know about you guys but I freakin' ROCK. Of course I usually wait until I've had a six pack or so before I listen to the play back. ;-)
 
Yes that's happened to me. I think I've got a song nailed and then record myself playing and watch it back and see mistakes. The good thing that I take from that is that I am able to see the mistakes and then try and work on those the next time I play that particular song. It would be worse if we weren't able to see the mistakes at all. ;)
 
it's a known phenomenon. you can't hear most mistakes while you're playing. you have to record yourself and listen to the playback before you can hear them. then they become glaringly obvious! i record myself all the time now that i have a zoom recorder, and it's been very, very humbling. on the plus side, i can hear much better where my problems are and what i need to work on.
 
Is it just whilst playing to ipods? Because surely if it's all your playing all of the time, getting a teacher would help bring out the mistakes in your playing? Sorry im not insulting all of you, just curious :S

George.
 
Sadly there is a discrepancy sometimes between what you're hearing while playing (or what you're hearing in your head, what you want to sound like) and a recording of the same moment. By recording yourself and listening back you're on the right path to minimize this gap though. It's mostly frustrating and humbling, but worth it anyway, a very helpful and necessary process for every drummer.
 
another thing about playing along to an ipod is that you're listening to both your own playing and the other drummer's playing, so at least half of what you're hearing is awesome and right on the money. that makes it even harder to hear your mistakes while you're playing.
 
Listening to recordings of your performances (either play-alongs or live gigs) is essential for anyone serious about their playing. It's brutal, but necessary.

Also: you may discover that the sound you hear from the driver's seat bears little resemblance to the sound the audience hears. That's worthwhile, too.
 
Listening to my playing on recordings tends to yeild equal amounts of joy and depression for me. On one hand I hear the mistakes. On the other hand I hear cool licks that I didn't even realize I new how to play.

Both instances are positive in the end.
 
Listening to my playing on recordings tends to yeild equal amounts of joy and depression for me. On one hand I hear the mistakes. On the other hand I hear cool licks that I didn't even realize I new how to play.

Both instances are positive in the end.

With out a doubt.

Reality checks are all about the learning process & recording yourself and listening intently to the playback it a very good lesson.
 
I know what you mean. I listened to a live recording and absolutely no dynamics. I practice them often enough but have a hard time applying them live. It should be mentioned I have only my bass drum and snare mic'd. Oh, and the guitarists keep turning up their amps. I do need to work on my bass drum note variation and placement to give my sound more feel and expression.
 
Interesting post. Hey DairyAirMan, what is a Zoom recorder? Not sure I know what one is. Then again, I'm still using old fashoned tape recorders.... Yeah, I know. :)
 
Interesting post. Hey DairyAirMan, what is a Zoom recorder? Not sure I know what one is. Then again, I'm still using old fashoned tape recorders.... Yeah, I know. :)

it's a very portable digital recorder. i have a zoom h2 recorder. here's a review of it:

http://reviews.cnet.com/voice-recorders/zoom-h2/1805-11314_7-32792828.html

there are other digital recorders out there that might be better in some ways, but the zoom h2 is relatively cheap and i think it's great.

the zoom h2 is way better than a tape recorder, by the way. it can record directly to mp3 format. when you connect it to your PC using a USB cable it looks just like a hard drive to the computer, so you can easily copy files off of it. i could go on and on.
 
This happens to me all the time, and I'm trying to use it to my advantage now to fix mistakes in my playing, especially in some of my band's songs.
 
We recorded our last show, and I really liked most of my playing. One of the covers, though, was kind of sloppy and I kept changing speeds. But in my defense, I had only played the song about 3 times, and I had only heard the song a few times too. But on our originals, I liked myself.
 
I had a fencing coach that would videotape us

he's then bring some beer into the salle and suggest we have a couple to kill the pain of viewing ourselves.
 
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