Recording as a teaching tool

#10: Demonstrations

Whether it’s the realisation of a tricky rhythm, or the difference between staccato and detaché, often the easiest way to convey exactly what you mean is to give a demonstration.

But the six days between lessons is plenty for the student to forget, truncate, misunderstand, transmute or wilfully reinterpret even the clearest of illustrations...if only you could be there with them when they practiced at home, ready to give fresh demonstrations whenever they needed one...

Here's a litte saying that teachers with recording equipment like to quote to one another:

If it’s worth demonstrating, it’s worth recording.

Don't just show your student. Record the demonstration, and then make sure they go home with a copy.

Being permanently set up to record at any time

Given the large number of demonstrations any teacher needs to get through, the secret to making this possible in the confines of a lesson is to have your computer and microphone permanently set up so that at any point in any lesson, all you need to do is push a single button to start recording. Save the file, email it to your student, and they have a reference for the week ahead.

Any time it takes to do this will be more than offset by the time you save not having to give the same demonstration again next week…and the week after…

#11: Creating a Template of What's Possible

One of the disillusioning truths that horrifies puritan musicians-in-training is the realisation that commercial recordings are not just recorded, but assembled. That instead of our CDs featuring superhuman musicians who never miss, the recording studio has them recording segments, and then pastes the best of those segments together.

In this way, the final recording is like a highlights reel of the artist’s best playing. It features the tense but pinpoint-controlled 4th take of the opening, followed by the emotion charged and rich 7th take of the middle section. And the coda? The artist’s ambitious tempo choice might have meant that they messed it up the first 15 times, but the 16th attempt, they nailed it, and that’s the one the public will get to hear. You’ve never heard it this fast before, turn it up when it gets to this bit, you won’t believe your ears.

The resultant CD creates the impression of a single, seamless, breathtakingly powerful performance, from an artist who obviously studied at the Krypton Conservatorium of Music.

You can do exactly the same thing for your students

Just imagine—if you were to record each segment of their piece a dozen times, and then select the best of those to be assembled into a Super Version, just how good would your student sound?

It's easier than you think

Recording segments and assembling those pieces into a seamless whole like this is very easy on your PC (even easier on a Mac; but then again, everything is, don't get me started), which means that you can build the Ultimate Recording of your students too, using the same process. It’s them, compiled, at their very best, in a performance of the piece that they would be proud to unveil on any stage.

Two unexpected but exciting side effects

First of all, the student ends up with a performance that they can show and tell to relatives. Burn the CD, design the cover, pop it in the post—all fantastic PR for your studio.

But better still, this recording becomes a template for what’s possible. It’s not some unattainable Platonic Form of the piece, perhaps as performed by Alfred Brendel or David Oistrakh. Every note was actually played by the student. They’ve done it once, they can do it again, and by listening to this compendium of their very best over and over, they reinforce the tempi choices, articulation and dynamics that made that recording so good in the first place, all the while boosting their confidence—vastly increasing the chances that they can reproduce something similar when it really counts.

# 12: Consistency Checks

Students who are inconsistent in their performances can be a special kind of maddening. They can go from hero to zero to hero again in three consecutive recitals, while lesson feedback isimpossible, because if you count to five slowly, the list of problems changes. A rhythm they were nailing a moment ago is now adrift, a passage in the cadenza is now an octave higher than it was before, that long phrase at the start of the piece is now two shorter phrases. And really, who know where all of page 5 went, since they just left it out completely.

Whether it's the fact that their fingering is not locked down, or they're improvising rather than reading that rhythm at the start each time, the student needs to acknowledge that some of their musical decisions are still floating—which is why they seem to have "good" days followed quickly by the other kind, while you're left sorting through the wreckage like a CSI forensic officer, trying to find patterns in the carnage.

Setting up the spot-the-difference recording sessions

Similar to Use #3: Unlocking the Interpretation Genie within, you'll be recording the student a dozen times, but this time they're under strict instructions to keep each performance as similar to each of the others as they're able.

Once the recordings are done, and the playbacks start, it's a game of spot the difference. If a passage on the second page seems to contain different accidentals every time it was recorded, then the student needs to know. If the piece ended sometimes with a bang, and other times with a whimper, you need to ask the student which one they're committing to, and how the score contents bears out their choice. If the accents on page 8 seem to be on different notes each time, then the student needs to know that too.

With the inconsistencies noted, the student then needs to make a decision about each of them. From there, they can practice in what they've decided, until they couldn't imagine playing their piece any other way—which means that you won't be holding your breath quite so much the next time they're on stage.

#13: Studio Archives

In the course of making all these studio recordings, you’ll end up with hundreds—perhaps even thousands—of them over the years. This opens up an exciting possibility: instead of just letting old recordings get dusty, you could be using them again with students who are studying that piece right now.

Think about it: if you have a student who is working on a piece that you've often taught in the past, your archives might contain fifty different recordings of that piece, from fifty different former students, each with their own interpretation. It's a gold mine of ideas for any current students working through the piece. Go dig these recordings out, get your student a notepad and pen, and start listening with them.

Your student's job is to note anything that grabs them. Maybe they liked the big finish in recording #34. Or perhaps they might like the approach to rubato in recording #14. Or the whisper-quiet pianissimos of recording #47. It's a smorgasbord of possibilities, all drawn from real students from your past. Aside from the impact on their playing, it's a special thrill when your student now is impressed by an interpretation from a student you remember fondly from ten years ago.

And they practice knowing that one day—perhaps years from now—another student might be listening to their recording.

Using ghosts to introduce new repertoire

As well as firing up students about the pieces they're currently working on, you can also use these recordings to get students excited about repertoire they haven't even started...yet. Let your student know that they remind you of a very good student you used to teach, who used to play a Chopin work that hardly ever gets performed, and boy, could they play it...actually, I have the recording right here, would you like to hear it?

Are you kidding? Of course they would. And don't be surprised if they're asking for the score once you're done...all because they've been fired up by the ghost of a student who actually stopped learning with you a decade ago.

Recording archives is a powerful way for you to continue to take advantange of the rich history of your studio, and a great way to remind today's students (and their fee-paying parents) that there is a rich history in the first place.

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Recording as a teaching tool

#10: Demonstrations

Being permanently set up to record at any time

#11: Creating a Template of What's Possible

You can do exactly the same thing for your students

It's easier than you think

Two unexpected but exciting side effects

# 12: Consistency Checks

Setting up the spot-the-difference recording sessions

#13: Studio Archives

Using ghosts to introduce new repertoire

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