{"id":3285,"date":"2009-10-22T23:56:12","date_gmt":"2009-10-23T06:56:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/?p=3285"},"modified":"2013-02-07T19:59:40","modified_gmt":"2013-02-08T03:59:40","slug":"hearing-yourself-in-the-mirror","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/10\/22\/hearing-yourself-in-the-mirror\/","title":{"rendered":"hearing yourself in the mirror"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"5397015_cc38ca27b5_m\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I’ve been working up a bunch of repertoire outside of the orchestra over the last several weeks, and it finally got to the stage where I had to commit to one of the most terrifying things a musician can do: I recorded myself. \u00a0If the average person is more terrified by the prospect of public speaking than death, then most musicians would rather be drawn and quartered than have to play into a recording device and then force themselves to listen to what they’ve wrought. \u00a0It’s much like actors who cannot stand to watch playbacks during shooting, or to see themselves up on the screen. \u00a0You see\/hear (pretty much) only the worst of what is happening. \u00a0I’ve gone through the exercise of telling my students to come up with two positive feedback items for every one negative observation. \u00a0Sometimes it’s extremely difficult to come up with just one, but I remind myself that I’ve always had positive things to say about every musician I’ve ever heard play for me, so I can’t be the lone exception to this rule!<\/p>\n

I have to admit that playing into a recording device (I keep wanting to say tape recorder, but I have one of those new-fangled Zoom H2<\/a> audio recorders that has no moving parts, it just records to an SD card) makes me almost as nervous as playing for fellow musicians, which is absolutely the worst, even if they (actually, especially if they) are your good friends. \u00a0So, anyway, I survived, and some things pleasantly surprised me while others reinforced misgivings that I already was forming. \u00a0And this is why recording one’s self is so important: it forces you to objectively assess your progress, and know where the subsequent work needs to be done, and where your remaining time needs to be spent. \u00a0There’s no substitute for it. \u00a0Unfortunately.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve been working up a bunch of repertoire outside of the orchestra over the last several weeks, and it finally got to the stage where I had to commit to one of the most terrifying things a musician can do: I recorded myself. \u00a0If the average person is more terrified by the prospect of public […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[115,22],"tags":[576],"class_list":["post-3285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music","category-viola","tag-recording"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-QZ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5053,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2010\/07\/16\/recording-dollars-and-cents\/","url_meta":{"origin":3285,"position":0},"title":"recording $$$","author":"Charles Noble","date":"July 16, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"There is a great article on the blog TechDirt that discusses why musicians (in this case, non-classical musicians) rarely make very much money from even astronomical album sales.\u00a0 Here's a great graphic from the post: The essential scenario is this: the band gets signed by a label, and is given\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "popular music"","block_context":{"text":"popular music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/popular-music-music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/4788891305_c9eecd1fdd.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":12613,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2013\/04\/22\/patch-sessions-and-live-recordings\/","url_meta":{"origin":3285,"position":1},"title":"patch sessions and live recordings","author":"Charles Noble","date":"April 22, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"We've had a busy couple of weeks here at the Oregon Symphony. In addition to two programs which are quite challenging technically and mentally, we're also recording them for good measure. And we're recording them for two different purposes. Three of the pieces - Piston's The Incredible Flutist suite, Antheil's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "recordings"","block_context":{"text":"recordings","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/recordings-music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"No, not that patch.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/patchadams.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":531,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/11\/14\/berlin-and-rattle-get-it-right\/","url_meta":{"origin":3285,"position":2},"title":"berlin and rattle get it right","author":"Charles Noble","date":"November 14, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I was up late last night, listening to the new recording on EMI of Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic performing Gustav Mahler's great, heart-rending Ninth Symphony. I have to say that it just might be the best modern recording of any work by any orchestra. [I should note\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "music"","block_context":{"text":"music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/11\/emi_rattle_mahler9.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3632,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/12\/18\/vancouver-symphony-refuses-to-mime\/","url_meta":{"origin":3285,"position":3},"title":"vancouver symphony refuses to mime","author":"Charles Noble","date":"December 18, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Good for them! The Vancouver Symphony has pulled out of plans to record music for the 2010 Winter Olympics for other musicians to \"play sync\" to outdoors. VSO conductor Bramwell Tovey was asked to conduct the recording session, but was told another conductor would perform his actions at the ceremonies.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "labor issues"","block_context":{"text":"labor issues","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/labor-issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2069,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/03\/05\/help-me-understand\/","url_meta":{"origin":3285,"position":4},"title":"help me understand","author":"Charles Noble","date":"March 5, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's a post that was put up by David Stabler on his blog today: I understand why the musicians' union exists, and I respect it. I really do. Over the years, I've had many dealings with it and while the general public has no idea what it does or why\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "bloggers"","block_context":{"text":"bloggers","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/bloggers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7581,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2012\/05\/09\/on-clapping\/","url_meta":{"origin":3285,"position":5},"title":"on clapping","author":"Charles Noble","date":"May 9, 2012","format":"aside","excerpt":"I really could care less if people clap between movements. If they're moved and love what they've heard so far, let them clap! This whole sterile, isolation chamber version of what a live concert experience should be is ridiculous. Stay home and listen to a recording if you don't want\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/303"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3285\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}