<p>I know that a lot of us experience performance anxiety at auditions, recitals, competitions, etc. Though I'm always a little "on edge," I've never experienced the shaky knees or sweaty palms or anything like that when performing in front of an audience. I rarely have any issue focusing, and even though I make mistakes, I can move past them quickly and forget about them.</p>
<p>I can't say the same about making recordings. Whenever I go to record something, I am ten times more nervous than I am when I perform, and it seems all I can think about are my mistakes. Thankfully, I'm usually surprised by my recordings and realize that it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought while I was playing it. But today, the problem got a little out of control. I went to record my prescreening CD my teacher's studio, and I just couldn't shake off my nerves. Though there was really no physical difference in my playing, my focus just seemed to be all over the place. Every time something didn't go the way I wanted it to, I would panic and often have an issue playing whatever came next. (Mind you, these are pieces that I've performed several times and never had memory issues with until now.) I only ended up getting through 2 of the 5 pieces I need to record, so I now have to set another date to finish my prescreening. Does anyone have any tips to help me be less intimidated by the microphone? While I play, all I can think is, "it needs to be perfect!" and "this won't be good enough!" I know that these are the last thoughts that should enter my head, but I have no idea how to get rid of them.</p>
<p>Maybe you could try practicing with a mic away from the recording session. Perhaps you would get used to it after a bit and it wouldn’t worry you so. Are you sure that it’s the mic and not the situation? Feeling pressured to do it “right” during recording and not wanting to have to do a lot of “takes” that is upsetting you? Or maybe its the fact that you feel these recordings will “set” your future? After all a recording mic is simply a piece of machinery that catches your voice, nothing more.</p>
<p>Maybe you could buy a Zoom H-2 and record at home. That might reduce anxiety and you could record whenever you feel like it, one piece at a time, as many times as you like.</p>
<p>Others could tell you if the H-2 records well enough for an instrumentalist, but it has worked perfectly for recording musicians playing our daughter’s compositions.</p>
<p>It costs less than $90 and the sound quality seems great to us.</p>
<p>Maybe you could buy a Zoom H-2 and record at home. That might reduce anxiety and you could record whenever you feel like it, one piece at a time, as many times as you like.</p>
<p>Others could tell you if the H-2 records well enough for an instrumentalist, but it has worked perfectly for recording musicians playing our daughter’s compositions.</p>
<p>It costs less than $90 and the sound quality seems great to us.</p>
<p>The zoom is unobtrusive and can be left on a chair nearby, so it feels as if you are just playing as usual and there is no mic to distract you.</p>
<p>Your original post implies that your panic caused memory issues. If the recording is audio only, why not consider using your music? I know that when you have pieces memorized, it can be difficult and distracting to go back to using the music again, but after a couple of days of practice with the music, it should not be difficult. If nothing else the presence of the open score should help reduce some of the panic. Even if the recording involves visual, I don’t recall any specifications at most schools regarding memory work in pre-screens (certainly in the audition most schools want memorized performances).</p>
<p>The suggestions regarding recording yourself at home are excellent. Consider the few $ spent on a recording device well-spent given that your college education will cost you many tens of thousands of dollars. As much as possible try to simulate the teacher’s studio recording conditions at home. </p>
<p>Ultimately, remember that the nice thing about recordings is that you can redo them as often as you need to. Nothing is set in stone or irretrievable.</p>
<p>You may also want to do some reading on performance anxiety (google it). Here are some ideas (from guitarist David Leisner) about overcoming anxiety when performing:
Remember that you have practiced to the best of your ability.
Do not judge what just happened or will happen.
Be in the music, in the moment. Be in the giving mode, not the receiving one.
Single out one aspect of your playing that is the top priority among things
you need to be reminded of at this time.
Enjoy! Let your emotions for the music be present. Let your excitement for
the music be present.</p>
<p>I tell my daughter to be her own best friend. Encourage yourself like you would a friend. Olympians refer to this as “self talk”. It is a great way to relax. My D just went through recording a DVD for her pre-screening stuff. I watched the DVD and after a piece her teacher would ask her how she thought she did. There were several times when she said that this or that wasn’t great. Her teacher would agree and say that she is not a machine and that everyone makes mistakes. Now if the mistake was what D refers to as a “howler” then they would redo the pieice. :-)</p>
<p>Thank you all for your helpful suggestions. I have set another date at my teacher’s studio in the hope that I’ll be able to focus this time and things will go more smoothly. My only reservation about buying my own recorder is that the quality of my piano at home is significantly lesser than my teacher’s, to the extent that it impairs the quality of my playing. However, if things don’t work out at this next session, I’ll start to consider my other options. Hopefully I’ll be able to recreate that positive mental attitude that I usually have during a performance.</p>
<p>The purpose of the recording device (e.g. Zoom2) isn’t necessarily to allow you to create the prescreen at home. Rather it is to allow you to practice with the microphone on and to overcome the intimidation of the microphone! In any case, most serious music students want a good recording device (and some teachers require their students to own one)–listening to recordings of oneself often reveals things that you don’t hear if you are listening while you are simultaneously playing.</p>
<p>I have the same exact problem with microphones…
One thing I do when I’m recording things is to just leave the recorder/camera on the whole time and play all the way through the pieces several times (even if I make huge mistakes). That way it feels a lot more like a “recorded practice session” than just a recording session. Later, I go back and pick the run-through that I like the best and use that one.</p>
<p>Today I had a conversation with my daughter who’s already at college but needs to make recordings for summer program applications. I was hoping she would be able to use the recording studio at college but apparently it’s expensive and hard to book, so she plans to make recording on her own in a studio at school. She has no expertise in recording and no equipment except for the H2 zoom and a flip camera that she uses to record lessons (the flip has decent video but poor audio). Some of the programs that she is applying to require DVD so we decided to get a an H3zoom camera, which has good audio but mediocre video. I think the point of the DVD recording is to ascertain that the person playing is the same person who is applying, and that it was all done in one take. In the past her application recordings were made for the most part on a home video recorder, although sometimes we made the sound-only recordings with the CD recorder at her old (high school) music school. I hope we made the right decision-- the cost of the H3 recorder is about the same as two hours of recording time at her conservatory. Could be we are being penny-wise and pound foolish, but it’s really hard to tell. I hope that potential reviewers aren’t persuaded by the professionalism of the recording job as opposed to the content of the recording. Any thoughts on this?</p>
<p>For doing a video, we connect the H2 Zoom to a laptop (page 73 of the instruction booklet), and use the laptop’s camera to record the video.</p>
<p>DD found that the camera on her mac didn’t work dependably (ie, it would cut off), but that may just be her specific laptop.</p>
<p>The camera on our windows-based laptop works fine.</p>
<p>Since you already have the H2 zoom, before you spend $$$ on the Q3 (or the recently announced Q3HD that I wrote to you about), try connecting the H2 zoom to a laptop that has a camera, and record directly onto the laptop. (This features is specifically why we chose the H2)</p>
<p>MtPaper, this is valuable information-- thanks! I didn’t realize that the H2 could connect to the laptop-- so it is essentially working as a USB mike? I have already ordered the H3 (paid for it entirely with Amazon coupons!) and D3 will use it at conservatory. She will bring home the H2 and give it to D4, who is a singer/songwriter and could really use it for the videos she makes at home on her laptop.</p>
<p>@GlassHarmonica - I’m sorry, but I’m not tech savvy enough to answer your question, but yes, I believe it is directly acting as an audio interface.</p>
<p>If you google: h2 zoom operation manual
the first info is a link to the main website where you can get the manual, and the third entry is a pdf with the PDF itself.</p>
<p>Look at the contents for Connect the H2 to a Computer: using the H2 as an audio interface.</p>