Quick Tip #18: Record Yourself (Guitar Lesson QT-018)

Hi, how you doing?

Justin here with another quick tip for you

and this week it is why
you should record yourself.

Now, it's pretty easy these days

to get some sort of recording equipment.

I'm not suggesting that you go out
and buy a full recording studio,

but anyone with a Mac has probably
got GarageBand installed,

and that's perfect for recording yourself.

If you haven't got access to that

even using like a little dictaphone or whatever.

Anything that you can in order to record
you guitar and listen back to it,

particularly being able to record
it against some sort of time

whether it's a metronome or
a drum groove or whatever.

Now, it's one of the things that
I think changes most guitar players

when you can hear yourself back,
'cause all of us, when you're

actually playing, you kinda got
a lot of stuff to think about,

getting your chords nice
and clean, your rhythm tight,

listening to the click track or
to the drums or whatever,

there's a lot
lot of things going on

so it's easy to lose
the proper perspective and

when you record yourself and
listen back, you will notice stuff.

You'll notice stuff that you might
never have picked up on.

I remember one of my earliest
experiences recording myself

I was recording some classical guitar
pieces and I had no idea

that I was breathing really
loud and it was really funny

listening to this stuff and hearing
(inhales, exhales)

going on over the background, you know

and I never would have noticed,
I never would have known

while I was playing by myself

but recording it, made me go
"oh wow that's something

I gotta fix, right?" I've got to start
breathing through my mouth

And just being aware of keeping
that quiet.

Other things that really, really
help is rhythm guitar

Listening to yourself playing rhythm
guitar, particularly if you can do it

against a groove.

Now, those of you with GarageBand will know

that it's really easy to just
drag and drop drum loops

into the kind of arrange window,
set it up on a continuous loop

and play some rhythm guitar along with it.

Now, just doing that a few times,
playing rhythm guitar

for two or three minutes and
listening back to yourself and hearing

how well you lock in with the groove
is an incredible teaching tool

and it's the one that you can teach
yourself, you know, because

you'll notice stuff, you'll hear when
you're slightly drifting and your time's

not so good. You might hear good things
about yourself.

So, you know, if what you hear is not

so great, then it gives
you a chance to fix it 'cause

if you don't know it's wrong,
you ain't never going to fix it, right?

So, it's kind of a big deal.

But if you hear that it's right,

It's good cause it gives you
a bit of confidence as well.

So, like yeah, I'm kind of doing this,
my rhythm's pretty solid.

So it's such a great thing.

For lead guitar, a lot of guys get really
worried about the fact that they're

not playing enough, you know?

I'm always preaching about how important
it is to leave space in your solos

and not try and overplay stuff

but a lot of people don't really believe
it until you do it.

So, if you try to do one and leave
loads of space and then listen back to it

You'll probably listen back and go,
you know what, that sounds right

that's not too much space

It feels like ages when you're doing it

but when you're listening back,
it's alright

it's really incredible

Pitching, like string bends, when
you're doing all your string bends

sometimes if you're
in the flow of stuff

you might not notice that
your bends are out of tune.

Happens to me still, sometimes,
if I'm doing a lesson or whatever and

I'm thinking about doing the
teaching thing or whatever, then

sometimes, you know, that little part of
my ear that's dealing with that goes awol

and it goes a little bit wonky.

So, listening back to yourself
will fix that sort of stuff.

"Yeah, really gotta concentrate on
on getting those string bend in time."

String noise, you know, having strings
ringing out when they shouldn't be.

When you're doing your scales and stuff

If you put your amp on and practice
playing scales with a metronome

you're hearing whether your timing's good
and whether you've got extra string noise

that you shouldn't have.

There are so many, so many
more examples

You know, it really is a
big deal recording yourself

So, no matter what it is you got access to

Whether it's a little dictaphone
you know, put a metronome on there

near to the dictaphone,
play along with that stuff

and listen back

If you can, it's a great thing
to get into recording yourself generally.

It's a lot of fun, recording yourself

with GarageBand or Logic or ProTools

or whatever you can get your hands on.

It's fun to create something,
being able to record yourself and

listen back and do different layers, you know?

You can't really learn about layering
yourself unless you can record a part.

You can kind of do it with a looper
but it's quite different

when you're doing it for real.

I'm just thinking of all
these different little things flooding in

Red light fever, the fact that when you
start recording yourself things change

I still don't really understand
why it works like that

it even works for me, you know,

If I'm recording myself or
doing a lesson or whatever

as soon as the red light's on,
you're recording, things change

There's something a little bit different
in your body that makes you play different

Sometimes better, sometimes worse, but

Getting used to recording yourself will
kind of open up that door a little bit more

So if you ever get a chance to
record yourself for real

with a band or whatever,
it's not quite so freaky.

So I think that's probably like
fifty reasons off the bat.

If you just think about

All of the different things that
you'll learn and try it

So, when you actually try
recording yourself,

you're going to find loads
of different things, that,

things that I haven't mentioned
that you notice in your playing,

Your sound, what is your sound like, is
your sound good, is it breaking up a bit?

There's all sorts of things going on with this.
It's a real big deal so,

If you can, find a way to record yourself

Doesn't matter what it is,
don't get all hung up on, you know,

getting a posh microphone and
posh preamps and all that sort of stuff, you know?

It's cool to do that, if you can
afford it and you want to,

But you don't have to.

For the lesson part, for the learning
how you play part, just recording yourself

is a fantastic way to improve
your guitar playing. So, uh,

Hope that helps you on your journey.

I'll see you for plenty more
lessons and songs and more tips

and all sorts of stuff very soon

Take care of yourselves,
bye-bye!