My next few posts are about feedback. We receive feedback in our playing from our peers, teachers, and coaches, but most importantly—from ourselves. Since so much of our time is spent practicing alone, developing the ability to critique our own playing is essential for effective musical growth.
But, self-feedback is difficult, often tangled up in emotional judgments and the challenge of separating our performance personality from our critical thinking mode. Mastering self-feedback thus requires a shift in mindset: one must become their own coach.
The best tool for this? Recording.
When we record your practice sessions and performances, we create an opportunity to step back and listen objectively. The benefits are undeniable: in just a few focused minutes, you can diagnose problems, spark creative solutions, and make measurable progress. These methods aren’t just practical—they’re backed by science, designed to maximize impact with minimal time investment.
Here are three techniques I’m using right now to coach myself, from small to large.
1. Small Fixes: 10 minutes to improved performance
Here’s a quick 10-minute routine for a focused practice session:
- Pick a troublesome spot. Preferably something short (>30”).
- Record yourself. Audio only
- Listen back three or four times, each time focusing on a different element: phrasing, timing, tone, or another priority. (No “This sounds bad” allowed! Be clear: “The E-flat in measure 5 is sharp,” or “I’m missing the interval leap in measure 2.”)
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Fix one issue using every practice technique you know
- This might mean repeating something, going slowly, isolating one hand, improvising similar material, changing your sticking/fingering, playing with a metronome, or any other creative practice techniques. Over time, your toolkit of practice techniques will grow, as will your diagnostic abilities.
Why it works:
Research shows that breaking tasks into smaller, manageable pieces improves focus and retention (a principle known as chunking in cognitive psychology). Recording and isolating specific aspects of your playing leverages this effect, helping your brain encode corrections more effectively. Add to that the power of spaced repetition—practicing small fixes over time—and you’re creating long-lasting, muscle-memory-level improvements.
When you don’t know what’s wrong, use Design Thinking:
- Brainstorm potential issues.
- Prototype solutions—try different interpretations, dynamics, or even exercises.
- Assess the results and iterate.
This iterative approach mirrors problem-solving frameworks in neuroscience, where rapid experimentation strengthens neural pathways for skill acquisition.
2. Minimizing stage fright
Performing is a skill—and like any skill, it improves with practice. But here’s the catch: most of us don’t practice performing.
Try this:
🎭 Choose a medium-sized chunk of music and play it as if you’re on stage. Record yourself, then listen back.
🎯 Categorize the issues you hear: Are they consistent or random? Small (a missed note) or systemic (lack of dynamic contrast or a tendency to compress fast passages)? Make notes on the limits of your dynamics, tempi, character. Are they too narrow, too wide? Is your timing perfect?
🛠️ Make changes, using some of the techniques outlined above. Work on consistent problems first before addressing broader ones.
Why it works:
When performing, you can’t be in critical-thinking mode. Timothy Gallwey, in The Inner Game of Tennis, describes two mental selves: Self 1, the analytical, judgmental voice that directs and critiques; and Self 2, the intuitive, fluid part of you that simply does the task.
Great performances rely on Self 2—letting go of over-analysis and trusting your preparation. But too often, we practice with Self 1 dominating, which makes it difficult to flip the switch during actual performances.
Recording yourself helps bridge this gap. When you play in “performance mode,” you can focus entirely on flow, allowing Self 2 to take over. Then, during playback, you let Self 1 step in to analyze and problem-solve. This separation trains your ability to trust Self 2 in the moment, knowing Self 1 will address any issues later.
Over time, one can quickly enter this reflexive performance mode more readily. On this point, using a medium sized chunk is essential. Too often we practice our performance skills by making full runs of pieces. This is akin to jumping from a warmup to a marathon, with no smaller races in between. Not a great idea.
3. Calibrating your performances
Concert recordings offer a goldmine of data. We explored reviewing recordings to reduce stage fright above, so let’s explore another use of recordings: adjusting your sound for different performance environments.
Listen to a concert recording of yours. Compare what you hear to what you remember from a performance:
- How did the space or acoustics affect your timing, dynamics, or tone?
- Did your interpretation land as intended?
Why it works:
The brain’s error detection system is enhanced when you compare memory with reality. This process—sometimes called self-recalibration—teaches you to align your internal expectations with external outcomes. It’s particularly effective in environments with variable factors, like concert halls with different acoustics, because it trains your adaptability.
Orchestral players will frequently use their colleagues or recordings to help hone their sound in different acoustics, calibrating their sense of their sound up close with the reality from hundreds of feet away. In chamber music, I find listening to a performance at a later date can help me calibrate my interpretations: did that moment land the way I wanted it to, or was my inflection too small for the space?
Over time, this habit improves not just your technical accuracy but your interpretive clarity, ensuring your artistic choices resonate with your audience.
Recording = Creative
Recording yourself in the practice room is not just about catching mistakes; it’s a creative act. It combines active and objective listening with comparison against some notion of how something should be (a mental representation). It requires thoughtful and responsive ears, a deft touch with adjectives (try and come up with 5 specific words to describe your playing after hearing a recording), and the ability to determine a specific course of action based on what has just been heard. When done thoughtfully, this process hones your ears, sharpens your instincts, and develops your problem-solving skills—all hallmarks of artistry and creativity.
Want to dive deeper into this topic?
Happy practicing!
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