The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #1

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    Hi guys, spent the weeekend getting the Guitar Port working and busting my nut on a few unknown things on BIAB, been a very productive weekend by not the the material sence.
    i now hava a few "things" on Hd and was just wondering if you guys thought the same afther having recorded, here we go:
    I've been listening to the things Ive recorded and quite frankly they sound utterly rubbish!!!
    I am a beginner to the Jazz World, but it always sounded better in my head than it does on tape. Is this a bit like hearing ones own voice on tape, you know what I mean, you hear yourself talking and kind of get a "NO WAY", thats no me response!!!!??
    Thoughts on the matter required.

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  3. #2

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    It took me years to get used to hearing myself on tape and actually digging it, like over a decade of recording stuff. I always felt that there were good moments, but then just when I got going I'd try a tricky run and that was it.

    BUT, listening to all those recordings over the years really helped me to focus my practicing on the things I wasn't good at. Now I can listen to a recording of a gig or whatever and think, "that's not half bad." It's hard not to be self-critical but it's a good idea to try and find something good on every recording we do, it may be small at first, but it will grow over time. If we focus too much on the bad stuff, which is easy to do, we may ignore some of the really cool things we already have in our playing.

    MW

  4. #3

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    There are some good thoughts here Matt! We started recording our music live to find out where we need to make improvements to out music as a group. We now do live recording on a regular basis and usually listen to/ discuss the results during rehearsals. One of the concepts we learned from this process was we seem to play much better with an audience than we do when we try to do a serious studio recording.

    wiz

  5. #4

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    Thanks Wiz. I've learned that I'm much more of a "live" player than a studio player as well. I seem to feed off of the audience's energy and when it's not there I'm not as into it.

    MW

  6. #5

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    Thanks m78w, nice advice there. Think that the way to go. I sometimes compare music to languages, I speak a few, but I have never tryed to speak them all perfectly before having my first converstaion, it has to be day-by-day.
    Trouble is, on hearing my recording I was very put off. I will keep all my recording and just hope that one day they will be good enough to share with all you guys.
    Thanks again, and what a great place this forum is.
    Regards to all

  7. #6

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    Glad you're sticking with it. My teacher used to record us jamming at the start of the semester, the middle and the end of the term. Then we'd sit down and listen to all three recordings in a row and I would always be surprised in the amount of progress I had made, that I hadn't noticed myself.

    MW

  8. #7

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    It really helps to get past the hypercrital aspect of listening to ourselves. Okay, maybe it didn't sound like you wanted it to, but dwelling on it too much can be counterproductive.

    I don't record myself much (lazy), but I do have a couple of recordings of performances at the end of Jazz Camp the past couple of summers. Mixed bag, some good ideas, some uncomforable (for me) gaps, and a few missed notes.

    I agree with Matt that we need to focus on the things we are doing well, as much as what still needs work.

  9. #8

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    Well, if you have only just started doing this, remember that any new activity takes some time to get comfortable in.

    I can be playing something quite fluidly and comfortably, but as soon as I turn the microphone one.......ooops!....for a while.
    Make sure you give yourself plenty of 'lead in' time, so you don't have to suddenly jump in and start playing. Other than that, keep recording until you get used to it.

    If you enter 'audacity' in the search box (highlight 'show posts') in the green bar above, you can find info here on a good and free cross-platform music editor. Plug-ins are available, also free.
    I remember that member Skei rated one called 'camelcrusher'. With Audacity he got the tone he was looking for.
    Last edited by wordsmith; 05-12-2009 at 06:08 AM. Reason: spelling error

  10. #9

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    Hi wordsmith, I've just recorded with Audacity, what a great, easy prog that is to use!! Thanks for the hint.
    Hope to post some stuff real soon!!

  11. #10

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    Looking forward to hearing some recordings. Audicity is a great program. I use it to edit audio files, and even did some experimental 20th century pieces on there for a composition class.

    MW

  12. #11

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    Excerpt :
    Quote Originally Posted by santiboy
    Hi guys, spent the weeekend getting the Guitar Port working and busting my nut on a few unknown things on BIAB, been a very productive weekend by not the the material sence.
    Is this a bit like hearing ones own voice on tape, you know what I mean, you hear yourself talking and kind of get a "NO WAY", thats no me response!!!!??
    Thoughts on the matter required.
    ================================================== ========

    When it comes to " critiquing " sometimes you are your own worst enemy .

    You mentioned that it sounded much better in your head .... That's understandable since the mind has no physical restraints heh heh .

    I mentioned in an in anther post that it is so critical to hear oneself , and you just reaped the 1st. positive result even if at first you did not like what heard .

    Believe me when I say that the recording you did was the beginning of your improvement , realizing that the more you do it the better you will eventually get !

    Congrats on getting to first base !

    Sincerely :

    Hurricane Ramon

  13. #12

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    Sometimes it's worse for me on the 3rd or 4th listening to something I've recorded. By then, I start to pick out little idiosyncratic things that I hadn't noticed in the first couple of listenings.

    I've found with the guitar, there's ALWAYS something that you wish could just kind of disappear or not be heard. One thing I did that helped was to switch to flat wound strings, thus eliminating a lot of noise that would drive me up the wall.

    As far as choice of notes goes, I've recorded things that sounded great at first; two years later I didn't really like what I had played; two more years go by and the solo or melody actually sounds good again -- go figure?

    Sometimes it's insanity, I tell ya.

  14. #13

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    Self perception is a very interesting thing. The begining episodes of American Idol are very interesting to me, it's amazing how different some peoples self perception is from reality. (I don't think some of those auditioners had ever heard themselves recorded).

    Why do I look better in the mirror than I do in photographs?

    Why does my voice sound strange on my outgoing voice mail message?

    And... Why do my guitar recordings sound worse than how it sounds while I'm playing?

    And... Have you ever recorded yourself singing? whew

    I just don't know.

    -----------------------

    I can say this though. Recording myself often lessens the gap between my perception of my playing and the reality of my playing. And I think that's a good thing.

  15. #14

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    I have a small Boss recorder, and just need to pick up a couple of cables to get it going. I intend on recording my solo gigs in the near future, but am a bit fearful of what I discover. Sometimes ignorance is bliss!

  16. #15
    Jazzarian Guest
    You mean hardrive, as in c: right?

    Tape? Nobody needs to deal with that these days. Hopefully not anyway.


    BIAB and record the solo 30 times. That's what it takes.

  17. #16

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    Quote Originally Posted by derek
    I have a small Boss recorder, and just need to pick up a couple of cables to get it going. I intend on recording my solo gigs in the near future, but am a bit fearful of what I discover. Sometimes ignorance is bliss!
    I'm in the same boat. Don't record myself enough. I think i would like to make a whole bunch of chord melody MP3's as a bit of a musical journal. I was thinking of getting a tascam GTR1. Does anyone have an opinion or experience with one of these? They look pretty easy to use.

    http://www.tascam.com/products/mp-gt1.html

  18. #17

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    I only started regularly recording myself about 6 months ago. It wasn't what I had expected. I was prepared for the "Oh, No!! I'm completely crap!!" reaction, but that wasn't what I heard. I heard a guy who knew lots of stuff very well but had absolutely no attention to detail. I heard a guy who'd just got so accustomed to fluffing the same lines and changes that he'd never bothered fixing them. And I heard a guy playing lots of of things that looked great on a fretboard but just didn't work as sound! Worst of all I heard a guy who had 3 or 4 Old Faithful cliches which filled in all those gaps where he had been too lazy to work something out.

    Overall it's a wonderful experience - humbling, but potentially one of the most educational things I've ever done musically.

  19. #18
    Archie Guest
    I started recording my playing regularly about 3 months ago, when I bought a Boss recorder. I immediately discovered that my timing was awful: I was always rushing, anticipating the beat, and often came in too early or too late. With a bit of listening and practice, my timing has improved a lot.

  20. #19

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    Recording can be difficult, even for someone who's otherwise very comfortable with their playing. Something happens when you hit that record button: you think, "OK, I'm recording... this has to be good." Of course, that thought pushes you out of your comfort zone and your playing goes to hell. (Ask me how I know this... )

    One approach that helps is to not make recording a special event. Record everything! Eventually you'll get used to hearing yourself and will be able to take a more objective view of your playing.

    The other thing that helps is to change your attitude toward recording. Forget that the recorder is running. If something goes wrong, find a way to keep going. Sure your mistake will be recorded, but the recording costs you nothing. When you play for an audience, you can't stop and correct yourself all the time; you have to play through the mistakes. Treat recording the same way.

  21. #20
    The first time I ever had my playing recorded was a few years back when a couple of my friends wanted cool ringtones for their cell phones, so they just held their phones in front of my amp and I played haha.
    (If you're wondering, one was a Misfits song and the other was some crazy tapping thing.)

    Not to brag or whatever, but they actually turned out really good, which of course was kind of a "Wow...wtf?" moment for me.

    I don't know, I guess I'm kind of lucky in that I don't really ever think "Ok, I'm recording...don't mess up..."
    Any time I play, I never really think about what's going on around me, be it a recorder or people (and usually end up missing out on jokes or people being stupid and things like that haha).

  22. #21

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    I was invited over for a jam session involving two highly accomplished jazz guitarists and took my olympus LS-10 recorder along.It was such a treat to listen to the whole thing again later.These new portable digital recorders are amazing.

  23. #22

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    One of the big problems with recording yourself is the ability to listen back and have a slightly different interpretation in your head of what you should have played! Sort of like doing mental a second take without actually recording it!

    One of the best things you can is put the recording to rest for a day or two and then listen to it without trying to pre-empt it! You will be amazed with your different perception at which you hear it!

    Regards

  24. #23

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    In my experience, listening to a recording simply provides a different perspective - one that places a bit of distance between the playing and the listening. This is a good thing, IMO. It's difficult to listen objectively to oneself while playing.

  25. #24

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    Makes me think of simething funny that happened to my quartet. Recently, we auditioned a new drummer who recorded the session so that if he got the gig (he did!), he could then listen back to what he'd been doing and get to know the songs better. Great idea.

    So, in the end we all listened to the recording and each of us separately came to the same conclusion: "Sounds good, and you guys were great!! But listen to the cr@p I played, I am so bad!!"

    Now there's being critical, and there's being modest. But how did we get to the point whereby each of us liked what everyone else was doing, yet ripped our own playing to shreds??

    Mental.
    Last edited by mangotango; 09-10-2009 at 06:42 AM.

  26. #25

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    Great reply, mangotango.