In this lesson, you will improve your guitar skills rapidly, not by learning new songs, chords or scales, but by recording what you already know and can play with ease. Regardless of the style of music you play, your long-term goals or current level, it is important to record yourself regularly. By doing so, you will not only be able to create backing tracks for practice, you will also be able to critique, and therefore improve, your own playing.
Please know that you may find it surprisingly difficult to make a satisfying recording. If that is the case, don’t distress! It is normal to have to work through this initial phase, and the benefits you gain are well worth shedding the ego and buckling down to work for a few hours or days to remedy any problems. Stay with it and you will get there!
Since it is not necessary to produce a high quality sound recording for practice purposes, you won’t need sophisticated equipment – any device that reproduces pitch clearly, holds time accurately and is simple to use will do.
Before recording, be certain that your guitar is in tune. Then, choose a song that has chord changes that you know well and can play easily. Determine the optimum metronome speed and practice with the metronome until you feel ready to turn on your recorder.
The recording of the rhythm track (chord changes) should include the sound of the metronome, beginning with a series of clicks and, if possible, an audible count in. (For example, just before the song begins, you will say, with the metronome, “one, two, three, four” in the case of a song in 4/4 time or “one, two, three” in the case of a song in 3/4 time.) If you are plugging your guitar straight in to your device and are therefore unable to record your voice, you can record the lead-in beats by simply tapping the strings in time to the metronome for one measure before playing. The lead-in measure will allow you to come in properly when you play back with the recording later.
Record the song repeatedly (without breaks or pauses), so that when you play it back to practice exercises, melody or improvisation, you can work for a reasonable period without interruption. Be certain that you are precise in your rhythm. If the rhythm is not accurate, delete or erase the recording and try again.
Your goal is not to produce a recording that you want to share with others, but to get a recording that is straightforward and solid and will serve you in future practice sessions. As simple a task as that may seem, you will probably encounter some problems.
Here are solutions:
- If you make a mistake in your playing, try to recover (don’t stop playing) and stay on time. It is important that when you make your recovery, you do not add or leave out any beats in the song and that when you come back in, you are on the appropriate chord.
- If you have a lot of mistakes or the mistakes are too big to recover from or ignore, decrease the tempo.
- If mistakes continue to be a problem after slowing down, you will need to break from your recording project and practice the song until you feel ready to try recording again. This happens to the best – don’t give up, just do the work!
- If fatigue or frustration keep you from getting through more than one or two choruses of the song, there is no need to start completely over – you can turn off the recorder, regroup, and start back where you left off.
Enjoy the process and be willing to laugh at yourself as you discover your own blind spots. Once you have your recording, you can use it to practice vocals or as a backing track for playing the melody, practicing scales or improvising.