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by blackandblue 2307 days ago
learning so much from you guys lol not even a gamer :) now i think i am going to try to invest into a camera to record my piano practices. i wonder if that would help me get better...
4 comments

Yup. It could.

However, the key isn't necessarily video recordings. It's deliberately practicing individual things you are bad at in isolation until you are good at them.

We need to record LoL and StarCraft games because it's tough to pause and redo something in the middle of a match. Similarly recording baseball swings or people dancing or swimming is useful for reviewing the complete action.

But when you practice piano, you can pause and redo a measure or line until you get it right, then slowly reincorporate it as part of the whole piece.

The WORST thing you can do is keep playing and think "I'll fix that later." Because inevitably you'll play a piece again, probably do the same mistake, and now you're actually practicing the mistake and ingraining it into your memory.

A video recording and reviewing it of a whole piece can help you go back and isolate your mistakes though. But it's just a tool for the goal of identifying and fixing mistakes.

It absolutely would.

We used an iPad to record swings of our little leaguers and it made a huge difference for them.

It helps because it’s easier to see what is happening vs hearing it. One example that we would see is kids dropping the back shoulder when they swing. Once they see it, they correct.

Your brain is great at filling in the blanks in the moment, but the camera never lies :)

My wife had trouble with a certain move in dog agility until she saw herself do it on video and it was clear what was wrong.

It would! If you can get past how embarrassing it is to watch yourself play, which I've never been able to do. So many mistakes…
Similar advice in music. Record your practice sessions. Listen. Wince. Pick out targeted things to fix. Drill. Record again. Comfort yourself that at least that targeted thing is less painful. Repeat.
And it can be so tempting to delete them immediately because the videos are embarrassing. But you'll be so happy to have them in a few years to look back on how you've improved!